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I haven’t seen any reference to the awful plastic faced Department of Justice building on St Stephend Green South. It’s a typical 1960’s utilitarian office block with no character whatsoever, and should figure in the list of Dubiln’s most hideous buildings
Interest at street level? Unlike the surrounding Georgian terraces I suppose – they’re a real hoot.
Dublin Georgian architecture is like a vulgarly oversized wild-west cousin of English Georgian and at the end of the day, these were the fortresses of an aggressive colonial regime.
These buildings are valuable as historical artifacts, but the failure of Dubliners to utilise them as anything more than cheap office space shows how at odds they are with a modern democratic society.
Keep them and say “Never Again”!
Well, ‘no-DIT’, it’s interesting you should ask that.
It could be called inflation but, as the architectural recruiting agencies apparently charge 15% of employees salaries, it isn’t really increasing the costs.
The real shortage in the current boom is in skills, both among builders and professionals. With regard to architects, there is an apparent shortage of people with between six and say twelve years’ experience – largely because these people qualified during a recession and a large proportion emigrated. The end result is questionable quality of design/workmanship on many projects under construction.
But the most important thing is money. It’s about time people paid architects properly. Let’s hear it for architects. A great bunch of fellas! Hurrah!
Actually, I saw the worst building in Dublin yesterday on North King Street – a new apartment building opposite the Four Seasons pub.
This really has to be seen to be believed – check it out. Please.
I’m just wondering exactly what the state of play is regarding this proposed development??? Is the planning permission still under discussion?
UnF*(kin9 Believable!
Were do these guys get off?! when do they get punished? More than a rap on the knuckles and ‘there now go make lots of money but don’t let me catch you at that again’..
absolultley dumbfounded..I have’nt been to Dublin for over a year but the building shown in some advertising that came with this weeks AJ looks pretty bad. Connaught House near St. Stephens Green by Arthur Gibney. Is it just as bad in real life ?
I suppose that’s a question for somebody in RIAI however with regard to photos they are probably limited to what they are sent by the architects etc. I also suppose it depends on what tack the mag is taking which brings me on to another topic i’m interested in. Does anyone know of a mag that does an international survey of architecture? I get AJ (too English) RIBA Journal (English equivalent of RIAI Journal though slightly higher quality content?), RIAI journal (RIBA equivalnet etc) AR (International yes but with a particular agenda I can take or leave – if you can take or leave conserving the Earth’s resources :-)) Am I looking for nirvana?
i agree with the praise for tom de paor for the criticism on the concrete house in navan. it was a breath of fresh air in that it was a departue from the bland pleasantries which are usually bestowed on ‘achitecture’ in that magazine the IRish Architect. i also want to vent my spleen on this one. why is this magazine such a load of crap? why , for example, do they always print a wholly inappropriate image on the cover?for example, did anyone see the issue which featured the gate cinema by derek tynan, which is quite a decent building but the front cover shot was of an entirely indistinguishable bit of wall with something stuck to it. why do they always publish such totally boring commercial pap as the last issue ie. the STW industrial stuff, and why oh why can they not get some mor decent writers?
anyone?i think the pair of buildings on mount street which face each other – the bar with a sort of nightclub attached called “howl at the moon”, and the building which i think is by andrej wechert in a pseudo Gerogian style with a vomit of glass cascading from the roof and the oh-so-ironic free-standing granite columns at the the front door -really are the ugliest pair together. how the hell did they get permission for those neon lights all around the bar?
The yokes on Harcourt Road? especially the precast concrete clad tower with the silly additions around the base to ‘improve’ it which McHugh O Cofaigh put on in the last decade
The Dept of Industry building (built 1930s, designed by OPW arhcitects) and the Andrew St Post Office (built late 1940s, also by OPW architects) are beautiful buildings – modernist but with a classical sensibility. I don’t know that there is a ‘name’ for this style, and I think the buildings are all the better for it, lively and dignified at the same time and built fo beautiful materials.
Other buildings from that time you may be familiar with are Rathmines Post Office/various Garda stations (eg Drumcondra with its neighbouring buildings in a similar style).
