The Bird Avenue Clonskeagh Church competition
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During the 1950’s the Diocese of Dublin held a competition for a new church on Bird Avenue, Dublin.
A winner was declared, but the Bishop decided not to build this design, and selected another design.
Anyone have a copy of the plans, or sketch, of the winning design? I have never seen it reproduced but it might have been in some magazine or other.
I dont think the IAA have a copy.
i work around the corner from this. the church there now is not bad at all (from a building point of view and not a religious one 🙂 )
would be interesting alright to see the winning design.
“Who designed the final church?”
The present church is by Jones & Kelly(1958), a strange mixture, exterior not at all bad but with an especially dull interior – Bertrand Grovenor Goodhue’s Nebraska Capitol tower belfry, goes to Byzantium inside.
The current church really is quite nice from the outside. Years of atheism has fogged my memories of the interior. The photograph above probably doesn’t do it real justice, since you’ll rarely find yourself flying above it in a helicopter.
But really, the tower (can’t call it a steeple) looks quite cool, and the domes on top look nice in profile. The bulk of the building is rarely seen, as there are no real access roads behind and to the sides.
All this is relative though. They probably could have built something nicer, but I’m pretty sure they could also have built something much, much, much worse.
fjp
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