Laughter Lounge – Eden Quay
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Most of the canopy is down on the Laughter Lounge on Eden Quay and on first impressions, it’s absolutely disastrous.
It’s combination legoland redbrick, with sub-standard granite slabs in the middle of it. The windows are green but the street-level has not been unfurled yet. If anybody has a camera, they should take a snap.
Another abysmal addition to the quays. Not necessarily any worse than what was there before but pretty bad nonetheless.
I also notice that the mini Eiffel Tower on the top of the Dublin Gas building has disappeared.
It was like a pyramidal aerial with the top quarter lopped off. I assumed it was an original art deco feature of the building – but could be wrong.The little mast can be seen here:
http://www.irish-architecture.com/buildings_ireland/dublin/southcity/dolier_street/gasco_lge.htmlPhoto six years old approx
The Eden Quay building is actually a lot smaller than it looks coming in at 1279 sq m which I’d have to say surpised me given the frontage it has. There are basic images on http://www.lisney.ie ( click onto the Dublin Office tab and then onto offices (they don’t have specific web pages))
Initially I was very negative on it, but having seen the renderings I will wait until the scaffolding comes down before I decide if I like it.
Re: The Gas building it is a surprise that the antennnae has come down, it is I suppose lucky that it hasn’t been drowned in mobile phone transmitters.
Another feature of the building worth checking out is the Walnut & Kingswood pannelling that runs up the stairs, pure deco 😀
Doesn’t look too bad on Lisney.
Here’s the image attached.
Finishing looks a lot cheaper in reality.its a nothing – another new Dublin nothing – might as well be an apartment block on Conygham Road or the “new town centre” in Asbourne…. its a nothing piece of architecture….
i was under the impression that the architects had proprosed something…
Eden Quay is my nomination for Dublin’s worst Quay architecturally, it is sad to say that this building is possibly the best addition to the quay in over 100 years. I agree with Paul that it is an entirely unremarkable building, but it is at least reasonably in scale with the rest of whats down there.
My own pet hates down there are the corner building with marlborough St with its nasty aluminium windows and the shops that complete the Liberty Hall Scheme, both of those could gladly disapear.
yeah eden quay is dreadful, the new building is a big disappointment, wasted opportunity, especially being so near to O’Connell bridge … maybe the boardwalk will lift the quay a bit …
Read in yesterday’s Irish Times that SIPTU are considering selling Liberty Hall … potential for a decent recladding under new ownership maybe ??
Do you have a pic of the original transparent glazing Paul ? … think you posted one before …
link to Tuesday’s times …
The image of the new Laughter Lounge doesn’t tell us much except that it is strikingly similar to the Trinity Capital Hotel (which is not good)
I agree that it is ‘anywhere’ architecture, but then again – to dabble a toe into vast waters of debate – isn’t that the nature of modern architecture? Certainly in the context of expecting much higher quality architecture for a prominent site in the heart of the capital I’d agree.Should be able to get a pic tomorrow.
I can’t agree Peter & Diaspora that Eden Quay is poor architecturally, if anything quite the opposite; it looks especially well in the morning sun. There is a fine mix of buildings there, albethey somewhat underwhelming for the centre of the city, not least in height terms, with most of the quay easily able to accommodate an extra storey.
There is a nice mixture of 1920s and earlier bulidings that are very attractive making up most of the quay – maybe it’s the poor state of repair of the buildings and general down-at-heel environment you refer to, in which case I’d agree.
A case in point are the aluminium windows you refer to Diaspora, and the windows of the lovely building on the opposite corner, where the steel originals were replaced with (convincing at a distance, but nasty up close) PVC.Also agree about the Liberty Hall shops, they are woeful. That’s an interesting story about Liberty Hall – wonder who’d take it on. I couldn’t get over the amount of space the lift & stair shafts take up the first time I was in there – often heard it harped on about but you really can’t believe it till you see it!
It really goes to show how the building went up in that format purely for height status.I think the poor environmental condition of Eden Quay – and it really is an awful quay to stand around on, with all the bus termini, quays traffic and anything else that has turned in from O’Connell Bridge – causes an unfairly negative impression of its architecture. All the buildings from O’C St. to Marlb. St. are rebuilds after 1916. A couple of them are quite nice, especially the Samaritans building on the Marlb. St. corner (although its Marlb. St. facade windows have been PVC’d as Graham said, the quayside facade seems to retain its originals).
Then from Marlb. St. down to Liberty Hall are mostly original Wide Sts. C.’s four-storey Georgians, though the pale yellow one at the corner (originally 3 buildings) does look about as un-Georgian as a Georgian building can possibly look, after a gutting for offices in the ‘70s. Some of the others look quite well though, with their pitched roofs, chimney stacks and faded red brick on the upper floors.
