goodbye hawkins house
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@Rory W wrote:
It’s a very very poor example of 60’s architecture at it was “designed” prior to the 1963 planning regulations
There were planning laws pre 1963, including planning schemes for Dublin. I was wondering how this building was permitted under these older rules.
Is there a book on the 20th century planning history of Dublin pre-1963?
Why is this building worse than any other cuboid office block of the same height? Not shiny enough? No pyramid on the roof?When it is knocked, will it not be replaced by something that is essentially the same yet shinier?
Centre Point in London is a completely different story to Hawkins House – It’s actually a reasonably elegant piece of architecture for one thing even if it is a little frilly in places. It’s also well sited at a major London hub and has stayed pretty fresh looking down the years – nice white concrete…
Compared to the pile of cheap, nasty, and unhealthy (as in sick building syndrome) crap that is Hawkins house it’s a masterpiece…
In that second picture of Hawkins House (courtesy of http://www.fantasyjackpalance.com btw) you can just see the An Post building sticking out the left hand side. As has been said already it’s equally offensive and should be removed as part of any redevelopment of the Hawkins House site.
I have to say I find the renovation of the old Irish Press building in the foreground pretty nasty as well when viewed from the other side of the river.
This stretch of the South Quays is a bit of a disaster, basically because of whats behind the quay frontage. The most offensive building in that picture is actually the apartment scheme in the lower right hand corner – take a look at it from Eden Quay and see how it looms over the actual quay buildings in a way that doesn’t really happen anywhere else along the river. It’s also unbelievably crap – obviously “designed” with no regard for the fact that the rear elevation would be plainly obvious from many vantage points – therefore random window sizes, cheap clip on balconies and plastic waste pipes abound…Yes, the apartment scheme on Poolbeg Street that rises over the Corn Exchange as seen from Eden Quay is shockingly bad – it looks like the back of a bungalow…
So much crap has been allowed on eden quay precisely because hawkins street house is there. I agree that apollo house and an post are offensive too but neither are as bad as hawkins st house because neither are anything like as big. Let’s not forget the Screen too. All in all the ugliest few acres in ireland.
Does anyone know where there is picture of the refurbishment plan proposed for Hawkin’s House a few years ago; the idea was partial reclad to break up the bulk a bit, something about the car and a funny floating roof thing on top.
You just want to keep it Devin because it has steel windows 😉 😀
I would agree to a certain extent though in that it is by no means the most damaging building in the city; the western quays apartment stuff as far worse than Hawkins. Also as has been said, Hawkins is self-contained – it is so god-awful, and located in such a compact place as to make quite distinctive from everything around it. It’s almost acceptable as a token piece of trash 🙂
But I disagree that it is an example of its time, simply because it’s barely even architecture. It doesn’t attempt to be radically Brutalist, nor go in the opposite direction and have a more designed, self-conscious look like Gibney’s ESB, or Centrepoint. It is just a heap of concrete panels chucked together that just happen to form a building. Considerably more effort went into designing Ballymun.
As it is now, it’s something of landmark – it stands for everything that went wrong with the city in the 1960s and 1970s. It’s intimately associated with all the ‘old’ arguments, with The Destruction of Dublin, the call to arms in the 1980s to save the city – essentially pre-Celtic Tiger Dublin. As such, it is somewhat difficult to let go of it all, turn a corner and move on – something which will happen with the demolition of Hawkins House.
Sorry, to answer my own question, there is a picture in the previous hawkins house thread:
I would like to see them do up Hawkins House. I know it is terrible looking but I’m sure it could look way better if they made an effort.
By far the worst view of the building is from College Green; it is hideous how it looms over the little Wide Streets Commission buildings like a dirty old man:
It is impossible to image how lovely this view once was with only the terraced buildings’ chimneys piercing the skyline.
How disgraceful that this heap of junk, along with College House, were permitted to be shovelled onto this site in the very heart of the city.The only time the former looks half decent is at night:
@Graham Hickey wrote:
it is hideous how it looms over the little Wide Streets Commission buildings like a dirty old man:
LOL at this most vivid personification of an inanimate object!!
