The Abbey for the Docks
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Just heard on the news that the Arts and Sports Minister John O’Donoghue has announced that the Abbey Theatre is to relocate to the Docklands after all.
So what sort of a National Theatre will we get, another conspicuous modern landmark for the city?
I really really do hope that Scott Tallon Walker will get the contract to design and build it …pleeze, pleeze, pleeze………NOT! -
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It is a major loss for O’Connell Street and the North Inner City. The IFSC is a business district and is not integrated with the North Inner City the way O’Connell Street is. A financial services centre is not the place for a theatre. The docks at night is dead.
This is from the govt website.
http://www.dast.gov.ie/Pressroom/pr_detail.asp?ID=1143Abbey Theatre Redevelopment:
The Government has decided that the new Abbey Theatre will be located on the site provided by the Dublin Docklands Development Authority at Georges Dock. OPW have completed the necessary site investigations at the site and have advised that it would be a suitable location for the new National Theatre. With the approval of the Government, the Minister is now arranging to have all options for procuring the theatre as a PPP project, including the incorporation of a separate international design competition, progressed as quickly as possible with a view to enabling him to report back to Government by end-February 2006. Commenting today the Minister said:
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Definitely the Loopline bridge should be remodelled so as to remove the curtain effect and link the two parts of the city. A lighter frame with an arch or something could be applied and light it up at night. Otherwise the new theatre will be isolated down there in suit land. Hope the new theatre will look radical. Employ big noise architects from abroad to design it.
It’s all happening at the mo. Ye’d know we were heading into an election year.
To recap, look at whats been given the go ahead lately……..
…….all promises, promise
Lansdowne Road
The National Conference Centre
The Abbey Theatre
phase 1 of Sports Campus Ireland -
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i have no real problem with the ifsc as a location; it isn’t that far from town and the newer parts, while not close to stunning, do at least manage quite an urban feel. i also imagine that it will look good in the basin, but i do feel it is vandalism, there is no end of brownfield and no end of undistinguished city center buildings where the theatre could have a real presence, why sacrifice the basin, its beautiful, its a genuine historic part of the dockland area and kind of special, a real loss.
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@adhoc wrote:
Haven’t seen any of the theatre, but I came across this.
God help us if this sort of comment sets the standard for debate on this issue.
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Ridiculous decision. I think the obvious site for it is on the Cartlon cinema site.
If they want to move it to the docklands give it a high profile river front site and not fill in open space in a area surrounding by huge office blocks. Most cities try to hold onto what is left of their green and blue spaces. Build this new building on a brown field site.
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@Michael J. O’Brien wrote:
Ridiculous decision. I think the obvious site for it is on the Cartlon cinema site.
If they want to move it to the docklands give it a high profile river front site and not fill in open space in a area surrounding by huge office blocks. Most cities try to hold onto what is left of their green and blue spaces. Build this new building on a brown field site.
Yes but all that would require sense.
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This is like watching a car accident in slow motion as the abbey creeps its way down river only to collide first with the Roche”parmesan shaker” national conference centre (new hybrid there, guaranteed a full house most nights) on its way to meet the Liebeskind “swiss wedge” art centre to rest finally in the middle of the Liffey. The question is, does cheese float?
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Its a dreadfull location in its self but nobody seems to be commenting about the loss of a perfectly good amenity, which has anly recently recieved a large cash injection to revamp it. In the summer time the officer works utillise the area no end. In my opinion nothing should be built there at all. The DDDA seem to at times squander money.
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crestfield, I believe there was plenty of indignation expressed concerning filling in the dock in the earlier thread. I think it’s a dreadful decision. I never go to Abbey productions anyway (and I normally see four or five plays a year) so I’m not as concerned about the precise location of the new Abbey but I hate the idea of filling the dock.
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Agreed, a shameful decision. The dock is one of the best amenity spaces in the city, and certainly the best of the north Docklands. Even as it is, the temporary structures often erected on the water should not be permitted – at the moment it’s full of garden sheds :rolleyes:
It is so laughable, so ironic, so ridiculous above all, that the only site that can be found in the entire capital is a pool of water set aside as an amenity space in a business district.
