hawkins house
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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.
I think the reason they won’t demolish Hawkins House is that they might not get Planning for the same volume of office space again. I remember this was the case with Apollo House a few years ago!!
It might look well however once it gets it’s makeover…………see too that the ILAC centre, that other great mistake has been given the go ahead for a makeover too.
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?
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.
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.
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
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
Equal height or higher, it’s probabl one of the best sites in the country in terms of convenience to public transport.
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”
I’d be happy with higher as long as the profile is good from the quays. So now the King of Ugly Buildings is set to go,I guess the sucessorr to the crown will be that thing on South Great Georges Street.
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