Or maybe I’m just getting a bit mad in the head being up at 2:51am trying to finish a project!!
Actually Graham, in my opinion, that “looming picture” highlights the fact that it’s the An Post office building and Apollo House (which I vaguely recalling hearing had contracted some sort of concrete disease a few years ago and was due – at the time – for imminent destruction?) which are the real “loomers” in that block. Hawkins House almost looks elegant and refined in contrast to them which is some acheivement.
Would those two buildings be the most brutalist buildings in the centre of Dublin?
Apollo house isn’t even in the picture and cannot be seen from college green.
If the building to the right with the “To Let” sign is the An Post building and the green building to it’s left is Hawkins House, what is the building behind Hawkins House towering over it?
@jimg wrote:
If the building to the right with the “To Let” sign is the An Post building and the green building to it’s left is Hawkins House, what is the building behind Hawkins House towering over it?
Thats the rest of Hawkins House – I think the Destruction of Dublin said it best “a brutalist slab with two green biscuit tins strapeed on”
Well the only arguments for retaining it will come from people who are congenitally blind..
Once it’s knocked, there’ll be taller buildings in its place. And fair enough, the Liffey frontage can take the height. But several mixed height towers would break up any horizontal opression that the view in the photos conveys.
In my uneducated opinion.
Oh it has to go…!!! Whoever had the suggestion to arm Dubliners with sledgehammers is on the right course.
Sale of Hawkins House off as department decides to stay put
Office Market: Plans by the Government to sell the notorious Hawkins House behind Burgh Quay in Dublin 2 have been dropped following a decision by the Department of Health and Children not to proceed with the relocation of its staff to a newly completed office block over Penneys store in Parnell Street.
The Office of Public Works had been planning to seek over €60 million for Hawkins House, one of Dublin’s most rundown and ugliest office buildings.
Although the Department of Health had been offered exceptionally attractive rental terms on Chapel House in Parnell Street and had apparently secured the approval of the trade unions for the move, senior executives in the department and the OPW pulled out of the deal this week just before formal contracts were due to be signed.
The department had agreed a rent of €269 per sq m (€25 per sq ft) – almost half the going rate for third generation space in the city centre – even though it would have involved considerable expense (not less than €5.5 million) in fitting out the block of 10,219sq m (110,000sq ft).
The department had planned to lease the block for five years before moving to the current headquarters of the Department of Education on Marlborough Street. The education department is due to move to Mullingar within three years as part of the Government’s decentralisation plan. Liam Carroll, who developed Chapel House and several other office developments in the Parnell Street area, had obviously been banking on the Department of Health staying longer than the five-year lease period.
Either way, the short term letting made good business sense for a building that has been vacant for the best part of two years and, even if the department moved out after a short stay, at least the building would be fitted out and more attractive to a replacement tenant. The indications yesterday were that the OPW may be forced to carry out some remedial work on Hawkins House – many of the windows are defective – now that health staff are to remain there until Marlborough Street becomes available.
In the meantime, the OPW has sought expressions of interest from developers for a public-private-partnership (PPP) scheme that will not only provide the headquarters for the Department of Education in Mullingar, but also facilities in Port Laoise for the Department of Agriculture and Food, and space in Carlow where the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment is to be based.
On the one hand, its seems logical that OPW should hold off a move from HH until Marlborough Street become available. Afterall why pay rent needlessly for a short period of time. On the otherhand, will Marlborough Street become available in 3 years? Will the decentralisation of Education go ahead? Desirable though it is for HH to be redeveloped sooner rather than later I think the OPW decision probably makes better business sense.
Depends on what they were offered for HH which in my opinion should have gone out to tender as a straight disposal as a redevelopment opportunity, The investment return on the proceeds assuming a €60m sale would have easily exceeded the €2.75m annual rent roll on the Parnell St property with much of the fitout transferable if the new HQs were to be designed along similar floorplates which is entirely possible given that sites have not yet been selected.
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