Andrew Duffy
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To td, if you come back: I assume you are involved with either the developer or the architect. Any more information, any more pictures?
Good argument. It’s like those terraces where the paint stops exactly halfway around a drainpipe, just at the boundary between two properties. Putting the equivalent 40m up in the air is rather more visible.
Perhaps without the bright colours? I don’t think they have a place on something designed to last for at least fifty years. Those horrible pastel-camouflaged apartment towers (since condemned?) near La Defense in Paris are a case in point.
The building as it stands now is exactly as was on the builders’ plans (roof and all), but rather different to the plans submitted for planning permission.
The building is 25 years old this year. Design work started in 1970 and construction (minus the roof) finished in 1978. I can’t think of a better looking building from that decade anywhere else in Dublin.I’d normally assume it was nonsense, but the planning application has been lodged (5166/03), the architects are serious and Denis O’Brien is the developer. It’s a serious proposal, and I doubt he’ll give up without a fight.
That’s Coolred’s 16 storey proposal? The next planning decision is due by the 3rd. It’s already had a time extension. The next decision for what must be the most extended decision in planning history, the Southbank development (over three years and still no initial decision) is due on the 10th.
1) The surface between the rails depends on whether vehicular traffic is allowed to drive on or cross the rails. For some roads (Middle Abbey St.) a breakdown in the single lane will mean cars will have to drive on the rails to pass; some roads will allow driving along the rails for access only. You can see a great example on Steeven’s Lane; from St. John’s Road there are cobbles, which turn into tarmac in a nice curve out from the hospital. I can imagine idiots trying to race trams along there.
2) I’ve seen the construction process on Parkgate Street since it started, and there are about 20 ducts underneath the rails for services. Besides, I can’t imagine the kind of contractor that fills in a hole in cobbles with tar would be capable of working on a railway line.
Does anyone know the legal position regarding repairs made to roads? The roads around Smithfield, Liffey Street and St. James’s gate look like tarmac patched with cobbles at this stage, but I’ve never seen a bad repair around Grafton Street.
In case you haven’t been down there in a while, work is well underway on the extra storey on Mary Street. It actually looks more like two extra storeys.
I’m not sure about the height of Liberty Hall; it’s normally given as 59.4m but I think that’s from ground to the top of the frilly bit. The above sea level height of 63.4m may include the service shack on top, since the aviation authority need to know the full height rather than structural height.
Incidentally, Tara St will be 63.3m above sea level (lower than Liberty Hall) and 60.8m above ground, implying a ground level of 2.5m. If the ground level at the George’s Quay offices is the same, since they are 62.675m above sea level, the above ground height is 60.175m. My guess of 58.5m is based upon what I can see with my eyes.
I’m not so much a skyscraper fan as an admirer. Anyway:
1) Yes, the station will be redeveloped. It is unlikely that Irish Rail will design another building.
2) Irish architects don’t publish drawings very often:
19 Storey in Ballymun – Pierse Contracting, this has permissionTallaght – Is this Shelbourne Development’s Belgard Square? If so, it was granted permission and an appeal against it was lodged. It’s only 13 residential stories, so it’s probably only about 45m tall
Smithfield – Because of much trouble over the height of the tower in this development (Developers Fusano proposed a 23 storey building), the architects have no rendering of the approved 13 storey tower. http://www.hkr.ie/smithfield_page1.htm
3) John Rogerson’s Quay. This is a 20 storey, 96m tall office buildin with full approval. However, developers Dunloe Ewart sacked chairman Noel Smyth, who championed this building. That, combined with weak office rentals, may kill it.
4) Only some apartment buildings have been designed for Spencer Dock. The area plan allows for a 60m (revised from 100m) building near the Point, several buildings up to 44m around “Station Square” and a building of up to 44m on the National Conference Centre site.
Dublin’s midrise buildings, numbers of stories and structural heights:
Liberty Hall, 17, 59.4m
One George’s Quay Plaza, 14, ~58.5m
Millennium Tower, 17, unknown
Central Bank, 9, 45.4m
O’ Connell Bridge House, 12, 44.2m
Pearse Tower, 16, 41.5m
Connolly Tower, 16, 41.5m
Clarke Tower, 16, 41.5m
MacDonagh Tower, 16, 41.5m
McDermott Tower, 16, 41.5m
Plunkett Tower, 16, 41.5m
Ceannt Tower, 16, 41.5m
Hawkins House, 13, 41.5m
Civic Office, 10, unknown
K Building, 11, unknown
Guinness Storehouse, ~42m
Irish Life Centre, 10, 38.5m
Nurse’s Quarters, St. Vincents, 13, unknown (demolished)
Ardoyne House, 12, unknownHas Dunne Stores then demolished that fine red brick Victorian building here
It’s not the Dunnes supermarket that’s been demolished but a whole row of derlict buildings the other side of the road, to make way for a new headquarters. They decided not to use the tallish building in Blanchardstown for some reason.
The supermarket is a protected structure. It’s part of the South City Markets, isn’t it?
The RPA have a nice new public foyer to their offices on Parkgate Street. It’s right beside my apartment, so I think I’ll drop in every evening on my way home from work and ask “is it finished yet? is it finished yet? is it…”.
By comparison, the completely empty O’Connell Bridge House is kept in immaculate condition – the last window I noticed broken on it was repaired (with identical glass, no less – SIPTU take note) within two days. Who owns this other landmark building?
The future upgrading of Line B to metro is hardly news; it’s been the intention the whole time. The pipe dream map published by the DTO shows Line B as a metro line. It’s obviously engineered to a much higher standard than Line A, with many sections raised above ground.
