notjim
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well to be fair we have beautifull new pavements and new trees are being added to the meridian this week
Of course, if the ramp was on the meridan it would be better; this is supposed to be a service area, putting it on the footpath is the crazy part.
@a boyle wrote:
iconic maybe. But that is not enough of reason to keep . It is really ugly. and it takes away from the custom house . tear it down.
when you say it takes away form the ch, you mean having a tall building here takes away from the ch, presumably that isn’t going to change, persumably they will only tear down liberty hall if they can replace it with something as tall.
i think this is a real shame, the building is pooly maintained, but not ugly, as well as being iconic and interesting, i think its a fine building and it would be even finer if the glass was restored.
so the ramp on o’connell street: they can’t be serious can they? that is the worst idea ever, moving the facade, while regretable, can maybe be justified, but using o’connell street as a back lane?
Yes it was a good article I thought.
It is a huge pity the building was allowed to come further forward; the worst thing to my mind about the building is the view from the AIB side where you can see a huge expanse of blank stone as a backdrop to the finery of the bank, if they had stuck to the original dimensions this wouldn’t have been so jarring.
Article in the times on this topic; substantial quotes from “subscribers” to this site;I assume as one of the only, maybe even the only person to defend this building I would be quoted when the times article eventually appeared, but no! interestingly they got one of the architects to defend it instead, defensively it must be said.
New office near City Hall gets mixed reaction
The design of a modern office building on a prominent site beside City Hall has been generating a lot of comment – much of it negative – among architects, writes Emma Cullinan
Whatever about the Sick and Indigent building next to Dublin Castle, it seems that the new building going up next door is causing indignation in the design fraternity.
The Archiseek website has been abuzz with those who are criticising the building and one of the main comments that crops up is that it lacks a lightness of touch.
It seems that people didn’t see this coming because drawings of the proposed structure showed a lower building while an article about the proposed building quoted city architect Jim Barrett as saying it would be a “small building”.
“The building seems to be the best part of a floor higher than the images of the proposed building, showed,” says Kevin Duff, planning spokesman for An Taisce.
“But it’s not just the height – the building seems to have been pumped up in size all round. This is an important site – with important buildings all around it – and the whole idea was for a low-key insertion. Yet it looks quite clunky.”
Postings on the Archiseek site also complain that it has “been finished with dated materials”, has “crude balconies and cheap doors”, and one subscriber suggests wrapping the building up Jeanne-Claude/Christo-style (artists who wrap buildings).
There are complaints about the temporary-looking staircase facing City Hall, the crane-like gantry, the heavy, defensive- looking base and the shopping centre look of the external polished stone.
The mosaic-clad cupola was said to be a homage to Le Corbusier but one subscriber complains that “the uniform grey tiles make it look like concrete”.
One of the architects, David Mackay of MBM Arquitectes, based in Barcelona, says that, yes, the building did increase in height during the planning process but that he feels that scale hasn’t been compromised. “In our first ideas we were designing more for alignment with neighbouring buildings but because of regulations it’s a little bit higher. That doesn’t upset the proportions, though.”
He agrees with the critics that this was a sensitive site and he says that he has addressed that. “We were asked to design a new urban space, next to where there were municipal gardens, on the occasion of the restoration of City Hall.
“We wanted to relate the building to the City Hall and to the Victorian AIB bank – which is a very fine building.
“Our building relates to the copper-clad dome on City Hall and our half dome in silver was intended to mask the chimneys of the building next door.
“We introduced two windows per floor because the floor-to-ceiling span of the neighbouring buildings are higher than the modern one. To avoid awkward joining we’ve confused the space facing the entrance to the castle.”
While critics say that polished stone is rather heavy, Mackay says that it was chosen to reflect the surrounding buildings.
“We had originally wanted to use stone with a glass facing but that proved too expensive and too new to use without the guarantees [new regulations require building materials to come with a guarantee of longevity] so we used highly polished stone that reflects the two pieces of architecture on either side.”
Critics are worried that the building will detract from Dublin Castle, but Mackay says that his new urban space actually reveals parts of the historic complex.
“Our idea with the square itself was to disclose the castle and the very fine 18th century office. Dublin Castle is so significant and yet you are not aware of it from Dame Street and Temple Bar.”
Mackay, whose grandfather came from Mitchelstown and worked near the City Hall, also wanted to continue the flow of Temple Bar southwards.
“We were concerned that Temple Bar was like an island in the middle of Dublin city. The new bridge carried the vitality of Temple Bar over to the northside and we felt it should go south.”
The main idea, he says, was to create a public space and the building came second, as a screen against an exposed party wall and to hide chimneys.
