hawkins house
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Even if the building was refaced to look good, the surrounding junk building wouldn’t let it be appreciated from a skyline perspective. It should be taken down and the whole street level design be rethought. THen we might have an area that would be worthy of it’s prime location, to be appreciated at street level.
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Well considering the civil servants will not allow their precious car spaces on the ground level to be done away with we are still going to end up with a biscuit tin on stilts, set well back from the building line.
TEAR IT DOWN !
RORY W
Does anyone know where we could see images of what they are proposing.
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No joy, sorry. Interior views of Phase 1 – a universally accessible foyer for the Department of Health and Children – are at http://www.murrayolaoire.com/projects/civic%20buildings/hawkins%20house/ 150hawkinsimage1.html et seq.
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“Floating flood Lit roof…” sounds pretty different but really is there any ammount of alterations to the present structure that can make it acceptable or even positive.
For eg. The refurbishment of O’Connell House (Q Bar) wasn’t an improvement at all IMO, possibly worse now with the drapes of black glass.
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When’s the Hawkins House facelift going to get under way, Ireland’s greatest attempt at Stalinist architecture? I note that there are no plans, suffice to say, to chop the top three storeys off the building, which impose themselves in the most ghastly way imaginable onto Burgh Quay, directly over it’s finest 18th century building. Why can’t the Department do the decent thing and level the building, and relocate to the vast tracts of vacant office space elsewhere in the city? The building is standing on some prime real estate that could release some much needed funds for the Dept of Health.
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wasn’t aware that the opw were planning on chopping a few stories off as part of their refurbishment…
I reckon it should be demolished but as the decision has already been made to keep it, the sooner work starts the better (as it is now looking worse than ever before with all of its shiny new neighbours… )
As far as i know the dept. are currently busy shifting their staff here there and everywhere to allow the refurb to go ahead. -
i am always on the look out for info regarding large projects in the city/county. i know that hawkins is due to be done up shortly but any idea when? i hear it has started but i could be wrong. i just find it very hard to get this info on the net or in the papers and that is why i am asking you people in this site. information can be so hard to get at times. does anyone know where exactly i can find this info? thank you.
cheers.
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The OPW own Hawkins House so maybe you should contact them or visit http://www.opw.ie
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may help
http://burohappold.temp.marketingnetdemo.com/explore/projects/Hawkins.php?THIS_AREA=
also the murray O’Laoire link mentioned earlier
If you’re that interested check the planning desk at Dublin City Council. There was a planning application lodged a year or two ago which as far as I remember included the construction of a 2-3 block in the surface car park onto Poolbeg st.
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i saw those plans for the MOL design. to be honest i don’t know what to think. it does look like it will be an improvement yes but i wonder what the end result will be like? does anyone know has the refurbishment started yet? i was in that area of the city about 3 weeks ago and saw nothing. i don’t know whether they should level it or not as i have no opinion to give but i do know that something needs to be done with it. it is in a terrible state at the moment and can easily be seen from various locations around the city.
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i am mildly obsessed by the idea that tcd should buy this and turn it into student accomadation. at the moment most dublin students live away from the center of town, now i know students can get under foot sometimes, but lots of things the student dollar goes on are desirable from a city living pov and having a few hundred students in hawkins house would be a boon, it would certainly help make rebuilding and extending the screen worthwhile and might make the temple bar more interesting. on the other hand, maybe the footprint is the wrong shape to allow conversion to residential use, if so, that would explain why nothing is happening, there is no market for second hand offices at the moment.
on a similar note, i never understood while they don’t leave some of the ballymun spine buildings standing and put dcu students in them. i can see the towers had to go for symbolic reasons, but the rest?
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It really really should go, whatever about making wisecracks over its appearance, at the end of the day this problem is merely cosmetic.
The building’s problem lies in its height, which is grossly intrusive on the quay’s skyline and the view from O’ Connell Bridge.
If the Dept of Health were planning to build a building of the same height on the site if Hawkins never existed, there is no way on the face of the planet that it would recieve planning permission.
The OPW has a responsibility not only for the appearance of State buildings and how they are used, but also for their impact on their environments, in this case Dublin city centre.It is as responsible as any state founded or public body, whether it be the CC, An Bord Pleanala or anyone else.
