BTH
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One other proposal I spotted whilst in the planning office for nearby (top of Flood St. just off the site model above). Its for a site currently being excavated. I believe it’s offices and retail although there was talk in the past of a “Vicar St.” style venue at this location. Looks to be a bit more slick than the usual Galway Developer dross. It was refused in favour of an earlier more standard proposal but is being appealed to ABP – I hope it gets passed.
Forgive the poor image quality – photographed from a computer screen…
Designers: Sean Dockry & Assoc.
3d’s: ProVizAt last, the possibility of a genuinely exciting building for Galway. Fair play to the City council – Here’s their proposal for a new arthouse cinema close to the City Museum. Designed by Tom dePaor, the scheme is currently on public display in City Hall. Personally I think it’s a beauty. Exactly what I meant above when I was talking about architects havein a feel for a place. The “tower house” idiom works so well in this context and the interiors, with all those cascading staircases, would be fantastically exciting…. Sorry images are a bit huge!
The top floor auditorium looks particularly fantastic. I have one misgiving – and it’s the location. Right on the edge of the busiest through road in Galway City. If they really want this area to become a vibrant cultural quarter as the council are pushing, this road will need to be severely calmed and a good landscaping scheme put in place. At the moment cars either whizz past here at high speed or sit stuck in interminable traffic jams. Not really the most pleasant or relaxing environment to go for a cultural experience… Still, loving the design. Looks like dePaor is finally breaking through to the bigger stage…
Wow, how many different facade treatments can you fit on a single tower? A LOT by the looks of it… They have ruined what could have been a reasonably elegant building. Same thing happened to the “stump” in Athlone – a couple of different glazing systems and acres of cheap white cladding… It’s a total eyesore. Then they put a “spire” on top that is basically a stump on top of a stump! Really, the only way these medium to high rise buildings work is by keeping them really simple and elemental in terms of shape and proportions – Just like county hall in Cork. Of course it’s beauty is in the details when you get up close but from a distance its just a really elegant prism.
@gunter wrote:
I imagine that the externals weren’t the priority on the Point anyway, but did they have to go for the aesthetics of a loaded container ship?
That’s exactly what it looks like alright. I’d have hopes that the lighting scheme will add a bit of drama to the proceedings but Id have preferred something a lot more simple and elegant in architectural terms – think the new layers on top of Tate Modern, not the trendy randomized effect that dosent seem to relate in any way to the proportions of the old facades.
And now that you mention it, losing the gables and levelling off the top of the existing structures would make a world of difference to the overall effect. No doubt though keeping as much of the existing structures as possible was a pre-requisite to get over the preservation lobby… I actually think that the glazed facade should maybe have come down and layered OVER the flanking rubble stone wall, with an in -between zone that would have been fantastic for lobbys, bars, restaurants etc. and the historic stone wall as a dramatic internal feature. The side elevation – probably the most seen of all – is a bit flat and dull in the scheme under construction – nice original arched windows granted but the overall composition with the big glass box hovering overhead is pretty clumsy.
The Point Has to be open by the end of this year – I recall reading that there are already major acts lined up to give it a major relaunch so their dates are not likely to flex with changes to building schedules etc. All publicity including the site selling “premium seats” says “opening in 2008” also.
So yes Eurovision 2009 WILL in fact be in the Point…;)
I have to say, I can’t wait for it to open. It’s apparently the only arena type venue in Europe designed specifically for concerts. The much lauded O2 inside the dome in London, by the same design team, is compromised by having the typical long basketball court configuration whereas the Point will have a much squarer plan meaning more of the audience will be sitting facing and in closer proximity to the stage. Fair play to Crosbie for having such vision – with the Point and the new Grand Canal Theatre suddenly Dublin will have two world class cultural venues. Im not a huge fan of the externals of either scheme but from what I can tell both will have superb facilities and interiors.
I have to say I sort of agree! Pre renovation it was pretty horrific but I did like the old quarry tiled floor and the simplicity of the big monopitch glazed roof. And at least there was SOMETHING in the central mall area – not the current big nothing. I actually find walking through the place quite unsettling – all that pristine white and grey contrasted with the utterly crap shop units in their shades of beige and brown…. I guess itll all change eventually but the new Arnotts scheme is surely going to pull the lions share of the more high-brow retailers that could bring the ILAC up to standard.
