Vertigo? U2 tower to be taller

I dont think anyone has said the U2 tower has been scrapped. The DDDA say they are near to signing the contracts and construction would begin before the end of the year or early next year.

Im more concerned about the Point tower. I think this has been scrapped. I drove by the site yesterday and there is absolutely no sign of the tower going up. In fact I thought there was no room left for where the tower is meant to be! Maybe im wrong but I think this tower is not going ahead.

Other than demolishing the hailing station, nothing done on U2 tower to date. Ok – some site investigations as well. The work adjacent is Liam Carroll’s building – the one that was to have the rival tower in the days of Dunloe Ewart’s involvement. Planning for this tower was secured from DCC circa 2002, and expired in 2007 AFAIK. And, sespite what DDDA say, they do need some of Liam Carroll’s land to realise the full footprint. This was the case with the BCDH tower, which was pretty modest. The new Foster design looks like it requried half the Grand Canal Basin to accommodate it….

@shed wrote:

The Watchtower basement slab is in place but there are still some issues with internal layouts n uses. Expect to see some real progress by the end of the summer I would imagine.

Hi, do you have access to someone working on the project? Can you confirm the tower has not been abandoned and it is really just ‘internal use’ issues or is it just an assumption? Nobody seems confident this is going ahead particularly with the current housing market. Its the same with the U2 tower.

Ah, all of this is a load of old bollocks, the DDDA, the building proposal, U2 et all….all complete bollocks. Sure the auld bastards will be retired or dead by the time it is ever built, that ‘s if it is ever built. And sure who cares in any way now . Fuck it and the whole lot of them. The final proposal itself looked awful in any way, Very awkward looking pile of shite tarted up with lights and lasers. Looks as if the whole lotta of them were taking the piss really.
Should build 2 storey social housing on it instead, with red brick, pebble dash, tarmcadam drive ways for the beloved automobiles, some trees ( to take the harm out of it and that will be readily broken) and a ubiquitous Spar. Now that would be fucking classy and would sum up the last 15 odd years of the building boom.

Sure it’s not even mentioned on Foster’s website.

http://www.fosterandpartners.com/Projects/ByLocation/Ireland.aspx

Running to a standstill?

Irish Times

Thursday, June 19, 2008Around the block
U2 Tower to be ready by 2011?:

WITH A NUMBER of high-profile public private partnership (PPP) housing regeneration schemes biting the dust of late, tongues have been wagging about the viability of the ambitious U2 Tower in Dublin’s south docklands.

The Dublin Docklands Development Authority’s (DDDA) annual report published yesterday sets 2011 as the completion date for the tower. However, negotiations between the DDDA and development firm Geranger have been on the long-winded side, to put it mildly.

Talks between the two parties began last October and Geranger – a consortium consisting of Seán Mulryans Ballymore Homes, developer Paddy McKillen and U2 band and management members – are still being referred to as “provisional preferred bidder” by the DDDA.

Paul Maloney, chief executive of the DDDA, however, has the end of July as D Day.

The “state of play” (meaning whether the provisional preferred bidder has moved to preferred bidder) will be announced then, according to Maloney. Not a man to be pinned down, Maloney says that “financial, legal and technical” issues were still being hammered out by the two parties.

No doubt there is much to discuss. The tower, due to rise to well over 120 metres, will be the tallest building built in Dublin and by far the most ambitious PPP scheme.

And that’s not to mention the beleaguered residential market and question marks over the feasibility of PPP schemes.

“Naturally we are being exceptionally careful,” says Maloney.

Starchitects Foster + Partners’ plans for the €200 million scheme include a hotel, shops and residential accommodation – 20 per cent of which will be social and affordable.

Referring to the stalled residential market as one of the “hurdles” the authority has to overcome, Maloney insists that it is “committed to ensuring the U2 Tower is built and has taken very significant steps to deliver it”.

Fingers crossed it won’t be a bad case of vertigo!

So the end of July is ‘D day’? Is it going to bite the dust? Me thinks so. 🙁

Well it’s still being redesigned afaik so it’s an ambitious target to have it done by then

yea but we all know how U2 like to hear U2 talk about U2. Who cares anyway the point watchtower is going up anyway. mayb in the future if the DDDA get their act together, they’ll find some serious developers for the site.

Aesthetically it is a dreadful looking building. Its like a deformed alien fish with antennae and a tumour on its head. I hope it crashes (as an idea)

Negotiations put U2 Tower in jeopardy
03 August 2008 By Gavin Daly
The future of the planned U2 Tower in Dublin is uncertain, with negotiations ongoing between the backers of the €200 million project and the Dublin Docklands Development Authority (DDDA).

Geranger, a consortium made up of U2, Ballymore Properties, property developer Paddy McKillen, and architect Norman Foster, was named preferred bidder for the project last October. Paul Maloney, chief executive of the DDDA, said last month that he expected an agreement by the end of July, but no deal has yet been reached on the 130-metre tower.

‘‘Given current market conditions, the DDDA and Geranger Ltd have agreed to extend the negotiation period to allow for further analysis and for design issues relating to the Dodder bridge,” a spokeswoman for the DDDA said last Friday.

The DDDA has refused to comment on the timescale for the negotiations, which focus on financial, legal and technical aspects of the project.

The property market has suffered a dramatic slump since Geranger submitted its proposal for the tower, which would be topped with a pod-shaped recording studio for U2. In its annual report, published last month, the DDDA said the U2 Tower was due to be completed in 2011.

The Watchtower, the 120-metre tower that is part of Harry Crosbie’s Point Village development, is under construction, although architectural sources said that its design had been changed to allocate more floor space to offices rather than apartments.

:/