The lightest touch in the building is the glass facing north on to Dame Street. “It is a very small building which means that the offices are not very deep so we wanted large windows,” says Mackay. “Because these windows face north there’s not a problem with the sun but there is noise and pollution so we opted for a double fa
So after reading all of this I expected to hate this building, but not at all, I can see that it might of done more for its setting and the blank side elevation on the college green side looks poor against the bank when viewed from college green . . . but I love the drama of building, the way it fits so awkwardly into the site, the funny angles, the wierd half cupola and the odd slanted windows below and then the gantry. its like an explosion or a joke or something, kind of cool i thought.
It was like a small detached house, you mostly noticed it because it was a bit akward getting past it, particularily if you were pushing a pram; the pavement narrowed and had a rail.
TCD must be wetting themselves with such a tall building opposate their Enterprise Centre.
asmodeus; who said airports aren’t ment to be gorgeous, there are all sorts of stategic reasons to make them attractive and these days many of them are, also, their beauty often follows from their function; the need for a transparent articulation of flow can be best achieved in a elegant, airy building.
can you list the buildings that are meant to be gorgeous and the ones that aren’t.
Howth, particulaily from the street side, is very attractive.
I also notice no Luas stations have been nominated, can I suggest “Abbey St” for its stripped down functional charm.
Of course, the worst Luas is easy: why doesn’t Stephen’s have a central platform for entraining? (or should that be entraming?)
this obsession with the european cup makes no sense to me; from a tourism point of view one off events only make sense if they have a branding role; what good will come of trying to brand ireland as a soccer destination, these people aren’t going to come back to see bohemians v’s whatever in dalymount.
as a disclaimer i should say that i find soccer really fucking boring because it doesn’t involve either dogs, horses or people running around an oval track.
from the times:
Lansdowne stadium gets planning permission
Last updated: 31-07-06, 19:37The redevelopment of Lansdowne Road into a 50,000 all-seater stadium was given a further green light today after the project was granted planning permission by Dublin City Council.
Work on the €365 million project, funded by the IRFU, the FAI and the Government, is scheduled to start in January of next year with the stadium due to be completed within 27 months.
Welcoming today’s announcement, Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism John O’Donoghue said: “I see this as an important milestone in the realisation of this exciting project which is progressing very much on schedule.
“I join with the IRFU and FAI in looking forward to a bright future in a great new sports stadium. This is a good day for Irish sport. “
Earlier this year, Dublin City Council had requested further information on 43 points while an impasse between the IRFU and Wanderers, one of the tenant clubs at the venue, had cast doubt of the timetable of the redevelopment.
However, the Lansdowne Road Stadium Development Company have repeatedly stressed the project remains on schedule.
Rugby and soccer internationals will be hosted at Croke Park next year with France set to face Ireland in the Six Nations on Sunday, February 11th.
where does it say anything about cutting down trees in the GoR? i love this report, its so clever and ambitious.
so following this one thing i thought abou myself is a cabinet of curiousities in the old fashioned sense, in short all the musuems and galleries etc get a little space and contribute a few items, a dinosaur, a stuffed lion, some old pictures, some new ones, the most recent venice bienniele, a small bat house, something scientific from the universities, an old tram, nelsons head, a tank of jelly fish, some irish books, some asian etc along with some learned narritive and a fine cafe and shop. it would be kind of cool and kind of unique.
Furniture and household goods shop, its a real waste in my view; now fallon and byrne i’d be more happy with, their place is great.
haven’t been to bath houses in either hungary or iceland, but i know the ingres painting of a turkish bath and sure, that would be great.
how about some dinosuars, they are actually pretty cheap because they are mostly plaster anyway. the nhm has a substantial undisplayed collections – don’t touch the nhm and have nmh II in the stack house.
a boyle: I don’t think we can bank on the national gallery collection having substantial depth beyond what is on display, maybe you know better but it seems to me that they have all the good pictures hanging, they have great pictures, but you didn’t get the feeling of treasures being unveiled when the extension was opened, instead there was a slightly disappointing process of adding more honest attributions.
i was surprised when the chamber of commerce came out a few weeks ago and said we needed to put more pictures on display to make dublin more of a cultural capital, i mean great and i am glad they think so but i don’t think there are lots of undisplayed pictures in the ngi collection (good to see that magner is loaning a modgaliani and the portrait of omai he loaned looks brilliant, maybe there are more good pictures in private hands that will slowly move into public display).
What we don’t have, but exists in public collections, is a comprehensive display of the really great art produced here in the 70s, but that isn’t going to bring in punters on its own, it would really be best done as part of an expansion of the imma. what we really don’t have, in public or private hands is a substantial collection of art from 1850-1950, that’s what people like most but it is hard to see where we will get that now.
the science museum was the best idea, they do great business and address a big need in this city. The modern art gallery idea was a place to display the scullys but they are now in the hugh lane and looking really beautifull.
lifting the bed of the dock was stupid idea, said so at the time.