Oh on another note – the exterior of the H&M and main entrance area is looking so dated and shoddy already. What were they thinking?Looks like they are piling – probably to put a big sculpture or something there in the central mall. The place would need something to liven it up!! Soulless is not the word….
Should add that the McDonagh’s building on Merchant’s Road has a wonderfully restored original interior as well (apart from a nasty laminate timber floor that’s pretty shoddy looking. The previous tenants were a furniture store but they painted the exterior a really unfortnuate peach colour. It was originally white and looked great. It’s currently lying empty – used as a hugely impressive box office for Galway Arts Festival last year with a great display of photos from festivals gone by. I believe, and I may be wrong, that it’s now owned by developer extraordinaire Gerry Barrett (aka Edward) so I’d have high hopes that whatever it’s future use the fabric and character of the building will be well respected. It’d make a great gallery space or i’ve even imagined it as a really chilled bar/restaurant/venue. In the daytime the quality of light inside is wonderful.
Theres a couple more buildings not mentioned yet that I’d see as being in the “Deco” style – the old Silke’s warehouse near Dominic St. is a lovely building and could really do with some TLC. Seapoint in Salthill also has echoes of the style and by all accounts has a wonderful old dance hall on the upper floors – I havent seen it myself but Id assume it’d have a fairly streamlined deco type interior. It’s yet another building in Galway that’s underutilized though. Id love to see big gigs and events back there but apparently the lack of wheelchair accessibility has the place lying empty.
Heres a few images of the concert hall proposal – I realize that they were probably fairly rushed (as these feasability/proposal things tend to be). I just personally think the design approach is all wrong for the site… Having the main entrance and foyers tucked in towards the cathedral is only one mistake I could identify. The main approach from the city needs to be along the river. Anyway, see what you think…
Who’s bright idea was it to get Anthony Reddy’s to do the concert hall design design…. It’s an absolute and utter shocker – just what Galway dosen’t need – something fussy, flashy and “Iconic” parachuted in. This beautiful site needs something more subtle and controlled – the location is spectacular enough. If this ambitious scheme (which is badly badly needed for the city) is to go ahead then an international design competition would have to be a part of it – and hopefully someone who has some sort of understading and feeling for the city will actually win it…
The other two schemes are also needed badly, but they will happen eventually as the city develops. Ardaun is a great opportunity and double lines as far as Athenry are going to be absolutely essential – especially when the western rail corridor eventually opens up. i just hope that Galway gets the funding for the concert hall as it’s definitely fallen well behind other parts of the country in terms of facilities. With a proper concert hall, an art gallery, art house cinema and a new theatre and venue to replace the pleasant but rather inadequate Town Hall, Galway could really sell itself as a cultural destination all year round, not just during festival time. Thankfully there finally seems to be a move on to actually provide this arts infrastructure that is so badly needed.
An Taisce are dead right to be questioning the Fleet Street scheme. It’s clearly too high for the immediate area it will impact on the Bank of Ireland, popping up over it’s parapet when viewed from Nassau St./Grafton St. corner, it will impact on views from across the river, looming up over the quays – plus it’s design, whilst looking wonderfully shiny and trendy with all it’s staggered windows and suchlike, will look very much of it’s time in a few years…
As for An Taisce in general, sometimes they make mistakes, sometimes they can be hijacked by cranks and people with other agendas, but they are working for the good of the built environment in this country. Noone else is doing it so I believe thay are providing an important service. If some people on this board had their way it seems that anything shiny and flashy and new would be waved ahead, no matter what impact it would have on it’s surroundings.I don’t know about the practicalities of the place but in my opinion it has to qualify as possibly the ugliest, most unwelcoming developments of it’s type that I’ve ever seen. A collection of bog standard silver boxes would be more visually pleasing than what we’ve ended up with. And the worst thing is that it’s obvious a huge amount of design, fine detailing and expense has been gone to to make it. I really think the black stained timber was a huge mistake and the signage is perhaps the tackiest i’ve ever seen – the huge yellow BRIARHILL is truly vile – even the typeface is awful.
Anyway rant over – I do appreciate that a lot of architectural thought and effort has gone into the building but the end result to my eyes is a bit of a disaster…My god – that Hadid proposal is shockingly bad to my eyes, lumpy, bulky and completely lacking in elegance… Then again I think the Foster proposal is great! No accounting for taste eh?Actually I have one qualm – I think it would be better if it wasn’t leaning outwards towards the river, instead rising straight upwards – as Graham says it gives it a directionality as if it’s leaning to acknowlege or point towards something – which it isn’t. I actually disagree that the building is presenting it’s “gables” to the city – to me the main elevations are the sculptural ones with the potentially very interesting cladding design….