Not only is the proposal damaging to the 18th century dock, not only is it commandeering a valued breathing space in the IFSC, but it is also depriving the city centre of the theatre itself, not to mention the rejuvenating effect it could have on a rundown area.By all accounts the finished theatre will probably look stunning with something of a ‘moat’ effect around it, but architecturally it could have been equally successful elsewhere, and much more so on a host of other levels.
The wrong decision. -
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Such a proposal could only be justified in Hong Kong or Holland. Has the population density in Dublin increased so much since I was last there that they need to fill in a part of the docks?
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Has the population density in Dublin increased so much since I was last there that they need to fill in a part of the docks?
We dont know when you were here last, but to answer the question generically, no, not the population density, but yes the population has increased dramatically. Everyone is living in Kildare.
I fear this decision will kill off Northern part of O’Connell street, for good.
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I was in Dublin a couple of months ago. I was thinking that things hadn’t changed so much in that time – mind you, the train service to Sligo still has a certain ‘indian-esque’ appearance.
What is the cost-estimate for the infill? Surely it must be more than purchasing a normal site elsewhere? What is the justification for siting it here? It will really take away from the surrounding area.
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Troubled Abbey Theatre gets €4m lifeline from Irish government
Christmas has come early for Dublin’s Abbey Theatre. After a period of financial disasters, resignations and box office flops that has seen Ireland’s national theatre plunging ever more deeply into the red, Irish arts minister John O’Donoghue this month approved a one-off €4m aid package for the troubled venue. The money will allow the Abbey to wipe out its debts – which now total around €3.4m – and start 2006 with a clean slate.
The spectacular turnaround in the Abbey’s fortunes is largely due to an aggressive modernisation programme led by Fiach MacConghail, a former adviser to O’Donoghue who took over as the Abbey’s director in May after the resignation of managing director Brian Jackson and the departure of artistic director Ben Barnes. Under MacConghail’s leadership, the Abbey has seen a radical restructuring of its administration and a complete overhaul of accounting practices.
“I believe in the tooth fairy and Santa Claus now,” MacConghail told the Guardian. “The Arts Council set the board and the executive clear targets. They were tough to meet and we met them. But it was a white-knuckle ride.”
The announcement has boosted morale at the theatre, where plans are underway for a relocation to a new building in Dublin’s Docklands area. However, MacConghail has warned that the theatre’s annual state funding will have to increase in order to prevent it from falling back into deficit.
“The Abbey has now become more accountable and more transparent in the way it does business,” he said. “What will stop it going into debt in the future is a reasonable subsidy from the Arts Council.”
The Abbey’s spiralling financial crisis began in 2004, its centenary year, when a programme marking the 100th anniversary of founder WB Yeats suffered catastrophic box office returns. This year it emerged that the company had lost €1.85m in 2004, almost double the figure first reported.
“Clearing the deficit has shown great confidence,” MacConghail said. “Culturally speaking, the Abbey Theatre is very much locked into the psyche of the Irish nation. It’s in our DNA.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/news/story/0,11711,1671122,00.html
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Buiding it on that patch of water seems absurd. It would be better if it had more of a Liffey waterfront location. The new location seems rather cramped too. That horrible red brick building in front of it as seen from the Liffey quayside should be demolished so as the new Abbey can be viewed and adored clearly.
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yeah i’m not in favour of it either, why clutter george’s dock ?
upper o’connell street was the only place for me, could have really benefited from the abbey, and now that the iap is nearing completion – they’re really going to have to look at building use on the street – new paving & street surfaces can only do so much …
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This idea seems to getting the go ahead.
http://www.irish-architecture.com/news/2006/000219.html
If it is, which I find disappointing in the first place, I hope something is done to sort out the civic space between the three original IFSC buildings – IFSC House, the AIB building and La Touche House. I think it is one of the most depressing civic areas in the whole city. Its only redeeming feature might be the small circle of granite stones with benches around it.
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