Roches Stores, Henry Street, Dublin
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Check out http://www.roches-stores.ie – some pictures of the new look shop…
Roches looks OK (well in comparison to what it was) – but the propsed Ilac… not too sure. Still anything to bring up that side of Henry St is a plus.
I see they’re not even attempting to solve the worst aspect of the current Roches, the fact that it has a 3 storey, 6 building long blank wall as a facade. They’re pawning off the Millinium Wing’s sophisticated austerity as a solution to their problem.
Its not a solution.
It looks like a B&Q Warehouse with bits bolted to the side, it’s too suburban and dated for this site I agree with Graham about the main problem of a blank facade not being addressed here – obviously they dont like windows
No modern shops like windows, look at the upper storeys of Arnotts and see your windows….. Clerys have recently addressed their windows on first floor level and opened upo a few of them to the shop floor.
I think this is great – and I know right well that Roches will not get any thanks for it. They didnt have to remodel the exterior of the store – they could simply have plonked another floor on top and reordered the interior, but no, they’ve decided to spend money.
This is not Galleries Lafayette hiring Jean Nouvel, this is a mass market cheap chain store and I think they should be commended for the effort. After all they didnt have to….
So what if architecturally its not going to win a RIAI award, its a step in the right direction – Dublin is not going to turn into Barcelona or Paris overnight….
Probably underneath that fancy facade there is a concrete base wall of a substantial thickness. It would be an ordeal maybe to start slicing windows in it……and would eat into their alloted makeover budget. Probably the architects had to work with what resources there were too.
Hence a wallpaper solution has been applied.
Anyone know the name of the architects.Aren’t ye being a little harsh? It is ROCHES afterall! I’m glad they’re trying something – but it’s still in keeping the traditional Roches on Henry St look…
More like they can’t be arsed to remodel the interior of the building to take account of this. How wonderful it would be to have sweeping views of Henry St through new windows, that filled the upper shopping floors with light and interest.
Arnotts also hasn’t bothered to utilise their upper windows.
Most retail stores dont…. large window areas mean less retail space. They also have to be cleaned more regularly than normal buildings (for appearences sake). And I agree it is Roches after all and at least they are making and effort to improve on that ghastly 70s creation they are replacing.
By replacing it with a ghastly 00’s update?
Mind you the fact that Roches pulled down Frascati House shows they don’t give a toss about architecture. I suppose they dont want to fade their tatty clothes with views of the southside. Even Schuh on O’Connell Street looks better with it’s high level display windows rather than bald facade.
On a luck note the original plan for the bhs/penny’s building on O’Connell Street had no windows either
The shop will be out of date before it’s even finished! But hey – would Roches want it any other way???
Definatly,the new Roches is going to look just as bad as the old one, if not actually worse, because our aspirations should have risen a lot since then.
Also while Roches may not be the most progressive clients in the world they didnt actually design the thing themselves and they were obviously up for something modern, which is a suprise considering the state of what happened the last time they trusted modernism. It is so easy for a client to use this as an excuse for a bit of fiddleditwee So a fair bit of responsibility has to be given to the architects for this new ‘reworking’ budgeting et al considered.
on a more pressing matter, whats the news on Zara moving in to this Roches soon? Has it all been a cruel rumour? I’ve been waiting for ages for them to come & now theyre even in New York before Dublin!!
I agree the new Roches is worse than the old one. No imagination or decent materials used in its design! As for the new look Ilac, don’t bother leave it as it is……………..
now that m&s has been mentioned, i think it is probably the worst building on the street, and the fact that they were given permission to extend a few years ago, further enlarging the blank concrete dump, makes matters worse …
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