The other buildings you mention are not civic buildings – they are similar in style but with a more self-conscious ‘stylishness’ given their primary purpose of entertainment. As the style of the day was a watered down deco, that’s what they have too. The full-blooded deco buildings to look at are teh Gas Company on D’Olier St and the former Winstons shop (until recently Rehab’s offices) on the corner of Sth Gt. George’s St and Dame St.Similar buildings are to be found all over Britain and in other (non-fascist) European countries. The fascist regimes just built them bigger on another scale – try walking along the great 1930s Boulevards of Moscow…
I don’t think it’s a shame that the contract went outside the country. On the contrary, it’s time that Ireland went international. Every other European capital has some building or monument which was created by a renowned foreign architect/sculptor/artist. To this end, I am really looking forward to our proposed Calatrava bridge over the Liffey. I really hope that Dublin Corporation have the courage of their convictions and let competition winners build their concepts in the spirit that they were created rather than forcing them to tone down their proposals to suit the Irish sensibilities. Context is the most misused excuse for bad architecture. Let our new monuments just be themselves unashamed of their originality.
I have doubts that the boardwalk will be used at all. Unless an effort is made to let out all stalls and make it a vibrant place it is in danger of being a non event. I also imagine that it will be quite dark and unwelcoming at night.
The problem with allowing a pas is that in theory someone could qualify as an architect without having produced any architecture. Is that not what technical courses are for?
Is that a rhetorical question?:-)
I thought that the criticism of O’Donnell Tuomey house in Navan (Naas?) by ???? in the RIAI journal recently (I don’t have the mag to hand)raised the debate to a higher level than normal.
Thanks John….come up with anything? I’ve just noticed the same stepped facade typology being used for cinemas, little garages etc…interesting v.simple use of Art Deco motif
Kevin Roche shipped a 40ft container full of planning dwgs from the states to Dublin Corporations offices when applying for permission for the Docklands sheme. If this is the easiest way to do things in the days of intranet and web technology then Im Christopher Wren! If you are a developer forking out millions on a project you would expect all of your consultants, regardless of location, to be looking at the latest set of documents. What better way to ensure this (and save a packet in terms of cost and time)than through use of the web? CAD is continually migrating toward the web and will likely be the spur for full web based project collaboration. Presently the construction industry would be lost without CAD and its only really been on the scene in a viable fashion since the early years of this decade. In three years time contractors engineers architects etc will be wondering how they survived before the days of collaborative web and intranet sites. If you want a benchmark watch out for Dublin corporations impending switch to asking for applications on disk(the logical extension being e-mail and on to uploading to corpo ftp site!) If you want an idea of how sophisticated the Irish CAD market is then check out Irelands first live online seminar exclusively devoted to CAD and its future. The seminar will be on Wednesday 26th May at 11am and will be hosted by Paradigms’ John Curry, one of irelands leading CAD consultants. The seminar will be accessible only on http://www.build-online.com
regards
Ronan.Being involved with selling technology to AEC firms in the U.S., I have found Architects to be ready and moderately early adopters of electronic methods. It has been my experience that the rest of the construction industry is considerably less so.
I believe that your idea of providing a central repository for web-based details and specs is very economically viable. Vendors have been shown to be ready to pay to make their products available online to customers. I think the biggest success of the web has been to create a vibrant new advertising medium and anybody who exploits it well (and has the resources to be unprofitable for a few years) will succeed.
Over here, a factor that has contributed enormously to the success of web-based business services is the wider availability of inexpensive bandwidth. I don’t know what the situation in Ireland is, but affordable, high-speed “always-on” internet access has made a big difference to the use of the web as a tool amongst small businesses – such as your typical Architectural firm. I think the construction industry is ready for the electronic library part of the service you are launching but it will take some time to sell the other concepts such as online procurement and tendering. Hopefully, you can use one to finance the propagation of the other.
As a sometimes middleman, I don’t believe web based technology will get rid of all the middlemen in the supply chain. It is certainly a great opportunity for middlemen!
Good luck with your venture.
