National Wax Monstrosity

@GrahamH wrote:

So which is better? 😮

It is amazing that we seem to spend so much time giving out about buildings from the 60s,70s and 80s on these threads whilst absolute rubbish like this is sprouting up underneath our noses. Can this actually be described as architecture? All it is missing is a giant trying to climb out of the roof!

Looks like the « BORG » have decided to make a permanent base on that site.;)

Ah, come off it: There is no comparison between the old and the new. The original building was a hideous windowless threatening grey box. It sat on that corner like the abandoned abortion of a nuclear power station. I felt some relief when it went. The same feeling I had when DIck Roche lost his job.

The new structure is insipid and unremarkable. In its favour it is certainly ‘of its time’ which should please those of you concerned that the historical record of the city is not contaminated by deceptive pastiche. At least it has windows.

I’m surprised that nobody has yet said this was a lost opportunity to make this building sixty floors higher and thus propel Ireland into the fighter-jet/stealth-submarine age.

Designed? Surely you mean put together, I think they found a P.V.Doyle kit in the basement.

I suppose it’s progress of a sort that the ‘hideous and threatening’ is replaced by the only ‘insipid and unremarkable’ but shoudn’t this city be aiming a little higher? It’s better but not much.

@sw101 wrote:

who designed it?

Quote =Funny how, after redevelopment, this thread title still applies. What are the planners at …Quote

A planner – obviously. High time we employed architects to design buildings instead.

A pile of pastiche by the sounds of it – and a seven-storey pile at that; they only got six in the end.

Two more views of it nearing completion. It’s even worse that previously could be made out; the ground floor elevation is simply appalling.

And the delightful view looking north.

Clearly they’re the same architects responsible for Jurys on Parnell Street. The blacked out grey-framed glazing, red brick and general box-like treatment is identical. A completely blank facade is now presented to Dorset Street, with no entrance, no windows addressing the thoroughfare, and no design treatment whatever to suggest that it is even the principal elevation – all combining to reinforce Dorset Street’s status as a dual carriageway ploughing its way through the north inner city: it has turned its back on it.

A monstrous blank face, soon to be peppered with air vents and a token pair of uplighters.

And a classic DCC detail outside too. New granite paving is being laid, complete with brushed steel traffic signal poles. Only, given the new pole is already in place beside the old galvanised one…

…then eh, ummm…

And the new pavement is also miserably wide to cater for the left turn onto Granby Row. As can be seen, it gets narrower and tighter as it approaches the corner, an unpleasant sticking point for pedestrians at this busy junction.

What a pity Graham,that you didnt ramble a little further Northwards to the junction of Dorset and Nth Frederick Streets where you could have recorded for historical purposes yet another fine example of a City Council which appears to be run by professional wideboys and chancers.

Just as you clearly outline the nonsense of the old vs new Traffic Signal poles at the Waxer,so to could you document the state of the roadway at Nth Frederick St junction.
Here DCC have had almost every Civils Contractor with a JCB in Dublin around to dig,backfill,re-dig and half back-fill again.
The icing on this particular cake was a contractor doing a very nice PERMANENT job but only on HALF the width of the original opening,leaving the other half full of the usual loose chippings and assorted other muck which the heavy rain soon washes away.

It appears that DCC does not have a single Professional Civil Engineer who understands the somewhat fragile relationship which exists between the Irish climate and wheelbarrowfulls of loose filling…..Time and time again throughout the DCC administrative area we see remarkable evidence of Potholes,fissures,and chasms which are negligently filled with loose shingle,tar or simply stones only for the rain to wash it all away and for the original hole to deepen,widen and pose a greater threat to health and safety !

I have given up on this crowd of Shams in Civic Offices,as far as I can make out they subscribe to the Pee`n Bev school of hard neckism with little or no realization of the consequences of their actions… 😮

Bob the builder is missing too – I think someone should tell the guards he’s probably been in the paving section of DCC for a while.

a brief mention of the wa museum moving to grafton street? any more info

http://www.visitdublin.com/SeeAndDo/Detail.aspx?id=249&mid=861