What’s up docks?
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surely cafe stalls would be swamped with all the offices around there, keep em we don’t need more windsweptness
@CM00 wrote:
it’s just yuppie housing, visible in the Soulless, Yuppie filled, wind swept developments which have sprung up all over the North and South of Britain: Liverpool, Leeds, Manchester, et al.
I would like to add that I feel the North Docklands have been quite successfull and I’m not for one moment suggesting that the docklands should be low rise. I just feel that DDDA have compromised. They have neither produced an outstanding design or vision. Or retained any of the “feel” of the area. They have bulldozed a lot of history and replaced it with a lot of what passes for suburban housing on the continent. A series of gated, self contained blocks, with little or no hope of community.
Yes but all is not lost . I am pinning my hopes on this new arts center (note not the abbey / no no not the abbey). I thinks if schawtz personnally oversees the square to her satisfaction , and yer man with the glasses gets the abbey right (sorry no arts center ) it could really bring the whole thing it to focus. Currently the building to the left of the square is pretty much finished . I think i can safely say it is the best building in the docklands so far . It has some kind of glass which gives the whole front a different colour depending which angle you look at it. It is really a very good office block (no photos sorry)
If this turns into a disapointment then cm00 is right the whole exercise will be a failure over all, and the docklands will remain a sterile yuppie sleepover with no life at all.
@CM00 wrote:
Although until recently, there was a delightful traveller camp there.
Still there on Britain Quay, connecting the extreme east ends of Sir John Rogerson’s and Hanover Quays. I cycled right through it the other day- met some kids from the Ringsend flats across the lock who were looking to get their horses back. So not all ‘just yuppie housing’, at least not yet.:)
Thinking about the boardwalk idea some more – even just a 100m stretch at these warehouses – I think it could really work.
I love it when the bike side and the conservation side of my brain don’t fight.;)I think something should be done with them – even just opening them up and placing 6/7 stallsin each for food vendors… hot dogs and the like….
As I have always said the Dublin Docks is really a missed opportunity. It could have been more spectacular in many ways. It was a blank canvas to start with. What a no-no now. Whats to redeem it in some ways still remain on paper or are still concepts floating about. Hardly a great advertisment for the Celtic Tiger. Business folk and suits from abroad attending the IFSC lauugh no doubt at the toy town boxes. Mean-arsed architecture morelike.
if they are to be kept, any boardwalk to accommodate pedestrians should run from sean o’casey to beckett bridge – a crescent shaped thing at that point would look tacked on, particularly on this straight stretch of quay wall…
Not sure about them myself, i’d probably get rid of them given their location, would like to keep them if there was more space.
Originally posted by GregF
As I have always said the Dublin Docks is really a missed opportunity. It could have been more spectacular in many ways. It was a blank canvas to start with. What a no-no now. Whats to redeem it in some ways still remain on paper or are still concepts floating about. Hardly a great advertisment for the Celtic Tiger. Business folk and suits from abroad attending the IFSC lauugh no doubt at the toy town boxes. Mean-arsed architecture morelike.In may ways we are a wealthly country with the mentality of a poor one. We are not there yet, but we are getting there. When U2 Tower and Point Village, Spencer Dock projects like the Convention Centre, Sam Beckett Bridge, and Grand Canal Square are built, then things will look better. By then we will have evolved to a wealthly country with the mentality of a rich one, hopefully. Maybe.
ctesiphon wrote:Still there on Britain Quay, connecting the extreme east ends of Sir John Rogerson’s and Hanover Quays. I cycled right through it the other day- met some kids from the Ringsend flats across the lock who were looking to get their horses back. So not all ‘just yuppie housing’, at least not yet.:)Thinking about the boardwalk idea some more – even just a 100m stretch at these warehouses – I think it could really work.
I love it when the bike side and the conservation side of my brain don’t fight.]If you built a stretch of board walk around the back of those buildings it would become a haven for the types who currently destroy the amenity up on Eden Quay. With the building as shelter behind them that strech of board walk would become a complete no go zone. There’s already often a group of day time drinkers at the city side of the warehouses. I’ve walked up the north quays only to observe female members of the troop half way down the stone steps urinating in to the Liffey. The idea of turning them in to some sort of arcade of shops is just not going to happen as they are pinned between a busy road and the river. About all you could do with them is hollow them out and put in a glass roof. But to be honest, I can just see the people who would use it most already.