Yes, Fosters have an office above Habitat…
Personally I really like the new scheme, much more distinctive and dynamic than the stumpy twisting tower. This will have real presence and will certainly put the deadly dull “watchtower” across the river to shame. Great to hear that the developers arent trying to squirm out of their responsibilities to provide social and affordable units – apparently 30 or more will be included in the development according to a story in this evening’s herald.
The structural fins in the DMOD office building on the square are covered in a “dichroic” film which has the effect of reflecting and transmitting complementary halves of the spectrum of light, creating constantly changing fields of colour from different angles. The main glass facade uses standard solar glazing on the wide panels and a low reflectivity glass on the narrow bands. It’s a very effective combination and it transforms a fairly standard curtain walled office block into something a little bit ethereal and dynamic…
Those are exactly the kind of images I was thinking of alright – I can just imagine how miserable and overshadowed the arnotts plaza will actually be considering that buildings rise to about 8 storeys to the south of it… And the general architectural language really reminds of the sort of soulless postwar stuff that litters British high streets… A few trendy motifs and elements repeated over and over again – in this case the studied “randomness” which seems to stand in for any sort of grace or elegance in elevations at the moment.
The Arnotts facade to the square is particularly awful and hopefully will be re-considered in the further information. Why squander the opportunity to give the shop a meaningful presence to the square and back down to O’Connell St. It should be vertically emphasized and powerful instead of the sub-roches stores glassy horizontals with a few slits thrown in. There’s a total over-reliance on the signage to give it any sort of presence or meaning. And the mess of housing plonked on top… Surely theres some way of at least making them look like elements of the same building rather than two completely conflicting ideas rammed together…
Anyway, enough ranting! I think the scheme has wonderful potential. However the current proposals on show look woeful. The elevations make the 90’s interventions along Liffey St. and Abbey St. look positively classy – at least the designers there seemed to have some sort of eye for rhythm and proportion…Sorry to say but the image of the square looks a little bit like a 60’s shopping precinct in a British New Town like Stevenage or somewhere, just blown up to city scale. The Arnotts facade isn’t great, mainly because of the apartments overhead which break up the scale of the building far too much, but also because the blue element basically cheapens the whole look of the image. This elevation should really be much more monumental and capable of forming a strong vista stop to the Princes St. Route.
Also, the only other example of an external escalator/travelator I can think of in Ireland is the one at the old Dundrum shopping centre, currently rusting away. I never saw it working and I can’t see the ones on the left of the image being hugely practical in our lovely wet climate!
However, nit-picking aside I think the proposals are funndamentally sound based on the information here, and I’m hoping to have a closer look at the plans soon. The idea of a paralell shopping hub to Henry St, but feeding into it will give a fantastic critical commercial mass to this part of O’Connell St which can hopefully be replicated further up on the “Millennium Mall” site…
I do wonder though, should they have bitten the bullet and proposed a roof over the square… I’m thinking Sony Centre in Berlin where the roof becomes an architectural and tourist sight in itself…
Anyway, First impressions are reasonably good, let’s hope that it comes to fruition sooner than later!@shadow wrote:
BTH, way off beam, you don’t have to be an initiate to “understand” or “appreciate” the finer aspects of architecture. This building is far from being the epitome of Architecture with a big A unless A stands for Attitude or possibly Ambition. However with every Ambition there must be the means by which this might be attained or at least attempted. Too much of this building looks like it wasn’t even on the radar let alone in the office. In case there is a response, yes I have seen it, up close inside and out……
@Bren88 wrote:
johniwhite, correct me if i am wrong, but some of your comments suggest that you have not seen this building outside of photos. I suggest you do as they do not do it justice. You asked if architects care about the inside of buildings, have you seen the inside of this one. And its not just a slanty box. Go and have a look for yourself, walk around it. You’ll probably still hate it, but you’ll have a better reason
Bren, this is exactly what I meant in my previous comment. I’m definitely not suggesting that an understanding of radical architecture is elitist or only open to people with architectural backgrounds. All I was saying is that I have a big problem with people severely criticizing a building that they have not even seen in the flesh. Obviously in shadow’s case his opinion is well considered and backed up with actual experience of the building. I don’t agree with his assessment of it’s merits but I respect his views!
