High Rise Building

Especially the connolly carpark

CIE has been drawing up plans for development around Connolly. Think the Irish Independent had a story on it about 18 months ago.

High rises will ruin Dublin character, says group
Paul Cullen, Consumer Affairs Correspondent

Plans for high-rise development in parts of the centre of Dublin will eliminate the city’s historic character, according to an environmental group.

The National Conservation and Heritage Group (NCHG) says the spread of high rises will put visitors off coming to Dublin and many of the skyscrapers will be built in inappropriate locations where they will be “blots on the landscape”.

In a submission opposing Dublin City Council’s plans to permit skyscrapers of up to 150 metres in height, the group suggests that buildings over eight storeys in height are unsafe because they would not be accessible by the fire services in the event of a fire, collapse or flooding.

The council’s plans to create “high density clusters” in parts of the city and allow high rises in selected suburbs has evoked strong opposition among environmental groups since they were published last week. Opponents plan an intensive lobby of city councillors to have the proposals overturned.

Damien Cassidy, chairman of the NCHG, claimed the council was contradicting itself by introducing high rises to many areas when, in regeneration work at Ballymun, it had blown up “perfectly sound” high-rise apartment blocks and replaced them with low-rise housing.

“Even if one were to accept that high rise is a necessity, and we do not accept this, the architecture involved in some of the high-rise buildings that have been allowed by Dublin city council planners is quite extraordinary.” Existing high-rise buildings such as O’Connell Bridge House, the Central Bank and Hawkins House, had been “universally condemned” as being out of character with their surrounding areas, he said.

The council says its strategy is aimed at consolidating the city and minimising urban sprawl. The plans are currently on view at Civic Offices and the underlying report is available on http://www.dublincity.ie. The public is invited to make submissions before March 7th.

© 2008 The Irish Times

This sort of crap pisses me off, is there ever any lobbying in support of these type of large scale plans?

A high rise building will put off visitors from coming here? What a load of crock
I would argue for completly the opposite
The audacity to use Ballymun as an example, but they’ve turned this tired old example on its head:mad:
If the towers were still there then of course it would the no1 example to use against high rise

They are dangerous in event of flooding?
Pathetic argument, what scared little people they must be
Blatant anti development, short sightedness.

These goups really need to step aside and let Dublin grow into a well rounded city
Im always reminded by Luke kelly lamenting his town becoming a city, but it would be funny if it wasn’t so serious

The NIMBY’s and sceptics have been winning for years, do you see anything taller than Liberty hall after all the talk about high-rises? Nooo…How can they get things so wrong…since when does anti-deveopment attract visitors and awe. Dublin is a grey, low-rise, boring-to-look-at city at first glance…trust me if i wanted to see Charecter, there are a lot of cities ahead of Dublin that would jump out…but even those cities have high-rises. Look at this picture of Munich i took some years back…recently there are some tall buildings too, most recently a 148m scraper…which makes me think aah here is history, beauty and commercial development linked in one world-class looking city. When i think of ‘skyline’ ,Dublin reminds me of Sheffield in comparison. It has the potential for so much more!!! Wake up, Ireland in 2008 is about trade, commerce, development, modernism, so please reflect this in our architecture and attitudes towards archittecture! Build big, classy and modern architecture, because believe it or not…the rest of the world is used to that, and you are not going to shock them with a 100m tower or two…zzz…

@alonso wrote:

read that earlier Paul… made me fricking sick to see Ballymun used again to beat up high rises – have they seen Santry Cross? .

I have and believe me it’s no advertisment for high rise. Panels are going green with damp already. It’s as bad as the flats in terms of look. Disgraceful that council allowed them use the cladding they used,

From the Sunday Independent in relation to the adjoining apartments:
“There are also issues over construction, with owner occupiers discovering that there was no ventilation air vents in some of the bedrooms leading to problems with damp.

Though there was a vent-like structure visible on internal walls, an engineer discovered there was no duct to the exterior.

An independent surveyor found there was no insulation in the external walls in apartments at the eastern side of the Linnbhla apartment complex.

Residents complain of mildew, pools of water on what are now warped window sills, flimsy external doors and a host of other defects in what were trumpeted as a potent symbol of Ballymun’s rebirth and proof that private investment could successfully bolster public regeneration.

It is understand that a number of owner occupiers are in the process of initiating proceedings against the builders.

One resident has claimed that asthma which she contracted since moving into the Linnbhla complex is related to problems with the construction…

Mr White’s counterclaim will declare that, far from being a high class residential development, the entire estate has become a development in rapid and serious decline towards slum status”

By the way who the hell are these National Conservation and Heritage Group guys? Have never heard of them before. I’m going to set up a National High Rise High Density Advocacy Group. Three members so far: me, myself and I so membership outnumbers theirs already

that article made me sick reading it.dangerous in fire-how does every other city manage?? dangerous in collapse-so all high rises are poorly built but every 5/6 storey cube is perfectly fine and as for flooding??? what a pi**take.

using ballymun is simply to get the masses to oppose high rise as its one of the few examples of tall buildings in the city and yes, it didnt work, but to effectively say all highrise clusters will turn into a ballymum is a joke, which is what theyre trying to hint at, and immediately make the general public skeptical about the plans.

and put tourists OFF? some of the worlds biggest tourist attractions are skyscrapers and as mentioned they would not be near eg christchurch, trinity etc.

i know nothing of this council but i can hazard a guess they are old, backward and narrowminded.when will people like this give the new dublin the city they deserve as a product of the celtic tiger.im 21 and would love to see dublin with a few iconic towers but im worried all be their age by the time that comes around.

jdivision just to clarify, I wasn’t defending the character of Santry Cross, merely stating that any attempt to link the demolition of the flats with the end of high rise at that location is false

I think the rant against the ‘consaevation action group,’ or whatever it’s called, is a bit unfair. The problem with opening the door to ‘High rise’ is that you don’t know what’s going to come through it. The first one or two may be spot on, and that’s being optimistic, but then the herd instinct takes off and every developer within half a mile of a ‘potential cluster’ is in there with something out of Benidorm in the ’70s updated with slanty windows.

Most people warmed to the Heuston Gate tower almost instantly because it was well designed, had an elegant profile and it had clear landmark qualities where a landmark would seem to be justified beside Heusto Station on the perimeter of the historic core, but most of the more recent proposals for Highrise don’t have those qualities.

‘Slab blocks’ for a start are inherently anti-urban, they have the proportion of a head stone. A Highrise building, by definition has vantage points in all directions, yet the slab block has only one orientation.

What I would argue for is that, if we take a decision to go down the Highrise route, then each developer that you’ve opened the door to must be obliged to sponsor an architectural competition for their Highrise scheme. I know that’s not still a guarantee that some crimes won’t be committed, but at least it better than a weak plea that the buildings be ‘of the highest architectural quality’.

@gunter wrote:

What I would argue for is that, if we take a decision to go down the Highrise route, then each developer that you’ve opened the door to must be obliged to sponsor an architectural competition for their Highrise scheme

Areas outside designated high rise areas will have to do this. won’t make a difference though if materials used are rubbish.
Incidentally was talking to people last week and they don’t think there’ll be many more proposals like this in immediate future – build costs are too high in current climate