Yuck!!!

How about the stunningly ugly Rhode power station?

(Picture is a bit small, sorry.)

The tall white bunker in Guinness is very bad indeed, and is one of the tallest buildings in the city to boot.

The ILAC’s due for a re-vamp ain’t it…saw a CG image of it somewhere

Norwich Union building that towers over the Provost’s House on Nassau Street.

Shudder!

I quite like Chatham house.. the only bad thing about it is the treatment at ground level

A few ugly buildings I wouldn’t mind driving a ball and chain into are….(in no particular order) fingal offices and Dublin bus building on o’ Connell street oh yeah and the eircom building and the hotel across the road. The new lime green Suhew(spelling??) building near the bottom of the said street. The airport hotel in santry or is it the skylon?? The EBS building on Westmoreland Street, the matter hospital looks pretty dire as well, most of the buildings in and around the airport….

My gaff!!!

Speaking of Yuck – has anyone seen the replacement for Pelican House on Mespil Road – Bland Bland Bland. Looks like anything you’d find in Sandyford Ind. Est. or Citywest

EBS wouldn’t be so bad if it were symmetrical. The next owners will probably remove the nasty flashing E-B-S.

The 70s block of buildings on South Great George’s Street. The big orange first floor of that discount shop on Talbot Street that looks like the top deck of a bus! (if it’s still there)

The North Earl St bit of Clery’s is yuck – esp compared to the O’Connell St Facade.

I spotted a planning application from Clerys in the paper one day for changes to the North Earl St side of their shop!!!

Prizes must go to that block on South Great Georges Street. It’s not that bad really, but it totally massacres O’Connell Bridge House when it comes to being in completely the wrong bloody place.

I quite like the Clery’s side facade, it works quite well with the contrast between the brown brick and the new white cut stone sign with silver lettering, although yes, it does gauge a massive hole into an essentially uniform and attractive Edwardian street.

All of those ghastly blocks around Tara St, Pearse St etc are all strong contenders, Oisin House and the like…

I’ve renamed my desktop trash bin “an taisce” and have put all your profiles in it.
South Gt. Georges st. is an amazingly butch building – I love it.

butch???

It hulks itself down the street in an unashamedly horizontal manner, just about twists direction and lumbers on to the George … hmm … well when you look behind you see that even on the vulnerable “underbelly” of a street building … it’s hard. No compromising. A building with a thousand hangovers and the Alka Seltzer is out of date…. ahh

The Sth Great Georges Street Buildings (Castle House and Wicklow House I assume) are literally the wrong buildings in the wrong location – they were designed for a site in Leeds and ended up being used over here by the developer – they will be getting a makeover soon I believe to turn the emphasis to verticle rather than horizontal and some other tricks, brick rather than concrete facades etc so watch this space…

Isn’t Georges St Sth getting a makeover? New street lighting and paving etc…

J. Seerski! The George hasn’t much to do with architecture but in a way has a lot to do with butchness of a sort..

Plus my eyesight is perfect thank you

Originally posted by Rory W
they will be getting a makeover soon I believe to turn the emphasis to verticle rather than horizontal and some other tricks, brick rather than concrete facades etc so watch this space…

That would help, their hoizontallity is overwhelming on that street especially because of the downhill slope.

I know this is a bit late but ohmygod what about Ulster Bank on Georges Quay and the mahousive Koolhaas coined ‘Chinese city’ that has belched up behind it, And it looks like its going to get a lot worse for the area with the new tara street station behind! Or maybe it was just a miserable 3D visualisation, doubtful.
Also the plans for Dublins new ghetto of misery; Scottallonwalkers development on Spencer shock! (sorry I couldnt resist). The depression would put Talbot street to shame.

Not exactly architecture but one of the worst / yuck sites for me in this city are the add plastered Dublin Buses, ever see the one for Guinness, now the passengers can sit in what is basically a black plastered moving add including windows !!. Visit London and one sees the Red London Buses here a significient number of the fleet are hideous mobile adds.

yeah ulster bank is bland in the extreme, dont mind budgie warf though, but still would have prefered the SOM scheme proposed for that site …

I think the plans for Tara Street station are fairly impressive and am looking forward to seeing it built (btw anyone know of any plans to start construction)

you’re right about stw’s plans for spencer dock though, more bland boring five story shite 🙁

I’m just back from Glasgow for the Ireland/Scotland friendly…..and what a quaint old city that houses some remarkable old buildings, edifices, features etc… and some awful bloody over sized 60’s monstrisity towers that virtually ruin old established uniformed streetscapes. There are a plethora of Hawkin Houses and ugly concrete concoctions. It has it’s fair share of derliction too….fine old Victorian buildings left to rot….and plenty of those horrible 60’s onwards bunker style car parks.
Wood Quay was a grave mistake but thank god we did’nt get as many as Glasgow.
You can see where they are trying to repair the city now somewhat with the newer developments which use a variety of more materials rather than just plain old weather beaten concrete.

Yeah – Glasgow did suffer more than the rest of the UK when it came to those high rise council jobbies. New stuff there is very impressive though.

I don’t think it’s a defence to say that high rise is cool – once it’s in the docklands – which let’s face it is not really a part of town as most people experience it. That is not to say we need a 50 story block in O’Connell St – but I think we need to face fact that Dublin has to become alot more dense before it reaches Athlone (sic)

exactly, thats why we should be building up in the docklands and leaving the low rise city centre as it is … we can’t afford to cover such a vast tract of land with low rise buildings when dublin is sprawling out left right & centre, and even though high density doesn’t necessarily mean high rise, at the moment in dublin, we have neither.

peter fitzpatrick, budgies are bigger than canaries.

i stand corrected notjim! but am blaming rory w cause he came up with it first! 🙂

..hope you got to see the new Glasgow Science Centre and the Mackintosh Museum…Glasgow has been turned round in the last few years and they have a very convienent circle Metro Line…some great old boosers as well.

