U2 studio entries

….and that’s supposed to be a unique landmark for Dublin city……..F**king Hell!

Oops I forgot …It’s ties in with the other shite they’re building down there.

The IDN entry feels very industrial, in a way that would merge nicely with the cranes, bridges, and rusty hardware still down in the docklands area. I’m not sure if would fit in quite as when all the other hardware is finally removed.

I’ll say it again…

Does nobody think it odd that the winning team of architects includes the brother-in-law of U2 manager Paul McGuinness…???!!!

Originally posted by d_d_dallas
Well at leasy Gehry isn’t letting the U2 debacle stop him from fiding other commissions (from skyscrapers.com:

***News: Brighton set for Gehry towers

Read this weeks “Nooks and Corners” (Architecture Column) in Private Eye magazine for a review of this building – from the sounds of it is truely awful and the CGI does it no favours. My favorite quote from it “The landmark element proposed is a wobbly 38-storey tower which promises to loom over the surrounding three- or four-storey stuccoed terraces like a Terry Gilliam monster in a Monty Python cartoon”.

Having waited, as everyone else has, for an unexceptably long time, one gets the feeling that it was unfortunately not really worth waiting for at all.

After seeing the first images of this competition winner, which I admit are of a relatively small scale and therefore difficult to read, I cannot help but thinking that Dublin has squandered an opportunity in providing the city with a world class building.

I find that nothing about this building image displays any contextual or indeed Landmark merits. Such a quality of building one usually expects to find in some investors development portfolio and indeed this tower appears as if it could be built anywhere and unfortunately is in many cities and towns throughout the world.
The fact that each storey seems to have been treated similarly, raises the question as to where is the music studio? I find it relatively hard to believe that it is contained in this ‘hat-like’ structure on the roof of the building which seems to have taken its inspiration from the ‘Messeturm’ in Frankfurt am Main, Germany,
also a featureless example of 80’s American Highrise Architecture. This building has in the mean time been christened by the people of Frankfurt as the ‘Pencil’. A wonderful and inspiring name for a Highrise Tower as I am sure everyone will agree !

And it is about inspiration and a sense of belonging to a place that must be , I feel, some of the most important design criteria for a Landmark Tower in a European capital city.
This competition winning entry does not seem to fill this Landmark role and seems also not to react in any significant way to industrial surrounds or to, and probably most importantly, the river which guides ships into the city and for this one needs a gate or marker or beacon.

I am very dissapointed that such an entry was chosen as the best and i am fully convinced that after such an object is build that it will receive little if any international recognision.

I would be very interested to know who indeed was on the jury and what particular qualifications they possesed to judge such an important building for Dublin. Which architects were involved or were there any at all ? Any internationally renowned or even foreign architects or designers in the panel ? These factors which I cannot seem to find are the fundamentals of a well organised and high quality competition, essential to a good result.
A result that in this case seems to leave alot to be desired.

I suggest that this new building should be named the ‘ Dublin Tower ‘ because the only element that makes it any way ‘ Landmark’ is its height, which simply structurally is, and its prominent location which was existing. A ‘Landmark’ Tower it is not.

Please let us and anyone else out there know if a protest is coming, we will gladly sign any petition to reverse this travesty.

protest is right. this building is a joke

So, there we have it, a result which at least puts the stress back in the cupboard for the architects till the next competition! But…………. mmmmmmm…….indeed, a disappointing result. Not because of the associations which other draw with regards to the design, its authors relationship with U2 etc, etc but the complete lack of confident qualities which such a structure must provide. It was to be the Totem under which the divided could unite, the Vision which would brush away the differences of the conservatives , conservationists, and bigots. It has done perhaps quite the opposite and revived all these rather banal and negative tendencies without offering a Vision.

Surely it will be the landmark, as its scale will prevail in this attribute but not, perhaps, one which can in anyway be comparable to that of Calatrava’s tower in Malmo which is delivering this spirit of the totem. Pelli’s Canary wharf tower, well of course shapes are shapes are this is similar shape but so what, the critical issue is- the shape is not compatible with the gyroscopic kinetic which the twist is supposed to suggest. Or maybe we can refer to the metabolic structures of Kurokawa as a sauce(sic) for reference. But as I inferred before this is just hot air as the issue of Vision and Totem have not, in my opinion, been met.

It is interesting the identity of the jury were never published. In all competitions, one of the main issues an architect examines is the Jury list, to determine the leanings the judging might have. This was not possible here, and in many ways the competitors entered with a key component undeclared.

But , the “Jury” have announced the winner……………..and that’s that. A lost opportunity.

I like it. I think it’s interesting. I also hope this is the first of many similar buildings in terms of height and modernity in this area. And, many of you may laugh when I suggest this, but with enough tastefull landmark buildings and leisure amenities another Darling Harbour (Sydney) could be created here.