GregF

……John is right in a way ……..Besides unfavourable economic factors and neglect from the council, it is down to the types of people who inhabit the buildings that results in either the maintenance or decline of the buildings condition…….Ballymun’s demise suffered from all of the above.
People that have been neglected for years should be educated in the basics of civil urban living to include them in society.

Is’nt the redevelopment in this area of the city of the past 20 years disasterous……..the houses are too suburban as well as the new school just recently built in Sean McDermott street….. There’s an awful looking carpark as well which houses a pub…etc……and as for the appartments….their barracaded to keep the riff raff out…….and all just a few metres from the supposed prime street of Ireland….. O’Connell Street. Gas to think that Gardiner Street was once a fine Georgian street of subtantial houses….pity they had to knock em down as part of the slum clearance……Tony Gregory had a say in it as well as boggers Fianna Fail…aka CJ Haughey.
In hindsight…….it is a great pity our country was always very poor……in a material sense and a mental sense. I dearly hope with the downturn in the economy now that those days of poverty and ignorance do not return.
Thank god for the Europeans …whom we have used as role models.

Thank god……….maybe they are going to build on it and reinstate the street……I remember seeing photos of old of this area before the demolition blight took control. This area looked a bustling part of the city with buildings of substantial height and volume…..now alas it is a dual carriageway……..good to see the riddance of this temporary false infill park…..it attracted the druggies too no doubt.

The Empire State, The Statue of Liberty, Big Ben, The Eiffel tower, The CN tower, The Sydney Opera house, Those two red and white ESB chimneys……….just not in the same league are they…….it’s time I think to build something of substance and significance in architectural terms.

Blain is right………………..look at the photo Notjm ……there is nothing even in the background to note………The grey skies too sums up the docks…….and I bet the stack is a listed structure…….If they were planning to build a similar chimney today no way would it get planning approval because of the height and function too.

But you must remember it is a cityscape and buildings cast shadows…….we don’t get much sunlight either in Ireland……It is crazy to adhere to something so stringent as that…..ie buildings casting shadows ….
I don’t want to see souless windswept dark chasms of streets either…..but one must agree with what already has been said that the Dublin docklands could be of more achitectural significance . It is featureless ….and so bland……….so provincial.

People complain of noise and crowds as in the case of the Temple Bar and Croke Park folk ….they should realise that they are living in a city with all the hustle and buslte it brings …If they don’t like it then they should move out to the countryside or suburbs where they can have their garden barbecues and all the peace they need.

I totally agree with you Blain……..the docks are rubbish, aka mediocre…..The buildings in this part of the city…. aka the capital of Ireland….. especially along the quays as you have said are far too stumpy for the width of the Liffey as it widens…………
The buildings are the same as what you get in sub-urban industrial estates, ie Sandyford, Ballycoolin, etc …………..not metropolitan city scapes…….a typical major Irish f**k up on reflection………….and it’s sad that we may never see in our lifetime Dublin docks looking spectacularly significant….as like what you find in other major cities……..but mediocre, provincial and insignificant….and nobody in the Irish general public cares I suppose…… A culturally ignorant Taoiseach does’nt help either……..Is their no politician in Ireland of the calibre and insight of Mitterand?……A person who stands for high architectural and civic principles…I guess not….bog standards apply across the board…….a pig in a pokery and Haughey was a skullduggerer too as is the case.
It would be good if a firm of barristers with a wordly achitectural insight could sue the DDDA and Scott Tallon Walker for their misconceived and unartistic plans for Dublin City Docks….but that is stuff of fairytales I suppose.

…….and which looks more appealing………..Roches proposal of the NCC I think with it’s glass cylinder

True …………it’s a Victorian masterpiece in it’s own way……maybe then they should consider painting it in brighter colours as like the bridge down Talbot Street instead of drab grey….unless of course that’s the original intended colour.