Andrew Duffy
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Is the height of 60.8 meters (i.e., taller than liberty hall) the original height or the revised height?
There is such a ridiculous desire by the corporation to chop stories off buildings before granting permission. I suspect that if permission were sought for a 30 storey tower in the docks it would be granted eventually for a 28 storey one – even though the reduction in impact would be next to nothing. The central bank is an old example of the futility of this; it has a huge visual impact on its neighbourhood, and if it had been built to its original 180 feet instead of the 140-odd it is it would have had just the same impact, and probably would have looked better to boot.
right here:
http://www.irish-architecture.com/onsite/tara_street/index.html
The permission was revised to be a pair of stories shorter, but I’m not sure if the models and height given take this into account.
I’m pretty sure Tara Street station has permission. There is a bit about it here.
I kind of like it. It’s not that much taller than the grotesque Hawkins House behind it (which it helps to hide) or the similarly clad and much older O’Connell Bridge House, but it seems to have provoked a lot of ill feeling due to being opposite the Customs House. Liberty Hall is beside the Customs House and looks much worse.
Thanks for the pic. It fits in quite well with the Ulster Bank in front of it; but it does look more like London than Dublin.
There is a small picture of the model here. It looks very unfinished, but you can see the awkwardness of the site by looking at the overhead photo on IOL or OceanFree’s mapping services. It’s also worth looking at the overhead view of Lansdowne to see the development potential of that site.
Apparently Fingal County Council have plans to build a similarly-sized building in Blanchardstown and thus may be interested. Does anyone know if their plan is for a tower or a Citibank-type sprawler?
It could be work for the Fatima Luas station, come to think of it. It seems a bit too far south though.
This could be like the Drumcondra railway station; the station is at ground level but access to the platforms is up a stairs. The platforms don’t extend onto the bridge much, but it wouldn’t be too hard.
Oops! I just realised which Grand Canal crossing you were talking about… The one on the Tallaght line is the unimpressive one.
I pass the construction site for the LUAS crossing of the grand canal every day, and it looks like being just a flat bridge. The canals aren’t really respected as navigable waterways anymore.
As for Ranelagh road, all I can find is the map on the LUAS website. Does anyone living in Ranelagh have an idea on the scale of this bridge?
Dunne’s stores are apparently moving their HQ to that 11-storey tower in the Blanchardstown centre. However they have started work on a building on George’s Street as well, so I don’t know what is going on. The tower is pretty impressive though. The floor plates seem to be really thick giving it a fair height. Anyone know the height of it?
I had no idea Destruction of Dublin was controversial… I have it and Saving The City but not the recent Construction of Dublin. They’re both good reads, but one of my favourite books about the poor modernisation of the city is Lost Dublin by Frederick O’Dwyer… It has a great chapter at the end about buildings that never made it. The 1950’s proposal for the Wood Quay civic offices site would have made any city proud.
Incidentally, has anyone noticed that McDonald’s figure of hate, former city manager Frank Feely, has a regular radio slot on (I think) Radio 1 about Dublin’s history? Irony is a bitter sweet pill.
[This message has been edited by Andrew Duffy (edited 19 March 2002).]
The South Bank Street development looks interesting. It seems designed to compliment the Ringsend chimneys, but that might just be a coincidence. Any guesses at the price of that penthouse?
Is there any easy way to find plans, models and heights of recent and upcoming buildings? For example, there is a very bulky tower nearing completion in the Blanchardstown Centre that I can hardly find mention of anywhere. The planning permission applications would seem to be the obvious place to look, but these are not readily available and hard to search. I’m not an architect, so forgive me if I’ve overlooked an obvious source.
Would a thirty-storey building there not compete with the fairly nearby power station chimneys that are so visible from all over the city? I’m not sure of their height however, and I suppose Zoe’s last effort at Charlotte Quay has turned out quite alright, if a little reminiscent of Belfast.