Did’nt manage to fit them in …..but went for the tour of Celtic Park the following day. Made me weep for the forsaken Stadium Ireland project and Eircom Park. To think the begrudgers were saying that Dublin did’nt
need so many stadia when you consider that Glasgow has Hampden Park, Celtic Park and Ibrox and Murryfield too in Edinburgh and all are put to full use. They made a mockery of Landsdowne Road to me while over there too ….saying jovially what do you C**ts do with all your money from the EU.
When you consider the ammount of tax we pay too ….there is an element of truth.

..all the EU money has gone west..TB eradication = vets, Jeanie Johnston’s millions, LUAS now heading for 2005 and 1 billion,300 Irish speaking houses = grants and the rest of us having to suffer bilingual signage and forms for so few, tribunals of all types and shapes at least the extension to the National Gallery was planned and comleted largly due to EU funding. Poor Rovers with a half completed ground sitting like an abandoned building site in Tallaght …ah its Monday ..but its so annoying to see the billions generated in such a small country which have gone down the drain and into the pockets of small vested interest groups.

Back to the subject of Yuck… the Bus Worker Union HQ on Middle Abbey Street is my candidate… its the one with the brown smoked glass. Truly vile!

On the subject of Glasgow… it may have its fair share of bunkers but the core centre is full of some really beautiful buildings and the pedestrianisation scheme look great.

As for the EU billions…. they didn’t go into my pocket anyhow… maybe Jackie Healey Rae can enlighten us.

LUAS now heading for 2005

Luas is on target for April 2004, slippage of four months on such a project is not a serious over run … give the luas lads a break, they’re doing a good job !!

I have to put my foot down here, i happen to think that the Ilac center is getting a very hard time and it really doesn’t deserve it. It is an amazing building an undervalued work of art. The really astonishing thing about it is, that a group of blind Architects and designers can get together, come up with a building, spill coffee over it and still manage to get it built! Dear god if anybuilding needs a facefift it does, call in the doctor soon!
BTW. does anybody know who comissioned it?

ILAC is an Irish Life Assurance Company project hence the name..

It was part of a massive Corpo plan in the 80s to, well franky, demolish the entire north west of the inner city. Plans included 2 14 storey office towers, a ‘leisure complex’, a 400,000 sq foot shopping centre, which the ILAC is, well 250,000 sq feet of it, and various other ludicrous schemes that eventually came to nothing.

Luas is on target for April 2004, slippage of four months on such a project is not a serious over run … give the luas lads a break, they’re doing a good job !!

I’ve noticed this attitude by a lot of the people who post on this site. Reading in the Irish Times today, the proposed ‘target’ date for Luas is now June 2004.

I think you are being way too polite. What would then consitiute the lads doing a ‘bad’ job? My definition of a good job would be if it hit one of its many revised finish dates.

I look in amazement at Dundrum bridge – workers working late into the evening to get it finished, obviously upping the cost of the project with overtime rates, for it now to sit there for what might be well more than a year. More criticism is needed – not less!

There’s so many buildings around Dublin I’d like to take the ball and chain out and abolish – not even demolish!

I take your point Zap, any slippage in the schedule at all is not welcome.

But given that joe public is free to lodge an objection against the construction of anything bigger than a garden shed in this country …
… residents in my own area were responsible for delaying construction of the luas along with every other area that it is passing through …
I think they have done quite well to limit the slippage to 6 months.

Our planning laws are part of the problem, its been said loads of times before on this site that we need fast track planning for major public projects but i guess that might just make too much sense.

Seemingly some c**nts in this country have to see the damned thing constructed before they realise how much of a benefit it will be to them.
The National Aquatic Centre opended today to great joy and rapture from the general public…..even the detrator of such benefits for the nation Joe Higgins aka Socialist Workers Party had to bite his tongue and admit it was good.

Ah sure it’ll do rightly.

Its a pity its in the middle of no-where

Oh surely not Zap! According to the national aquatic website
“the site is adjacent to the M50, making it accessible to the entire country, and is also close to rail, airport, and seaports.”
When I can afford a car I’ll give you a lift.

Its a shame I live more or less in the city centre alright………..

Great facility at last but as it has to cope with the whole country…I can see lines awaiting entry and pool gridlock.

I was far from impressed with the colour scheme of the interior of the LUAS. Purple, grey and yellow? I’m aware that the 80s is back, but come on. And to think a dedicated design crew were responsible for this!? I find it quite patronising, a cheap and cheery, happy happy scheme to brighten up the dreary days of the Dublin commuter.

And it will date as quickly as hell. Why couldn’t a more sophisticated scheme be adopted, even the new Dublin buses are miles ahead in that regard.

Saying this, the exteriors are spectacular, all be they predictable, & the vast to-ceiling windows are fantastic.

It’s not even close to being close to a rail link. The nearest commuter station is Castleknock on the Connolly-Maynooth line. It is at least a one mile walk to the Aquatic Centre if not a good bit more. The thing is about as car-oriented as it gets.

PS where did you see the interiors of the Luas

Originally posted by kefu
PS where did you see the interiors of the Luas

They were on display in Merrion Square over a year ago. I remember being there taking photos of them with my boss holding an umbrella over me as it was pissing rain!

Yep, and the first trail run with the public on board (& Seamus Brennan) took place at the weekend on the first completed part of one of the lines.

How about that 4 -storey office block with the black glass windows on the Dodder just across from Angelsea Road? 🙁