For the sake of 3/4 floors, it should do the right thing for the people it claims to serve, ie, knock it, or the very least crop it by 4 floors. -
All of the 15, 8 and 4 storey blocks are being replaced, but the two storey houses (which are mostly privately owned) are being retained. You can look at the masterplan here:
http://www.brl.ieI was in Ballymun a few days ago, and the towers that have been repainted actually look quite good. They’re still getting knocked down though.
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Ok, that’s more in line with what I thought. Pity about the eight storey blocks, they are quite handsome. Obviously these were terrible to live in in the past, but refurbished and with suitable aid to the tenant communities and with more amenities and so on in Ballymun itself, couldn’t they have had a future.
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Latest update on Hawkins House proposals from todays Irish Times
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/commercialproperty/2007/0926/1190324737696.html
The State’s decision to embark on joint ventures with developers is a radical change of policy designed to cash in on the development value of sites rather than benefit from once-off sales, writes Jack Fagan
Dublin’s most notorious office block – Hawkins House behind Burgh Quay – is to be demolished and replaced by a high density office complex to be owned jointly by the State and a private developer, Shelbourne Developments.
The choice of Garret Kelleher’s Shelbourne Developments was taken because it already owns two adjoining properties – the Apollo House office block and car-park, and the site of a derelict petrol filling station on Tara Street. Under the terms of a deal due to be concluded shortly between the OPW and Shelbourne, Kelleher’s company is to redevelop the enlarged 1.75-acre site and share the rental income with the State when the replacement buildings are eventually let.
The same revenue sharing formula is to be used by the OPW when it leases a number of other buildings and sites to development companies in Dublin’s O’Connell Street and at Lower Hatch Street, Dublin 2. A former Garda office and an adjoining building at 44/45 O’Connell Street are being leased to Joe O’Reilly’s company Chartered Land to allow it build a new public square along with shopping, leisure and residential facilities linking Upper O’Connell Street with Moore Street.
On the southside, the OPW is to allow Charlie Kenny’s company Clancourt Developments to include a state building and site in an office scheme planned for the junction of Hatch Street and Earlsfort Terrace.
The State’s decision to embark on joint ventures with private developers will be seen as a radical change of policy designed to cash in on the development value of sites rather than benefit from once-off sales. The new strategy comes after a huge volume of State buildings were sold in recent years for over €450 million.
There is now a general acceptance that with commercial property values up by 226 per cent in the last decade alone, some of the buildings should never have been sold, particularly the terrace of 13 Georgian houses opposite Government Buildings on Merrion Street which were sold after a four-year campaign for just under €5.5 million.
The Minister of State at the Office of Public Works, Noel Ahern, said yesterday that his department had been working closely with the Department of Finance to find a mechanism whereby the OPW could enter into negotiations with the owners of directly adjoining properties to facilitate joint development.
“Such developments would unlock marriage value and thereby yield a higher return than both portions being redeveloped on their own. In order to manage its risk on each transaction, the OPW has decided to put its sites into the deals by way of a long lease, share in planning, rental and void period liabilities but not construction risk.”
The OPW’s decision to embark on a joint venture with Shelbourne Developments on Hawkins House will bring to an end a long running debate on what to do with Dublin’s most reviled office block.
Parts of the 12-storey block on Poolbeg Street have not been used in recent years because of ill fitting steel windows and the generally rundown state of the building.
The Department of Health and Children is expected to move to temporary accommodation before relocating to the current headquarters of the Department of Education on Marlborough Street when it moves to Athlone
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Further article from todays Irish Times on Hawkins House
Development Strategies: A redevelopment site of almost three acres just off Dublin’s O’Connell Bridge could be opened up once the OPW decides to proceed with a joint venture. Jack Fagan reports
The State’s decision to redevelop Hawkins House – on a joint venture basis with a private development company – could possibly open the way for Garret Kelleher’s Shelbourne Developments to assemble the largest and most valuable office site in Dublin city centre.
Kelleher has owned the equally ugly Apollo House office block on Tara Street for about four years and acquired the adjoining petrol filling station from property developer John Byrne about 12 months ago.
An agreement with the OPW on the redevelopment of Hawkins House will give him about 1.75 acres of an island site of almost three acres bounded by Townsend Street, Tara Street, Poolbeg Street and Hawkins Street.
The other major building on the site, College House, is also a first generation office block and almost as rundown as both Hawkins House and Apollo House.