@Rusty Cogs wrote:
If you built a stretch of board walk around the back of those buildings it would become a haven for the types who currently destroy the amenity up on Eden Quay. With the building as shelter behind them that strech of board walk would become a complete no go zone. There’s already often a group of day time drinkers at the city side of the warehouses. I’ve walked up the north quays only to observe female members of the troop half way down the stone steps urinating in to the Liffey. The idea of turning them in to some sort of arcade of shops is just not going to happen as they are pinned between a busy road and the river. About all you could do with them is hollow them out and put in a glass roof. But to be honest, I can just see the people who would use it most already.
where do people from the offices gather to sit out side to have lunch on a day like today?
@a boyle wrote:
Yes but all is not lost . I am pinning my hopes on this new arts center (note not the abbey / no no not the abbey). I thinks if schawtz personnally oversees the square to her satisfaction , and yer man with the glasses gets the abbey right (sorry no arts center ) it could really bring the whole thing it to focus. Currently the building to the left of the square is pretty much finished . I think i can safely say it is the best building in the docklands so far . It has some kind of glass which gives the whole front a different colour depending which angle you look at it. It is really a very good office block (no photos sorry)
If this turns into a disapointment then cm00 is right the whole exercise will be a failure over all, and the docklands will remain a sterile yuppie sleepover with no life at all.
Yeah, i was down there the other day, and was thinking how nice all those ‘yuppie’ apartments looked in blazing sun. I had never realised that Schwartz’s scheme had started construction (sorry no pics). The first of the metal uprights for the red poles were up, in one of the middle sections.
Personally, i think that its going to be an amazing space in 4/5 years time, with the potentially impressive libeskind performing arts center and the new hotel beside. I’m looking forward to seeing it finished
The blue glass was very cool on the building to the left.
Right, I was down there this evening and took a pile of photos, It does look a lot better in the sun and I do feel better about the developments as they’re nearing completion. I maintain that the campshires should be better managed and will upload some photos, Including the Travellers! :p bit by bit. Here is a taster anyway. The blue building on the left, and the red “needles” which are tacky and cool at the same time
The new roadways/laneways connecting the riverside to the canal dock are all super bland to, even down to the trees planted,… birches, i know they’re native and all but they’re just so scandinavian, winter, cold, bleak. There’s no warmth to the place , no joy, no eccentricity, no lushness. Everything seems to be sharp angles and shiny glass, so completely souless.
Doesn’t look like there’s any retail units gonna be opening up down there either apart from the three on the canal dock, just offices and sterile living environments.was that you on the bike CM00this evening??
Does anyone else think the new bridge on the docks will spoil the view ??
yes . we .don’t use the liffery , we bridge it.
the particular bridge is very beautiful by all accounts , but we seem to have far too many. i would hack off butt bridge . it doesn’t do anything.
Are the poles in your shots the red poles with wrapping at the base CM00?
Dimensions look different to the test pole if they are ?? haven’t been down there in ages … thanks for the pics.I think that red pole which people think is a test pole is something different. It would seem that they tried to test out red paving around it, but I think the new ones were always to be a different design to this one.
I must admit that I was suprised to see how quickly this was going ahead the other day when I walked past.
By the way, nice images CM00. There has been lovely light over the last few evenings.
i suspect the poles will turn out the same as the single one already in place. I think what has been screwed in place already are the lower stems. I suspect that an upper part will be placed on top of each stick , that way they can get at the bulbs when they eventually break!!
It is nice to see this going ahead so quickly.
There was a discussion which ended on another thread where someone asked if they could name ten new buildings of quality , it is such a shame that following years of building in the ifsc we have nothing of note , and are hoping that this center revives things. The original ifsc buildings are probably the best , and certainly finish off beresford place quite nicely, i don’t think anybody will be writting about this decade kindly.
dead right a boyle, the original bkd building has aged pretty well whereas some of the new stuff lining the quays already looks dated and is jut not worthy of a new city centre space … hopefully the few major projects left will lift the area.
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