aj

@Jas wrote:

so henrietta street has been left to rot since 1992…….

still no progress 2009.

I walked around Heinretta Street on Saturday and could not believe the condition the street is in.

Surely there has to be a self sustaining / funding use for this street.

@lauder wrote:

Good news. Would be interesting to see some drawings.

are we going to see the replacement of the horrific 6O’S facade?

@jdivision wrote:

Unless they go for a Henrietta Street-style modern interpretation!

dont even get me started about the conservation of Dublins Most importatn set piece!

it would appear not!!!!

ESB competition for world-class redesign of HQ

THE ESB intends to use the opportunity provided by the redevelopment of its head office in Fitzwilliam Street, Dublin, which it announced last week, to create a “world-class example of sustainable and innovative headquarters”.

According to documentation issued last Friday by the ESB, one of the key criteria for a design contest for the new complex will be “the participants’ proposals for a solution to the aspect of the Lower Fitzwilliam Street facade”.

This facade was the most controversial element of the existing headquarters built in 1970 – following an earlier architectural competition won by the late Arthur Gibney and Sam Stephenson – because it meant demolishing 16 Georgian houses.

At the time, conservationists were appalled that Dublin’s longest Georgian facade, from Mount Street to Leeson Street, was to be broken by a modern building fronted by precast concrete window panels and set on a podium.

The ESB brought in Sir John Summerson, a leading English architectural historian, to give his opinion on the merit of the houses to be demolished.

Notoriously, he condemned them as “simply one damned house after another”.

Ten years ago, the ESB gave serious consideration to a plan by Sam Stephenson that would have involved refronting the office block with a Georgian facade as a Millennium project.

However, this proposal was deemed to be problematic due to the floor levels.

In the latest competition, architects are being told to assume that all existing buildings – except protected structures, including No 12 Lower Fitzwilliam Street – “will be demolished to allow the entire site to become available for redevelopment”.

Participants who are shortlisted following the initial qualification stage will be requested to present detailed design proposals for an exemplar sustainable headquarters in the centre of Dublin.

It will comprise a floor area of between 35,000 and 45,000sq metres.

“The proposed designs should demonstrate respect for the surrounding Georgian streetscape and protected structures,” states the contest documentation.

Three winning designs are to be selected.

The competition, which is being held independently of the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland (RIAI), is to be judged by a panel headed by ESB chairman Lochlann Quinn.

It will also include John Redmond, the company secretary and head of corporate affairs.

Others on the jury are Joe Maher, retired ESB director and former chief financial officer; Prof Owen Lewis, an architect and engineer who now heads Sustainable Energy Ireland; and an “international architect/urban designer” yet to be appointed.

The jury’s assessment of submissions will be assisted by a technical panel.

The weightings to be given to different aspects of each submission are 40 per cent for “commerciality and buildability”, including value for money; 40 per cent for “design and aesthetic qualities”; and 20 per cent for “compatibility . . . with [the] receiving environment”.

The top three competition entries will each be awarded a prize of €30,000, and the final decision on the award of “any follow-up contract” is be made by the ESB’s board on the recommendation of the jury.

This will follow negotiations with the shortlisted entrants.

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times

@shaun wrote:

I walked along the back of this building, i.e. Railway street, yesterday and it can only be described as surreal.

I challenge anyone on this site to come up with a better example of urban dereliction from anywhere in Europe.

I walked the whole area between Buckingham street, Summerhill, Gardner street and lets be honest, it’s a massive derelict site, anything new that has been built there is worse than any Georgian slum tenement.

There are no Georgian terraced houses left, bar a few at thee beginning of Gardner street. The few left standing are basically filthy wrecks. Those photos that Tommyt send move me like they have other people.

Precise copies of these houses should have been rebuilt, or else complete restoration. This is not a serious proposition of course. What we are left with is a urben decay and dereliction that would have rivalled the Bronx in the 70’s.

As you go uptown to Hardwicke place and the church there, you will pass one slum street after another. Parnell street is the filthiest street in the world. Go up Hill street and it’s just weird, were there actually Georgian houses where those flats are ?

I have always loved Dublins derelict sites and run-down urban decay feel. But what was done to this part of Dublin is the biggest crimes against architecture and culture ever committed in in the British Isles. Phew, got that of my chest, feels good.

I agree wholeheartly with your comments. The area is an absolute disgrace, as is much of the North Georgian Core.

@johnny21 wrote:

Good photos. ihateawake the building is liam carrolls development. AIB HQ. More renders on architects website. http://www.totarch.ie

its anglo irish banks new HQ, not AIBs Both BOI and AIB are planning on conslidating there back offices on one site. Given the number of permises both are currently in this will require 2 big buildings probably high rise

@gunter wrote:

Anyone?

royal hospital

@GrahamH wrote:

Yes it probably would. There’s a huge coal hole cover outside Morrison Chambers on Nassau Street – one of the biggest Edwardian(ish) office developments in the city – that appears contemporaneous to the building, so it looks like old habits died hard.

Here’s another quick one. I will be very impressed with anyone who gets this – you need to be a snooper of the highest order to know where it is. Then again, it’s in such a surprisingly frequented place that you may just have stumbled upon it one day, should curiousity have gotten the better of you – as in this case.

It’s not in a graveyard or obscure city park…

looks like the entrance to St Michans crypt

@Sloan wrote:

An Bord Pleanala case details for 222271
Demolition of no. 12(a protected structure) and no. 13 Upper Dorset Street and construction of 6 storey mixed use development comprising retail use and 9 apartments and all ancillary works. 12/13 Dorset Street Upper, Dublin 1.
Lodged: 06/03/2007
Party 1: Shane Murphy*()
Party 2: Senator David Norris*(Appellant)
Party 3: An Taisce*(Appellant)
Party 4: St. Saviours Dominican Priory*(Appellant)
Party 5: Aids Fund Housing Project*(Appellant)
EIS: No
Issue Code 1: Protected Structure
Planning Authority: Dublin City Council Reg. Ref.: 6907/06
Case is due to be decided by 09-07-2007

lets all object !

@Paul Clerkin wrote:

From Bethesda to Cinerama
Marc Zimmermann

A number of movie theatres have shaped the cinematic landscape of the city over the past ninety-eight years. They include Dublin’s first dedicated cinema (the VOLTA, 1909), the city’s first purpose-built CinemaScope screen (STATE, ’54), the first twinned venue (SAVOY, ’69) and Ireland’s first multiplex (UCI TALLAGHT, ’90). A further number of both well- and lesser-known venues forms a significant part of the capital’s architectural and social history. One of these was the DORSET. The building it occupied for over seven decades had an unusual life, serving three di-verse purposes over two centuries.

http://ireland.archiseek.com/news/2007/000086.html

heart breaking insnt it!