It is held as an investment by the Brennan family of bread-making fame and has been largely unoccupied since the Post Office moved most of its staff out in recent years.
The lease of the building has been on the market for almost 10 years but there have been no takers, possibly because of the cost of refurbishing it.
The block also has the advantage of a large surface car-park, a facility that is seldom found in a modern city centre office building.
Another corner of the site is controlled by the Ward Anderson cinema group who operate the Screen Cinema.
The remaining portion of the site, fronting on to Townsend Street, has two bars, a dry cleaners and a block of apartments.
Dublin City Council, which is apparently planning to carry out a local area plan for the area around Hawkins House, will undoubtedly be anxious that College House and the cinema should be included in any major redevelopment scheme.
Kelleher, who is about to build a 150-storey, 2,000ft high apartment block in Chicago – making it the tallest in the United States and Europe – will undoubtedly seek planning permission for a tower block on the site of Hawkins House and Apollo House.
The site has the distinct advantage of being within two or three minutes walk of O’Connell Bridge and several major transport hubs. Office space there could be expected to rent at the highest levels.
Close by, the planners have approved a 14-storey office scheme for the site over Tara Street Station.
However, changes to the plan will be sought because of the likelihood that train services could be interrupted during the lengthy construction period.
One of the central issues in the discussions between the OPW and Shelbourne Developments will have revolved around the likely valuation placed on Hawkins House.
A figure of between €35 million and €40 million is likely to have been agreed given that the OPW had been anxious to proceed with an adjoining property owner who could unlock the development value of the combined sites.
Such a valuation would mean that when the site is eventually redeveloped, the State should stand to make in the region of €65 million from a newly completed office scheme.
© 2007 The Irish Times
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Much higher – 20-30 storeys. They’ll probably go for 35, the IGS will go bananas coz the view from the jacks window in TCDs 1937 Reading room will be compromised, while Norris is sittin there doin the Crosaire, or some such piffle, and a 25 storey building will go up. Finally the potential for a high density / high rise cluster around Tara Street will be realised. Pity we’ll never get one at Pearse, where the future transportation offer will be far greater…
Gonna miss Hawkins and Apollo though. Their sheer brutal ugliness made so many other horrific blocks seem “not so bad”
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@paul h wrote:
As much as i like to see high rise going up around Dublin
maybe this would not be the most ideal place……
Is seems a little too close to boi building and trinity, and the O’Connell st/Westmoreland St access?But , im sure the outrageous value of the site will probably mean the only way is up
Surely the outrageous value of the site only exists because people feel they’ll get permission for a high rise?
if they were limited to 4 stories i’m sure it wouldn’t be worth anywhere near as much 🙂 -
@alonso wrote:
Much higher – 20-30 storeys. They’ll probably go for 35, the IGS will go bananas coz the view from the jacks window in TCDs 1937 Reading room will be compromised, while Norris is sittin there doin the Crosaire, or some such piffle.
LOL!
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@paul h wrote:
maybe this would not be the most ideal place……
Ya think?! Flippin heck, the high rise mania here really has reached new levels lol.
Same height predicted, with greater basement exploition and increased site coverage; it’s actually a low density collection of buildings at the minute as seen in Morlan’s linked picture.
My concern is that this development has the potential to homogenise what is the very heart of Dublin city; a sprawling medium-rise, mixed use ‘anywhere’ corporate scheme dumped in the middle of the historic city that by definition of its bulk and (appropriate) height limitation will make for an elephant-in-the-room-like impression in this otherwise traditional part of the city. ‘Traditional’ in the sense that this broad and spacious central core has a unique charm in feeling like it’s been captured in aspic – the Edwardian city frozen at five storeys. At present Hawkins is so monstrous as to almost make it invisible relative to this, but a glossy more expansive scheme will change that.
Hopefully some variety in height and design will make for a visually engaging modern quay skyline. How that disastrous Irish Press and associated decelopment was ever permitted I do not know – it makes me so angry passing it, with all that ignorant muck heaped on top. One of the greatest insults to the image of the city centre.
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@GrahamH wrote:
… with all that ignorant muck heaped on top. One of the greatest insults to the image of the city centre …
Lets play spot the heap of crap …
I ran out of colours.