The scale of the quay does seem a bit low for its width, but it had to be four stories in order to be subsidiary to five-storey O’Connell Street.
Haven’t seen the new L. L. in person yet, but it doesn’t look great in that little image…a Morrison Hotel pastiche?
Sorry Devin but that is impressive re the Samaritans building – I was hoping someone wouldn’t pick up on the river facade windows which indeed are originals. I remember checking before to see if they were original after seeing the PVCs on Marlborough St, but forgot what I discovered!
The WSC arches are much ignored along here – there’s quite a few across on Burgh Quay too.Eden Quay is quite wide along here which gives it a distinct advantage over other Dublin quays that should be exploited to pedestrian advantage.
Yes, and even with the space taken up by the buses at the quay wall side, there’s going to be a lot of space left over for all other traffic when HGVs are removed into the Port Tunnel. Maybe it would have been better to create a broad pedestrian riverside walk for Eden Quay instead of putting another boardwalk outside the quay wall, which just adds one more piece of clutter into the view of the Custom House from the O’Connell Bridge area.
I certainly would have preferred this anyway – the current Boardwalk is almost acting as a diversion steering people clear of manky Eden Quay – no no come this way, you don’t want to go down there, look over here at the river and the lovely Corn Exchange, that’s better 😀
God this tube of Jelly Tots is going to my head – enough!
I know the feeling!!! making this my last as well!
Well that’s one good thing about the Eden Qy boardwalk – it will be a good place to lounge on the hand rail & enjoy the Corn Exchange, which though north-facing gets a lot of sunshine from late afternoon onwards in spring & summer. And especially since the Georgian house on its east flank has been restored to reveal its granite-arched shopfront (which was hidden behind a single storey wall). This is a great & underrated Dublin setpiece; the massive 2-storey granite Corn Exchange with matching red brick 4-storey houses to either side, with arched shopfronts.
But a load of jerry-built rubbish was piled up behind this in the ‘90s…the argument was that the skyline of the Corn Exchange, as seen from Eden Quay, was already lost because of Hawkins House on Poolbeg St. 🙁 🙂
At first impressions, the replacement for the Laughter Lounge IS quite an improvement. The building lines of the quay have been maintained. The materials are sympathetic to the surrounding red brick terrace with limestone dressings. I think it will help Eden Quay and will be a much needed improvement. In its place, do you really want a pastiche Georgian nonsense?
I see some call it another bit of nothingness – couldn’t Georgian Dublin be called that? The point of georgian terraces was that they would not detract from centrepieces in the vicinity – ie Belvedere House, Four Courts, Customs House, St Georges Church etc etc. Really, this new building will not seek attention in an area that has some magnificent example of architecture – and thats not a bad thing.I never said anything about the rest of the quay – there are some nice pieces on it – as mentioned the WSC buildings with shopfronts…
Seaman’s Institute original glazing’
I quite like the grimness of the Mercantile Seaman Office
One of the points that I was trying to make but which appears to have got lost is that it looks nowhere near as good as that little picture on Lisney. Also the picture on lisney.ie is deceptive because it includes the next door building, a pub called Eden, which is already open and some kind of hanging silver box as an extension. This makes it look better than it is. If this does in fact exist, I am completely blind because I’ve never seen it and see no evidence of its construction.
yeah i was referring more to the overall appearance of the eden quay, uses etc. a number of fine buildings, many of which neeed attention though.
It wouldn’t be hard to improve on what was already there J. Seerski … the problem is this building is trying to fit in in some sort of half assed way, with a fair mix of styles already on the quay what’s the point in playing it safe with this red brick rubbish …
Well saw it today – looks as you’d expect really, average.
Not that there’s anything wrong with average – as J Seerski points out, these terraces act as a foil to greater things – but there’s good average and there’s bad average, and I think it unfortunately falls into the latter.It’s a blah building, one that tries to please everyone with olde worlde & modern materials, but both used in a traditional way, creating an unremarkable, entirely forgettable structure.
But it’s the parapet height that annoys me, it crudely breaks it – ironically the very level I said could do with an extra storey, but not in this fashion. The extra height adds an additional bulk to the building as a whole making it push out onto the quay.
The regular cornice height along here is kind of respected – at least limestone was used, which works quite well with neighbouring buildings. What does not, and annoys me most about this building is the modern dusty pink red-brick used. Why was the orangey-red of all other stock not used? It is the same with nearly every other similar development in the city, the same coloured brick is never sourced which I find totally inexcusable.Here’s a pic – sorry about the light, it was disappearing way too fast 🙁 :
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