ESB Headquarters Fitzwilliam Street
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I reckon come redeveliopment, the facade will be stripped off and the building simply stripped back to the structure and a new modern facade installed.
God!! 🙁 That’s like refacing Hawkins House – you just get a new building in the shape of what was a ’60s timepiece – the blandest outcome of all!
I thought the impact of the building (pre-painting) on the Georgian Mile was surprisingly low for all the fuss there was at the time about how wrong it was to demolish the original buildings & put a modern building there.
It may not be too late though – you can get proprietary paint solvents that remove paint without damaging finishes. If this was done & the cluttered roofscape improved I’d be happy.@Paul Clerkin wrote:
If I was going to paint it, I would have went for a colour not some strain of beige….
any of which are an improvement 😮
Alas the paint is not beige or even pinky-beige – it really is pink!
It’s exactly the colour of fresh plaster as applied to internal walls.PINK 😮
As this is a material change of the facade it would require planning permission. If it does not have planning permission it is an illegal development. You can join the rest of the dots…….
@d_d_dallas wrote:
OMG – So you’re sure it’s been painted… not just cleaned???
Words defy me
Definitely. You can see where some of the paint has splashed in one of Graham’s first pictures. I happened to be passing it the other day and had a look. It seems to definitely be paint.
ESB to announce design competition to replace HQ?
http://www.etenders.gov.ie/search/show/search_view.aspx?ID=MAR116146
TITLE ATTRIBUTED TO THE CONTRACT BY THE CONTRACTING ENTITY: Design Contest
(Architectural).
ESB intends to publish an Design Contest (Architectural) notice in the
coming days relating to the development of a key site of approximately 1
hectare (2.5 acres) in the city centre of Dublin which is currently
occupied by the existing ESB Headquarters.
Interested parties should monitor the Official Journal of the European
Union ( see http://ted.europa.eu ) and Irish Government Public Sector
Procurement opportunities portal (http://www.etenders.gov.ie for this design
contest only), over the coming days to ensure that they do not miss this
opportunity.
CPV: 71000000.I’m with paulC here; paint it vermilion until it’s replaced or at least refaced. Actually, the whole building is a metaphor for the ESB – absolutely no sense of place or townscape whatsoever; the number of major Irish towns blighted by the ugliest transmission poles in Western Europe constantly amazes me. What has the ESB been doing for the last 15 years?
Funny this is raised. Believe it or not, I heard from inside the ESB only the other day that consultants were employed to make the building more muted in its environment. The above paint job is the result of their considered efforts. The mind boggles.
it would appear not!!!!
ESB competition for world-class redesign of HQ
THE ESB intends to use the opportunity provided by the redevelopment of its head office in Fitzwilliam Street, Dublin, which it announced last week, to create a “world-class example of sustainable and innovative headquartersâ€.
According to documentation issued last Friday by the ESB, one of the key criteria for a design contest for the new complex will be “the participants’ proposals for a solution to the aspect of the Lower Fitzwilliam Street facadeâ€.
This facade was the most controversial element of the existing headquarters built in 1970 – following an earlier architectural competition won by the late Arthur Gibney and Sam Stephenson – because it meant demolishing 16 Georgian houses.
At the time, conservationists were appalled that Dublin’s longest Georgian facade, from Mount Street to Leeson Street, was to be broken by a modern building fronted by precast concrete window panels and set on a podium.
The ESB brought in Sir John Summerson, a leading English architectural historian, to give his opinion on the merit of the houses to be demolished.
Notoriously, he condemned them as “simply one damned house after anotherâ€.
Ten years ago, the ESB gave serious consideration to a plan by Sam Stephenson that would have involved refronting the office block with a Georgian facade as a Millennium project.
However, this proposal was deemed to be problematic due to the floor levels.
In the latest competition, architects are being told to assume that all existing buildings – except protected structures, including No 12 Lower Fitzwilliam Street – “will be demolished to allow the entire site to become available for redevelopmentâ€.
Participants who are shortlisted following the initial qualification stage will be requested to present detailed design proposals for an exemplar sustainable headquarters in the centre of Dublin.
It will comprise a floor area of between 35,000 and 45,000sq metres.
“The proposed designs should demonstrate respect for the surrounding Georgian streetscape and protected structures,†states the contest documentation.
Three winning designs are to be selected.
The competition, which is being held independently of the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland (RIAI), is to be judged by a panel headed by ESB chairman Lochlann Quinn.
It will also include John Redmond, the company secretary and head of corporate affairs.
Others on the jury are Joe Maher, retired ESB director and former chief financial officer; Prof Owen Lewis, an architect and engineer who now heads Sustainable Energy Ireland; and an “international architect/urban designer†yet to be appointed.
The jury’s assessment of submissions will be assisted by a technical panel.
The weightings to be given to different aspects of each submission are 40 per cent for “commerciality and buildabilityâ€, including value for money; 40 per cent for “design and aesthetic qualitiesâ€; and 20 per cent for “compatibility . . . with [the] receiving environmentâ€.
The top three competition entries will each be awarded a prize of €30,000, and the final decision on the award of “any follow-up contract†is be made by the ESB’s board on the recommendation of the jury.
This will follow negotiations with the shortlisted entrants.
This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times
if ever there was a case for pastiche then this is it… surely the entire fitzwilliam street facade must be reinstated or else we risk repeating the orginal mistake!
This is gonna be a seriously interesting decision actually. It’ll be very interesing to see how most of the entrants approach it too.
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