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😀
I see Aviation House (in turquoise above) was recently put to auction as part of a larger property porfolio, advertised as having significant development potential in the medium term. From the outside one suspects it has one of those ghastly late-70’s first generation interiors with full-height fibreglass partition walls inserted about a basic concrete frame. Truly one of the worst buildings in the city, on what has to be the worst quay in the city. Destroyed by the most shamefully abysmal planning, reaching right up to the present day.
And the Immigration Service/Irish Press building once the site of the Tivoli Theatre too.
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@GrahamH wrote:
And the Immigration Service/Irish Press building once the site of the Tivoli Theatre too.
ah thats just depressing G. Compare & Contrast anyone ?
sorry, in a sarcy mood.
Perhaps some sort of redevelopment might be in the offing for Aviation house then ? although can’t see a developer bothering his arse to do any more than a cheap re-clad. The quays really are a mess & when you see the likes of the new laughter lounge, ahem, gracing Eden Quay, doesn’t give much hope, does it ?
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OPW joint ventures to develop State sites for €125m
Martin Wall, Industry CorrespondentThe Office of Public Works (OPW) has entered into joint ventures with the private sector for the development of three State-owned sites in Dublin city centre which it said could generate up to €125 million for the exchequer.
Under the deals the State will receive a percentage of the rental income from the redeveloped sites.
OPW chairman Seán Benton said the largest site was Hawkins House, the current headquarters of the Department of Health, while the others were at Hatch Street and O’Connell Street.
He said the estimated €125 million in income from the joint ventures would be in addition to about €400 million raised from the sale of assets in recent years.
The money is likely to be used to offset the €900 million bill for the provision of new State offices around the country under the decentralisation programme.
Meanwhile Minister of State at the OPW Noel Ahern said unless there was a breakthrough on recruitment or on allowing staff in State agencies to transfer from one body to another, this element of the decentralisation plan would take longer to achieve.
The Minister described the Government’s initial four-year target for implementing the decentralisation plan as “unrealisable”.
However, he said it had “acted as a catalyst and made things happen”.
An OPW spokesman said last night the projected income stream from the joint ventures, worth €125 million at net present values, was substantially more than could have been accrued if the sites had been sold.
Mr Benton said the Hatch Street premises, currently used by OPW engineers, would be developed, probably mainly for offices, in partnership with a company which owned land at nearby Earlsfort Terrace.
He said the sites on O’Connell Street which were now “half-empty shop fronts” would be included in plans for a large shopping development at the old Carlton site.
Mr Ahern said the State was only putting its sites into the deals and not cash.
Details of the joint ventures emerged at an OPW press conference yesterday to announce a deal to have offices for 1,500 staff moving to Portlaoise, Mullingar and Carlow under decentralisation provided as part of a public/private partnership.
A consortium, the Macquarie Partnership, won the tender for the project. It will design, finance, build and maintain the offices under a 15-year contract worth up to €140 million.
Mr Ahern said “very significant progress” had been made in the decentralisation programme. Decentralisation for civil servants – about 6,200 staff – would be more or less completed by the end of 2009.
However, the Minister acknowledged that progress was much slower among professional staff and those in the State agencies.
Only about 200 personnel in State agencies have moved so far.
In the summer, the Labour Court effectively ruled out moves by State agencies to use promotions as incentives to encourage staff to transfer.
Mr Ahern said “the hope is that the Irish Congress of Trade Unions will get involved and try come up with a solution on a case-by-case basis”.
He said a problem was that staff in State agencies could not readily transfer from one body to another.
Some unions had been “rather anti the whole concept of decentralisation” and he hoped that talks could get under way to deal with the issue on a case-by-case basis.
© 2007 The Irish Times
Bye bye Hawkins House – it’ll be much missed, about as much as a bout of anal cancer.
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At what stage did Hawkin’s House come into State ownershp? I’d be interested to know how the state came to possess such a cruddy building.
There is a piece on the finale of the Theatre Royal in Summer 1962, and another paragraph in the Irishman’s diary (August 1962) about the demolition .
It was very sad. What a mistake it was to let that happen.
I was looking at pictures of Hawkins Street with the Theatre Royal, and it is hard to imagine that the current decrepit dingy street was once so beautiful, lively and pleasant.
I really hope that Hawkin’s House is demolished and replaced by something that will bring some life and beauty back to Hawkins street.
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