Tallest office building in the Republic
Architecture in the dublin docklands district
with its rather small skyscrapers.
There are plenty of similarities to Manchester and Liverpool. To see the script, turn on the subtitles! It's been a long time, due to the pandemic, but now finally. I'm going to walk to Terminal 3 for the short, 31-minute flight
We start in the city centre with a panorama of the River Liffey. That's Liberty Hall, built in 1965, once Ireland's tallest building, nearly 60 metres high, 16 storeys. We'll see taller towers in the Docklands but how much taller? The Dublin Docklands district extends to the north and south of the river. There are parallels with Salford Quays and the Liverpool Docks.
The International Financial Services Centre was built in the 1980s, marking the start of the Docklands regeneration. We can see how old industrial structures have been incorporated into new buildings, like this one housing the Famine Museum. Let's cross the river to look at the facades along the north bank. Okay, not promising for fans of tall, striking towers like the ones in Manchester. "Blanditecture" did I hear someone say? But the further we go down the river, the more interesting it gets. The buildings here are mostly four or five storeys high. This is definitely not Chicago on the Irish Sea. We can see a variety of contemporary styles using glass, brick and metal.
Next to the offices of 3 Ireland, new buildings have been built behind old facades. And this old warehouse has been transformed by the addition of a modern glass structure on the top. It's The Tropical Fruit Warehouse. The architects are Henry J. Lyons and it's the first of my eleven buildings of note. I think a plan like this could have worked for Manchester's Hacienda building, but they just knocked it down and built a new residential block. We'll pause to look at the Samuel Beckett Bridge, designed by Santiago Calatrava. It was made in the Netherlands and floated into place in 2009.
We can see the similarity with Manchester's Calatrava footbridge. Now we'll wander away from the river, through new residential streets. It's difficult to believe that up till not so long ago, this area was derelict, contaminated, former industrial land. My second building of note is the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre, designed by Daniel Libeskind. It's a gigantic indoor amphitheatre. Its frontage is made of jagged shards of glass set at crazy angles. It was first opened in 2010. Bord Gáis or Gas Board is a private utility supplying gas and electricity.
The Gas Board once ran a gas works on this site. Later they sold the and, which had to be decontaminated. The neighbouring building, also by Liebeskind, serves as the European HQ of Meta aka Facebook.
The Bord Gáis Energy Theatre is one
Of the most striking buildings in dublin, with an auditorium that's one of the biggest around.
I have an architect friend who dislikes this type of architecture. He says that as the form doesn't follow the function, the design is just for show. He says it's a dishonest, even corrupt form of architecture. Any thoughts? Answers in the comments.
At night it looks equally striking, here seen from the square, designed by Martha Schwarz. She designed Exchange Square in Manchester. On the corner is the Marker Hotel, my third building of note, designed by Portuguese architect. Manuel Aires Mateus. It was opened in 2013 and has a rooftop terrace. Around Grand Canal Dock there are lots more contemporary buildings, a mixture of residential and offices, mostly low rise, but on the opposite side of the dock is another of my buildings of note. We'll return to it again later. Let's walk back along Forbes Street and take another look at the Samuel Beckett bridge, named after the writer who went to my university, Trinity College Dublin.
With its similarity to a harp, it's become a symbol of Ireland. It's also similar to Calatrava's Puente de la Mujer in Buenos Aires. My fourth building of note is also iconic in status. It's the Convention Centre, designed by Irish-born US architect Kevin Roche. It was opened in 2010 and is distinguished by its gigantic glass frontage in the shape of a cylinder. Most of the buildings in the old docklands were knocked down but a few remain, including the Ferryman pub. It and the contemporary glass office building next door are symbolic of the contrast of old and new. As we look along the north bank of the river, we see contemporary styles next to a restored red brick façade, another reminder of the past which has not been demolished.
My fifth building of note is the new home for the Central Bank of Ireland, designed by Henry J Lyons Architects. The background to its construction is tied up with the aftermath of the banking crash of 2008. It opened in 2018. The gold exterior seems appropriate to its use. It's great to see archive photographs of the docks on display by the river, a reminder of the transformation that has taken place in just a few short years. As we move along Sir John Rogerson Quay, we can look across to the 3 Arena on the north side. We'll go there later. Here on the south side, we come to Capital Dock, building of note number six.
It's currently the tallest storeyed building in the Republic of Ireland. Its height is 79 metres or 259 feet. Compare that to the towers of Deansgate Square in Manchester. The tallest is 201 metres. Actually there were plans for a much taller building, the U2 tower.
We'll find out more about that later.
Capital Dock has offices and residences which
Are available for rent.
The top floor is not very high, but the views are still great.
How much is it to rent the penthouse apartment? Have a guess. From here there are wide views across the river and it's from this point that I took my sunrise photo of the docks 40 years ago on one of my first photoshoots. Shots of U2 were taken here too. Here are the old disused locks leading to Grand Canal Docks. We'll cross over and look towards the 3Arena and the Exo building, currently under construction. We'll visit those later. So how much does it cost to rent the penthouse apartment at the top of Capital Dock? 15,000 euro per month. Information from the Capital Dock Residences website.
Capital Dock is tall - by Irish standards. There are taller towers in Belfast but the tallest structures in Dublin are the Poolbeg Chimneys, 207m, built in the 1970s, disused since 2010. They have become potent icons of Dublin, visible from all angles across the city and the bay. Grand Canal Dock is a big wide stretch of water. Once a derelict, polluted no-go area, it now has new buildings on three sides. Only the eastern end remains to be developed. As we move along Hanover Quay, we notice re-use of older industrial buildings, like these brick warehouses. There is a large new façade with converted older buildings on both sides.
Retaining the old side-by-side with the new gives the area character and reminds us of its former use. Fáilte go Duga na Canálach Móire, welcome to Grand Canal Dock. The Irish language has an important cultural role, though not many people speak it, particularly the army of workers from other parts of the world. This corner building, seven storeys high, has an interesting design, recalling art deco architecture. Close to here is Windmill Lane, former home of U2's Windmill studios and the U2 wall, all demolished for new construction. This wall on Hanover Quay has served as a canvas for mural artworks and fan messages. Here we see some famous Irish people: boxer Katie Taylor, writers Samuel Beckett and James Joyce and in the upper right, with the horns, Bono. Sadly this artwork is no longer there.
This is what you'll see today, a jumble of graffiti. Looking east along Hanover Quay, the Poolbeg Chimneys are ever-present. U2 featured them in their "Pride in the Name of Love" article. This is my seventh building of note, the Millennium Tower, another tall ish building, 207 feet, not metres high. 207 feet equates to 63 metres. It was the tallest building in the Republic of Ireland from 1998 to 2009 and was designed by O'Mahoney Pike Architects. The penthouse apartment was recently on the market for 600 000 euro and there's a service charge of 2400 euro a year. I'd love to see the interiors of these high rise apartments and photograph the views.
Any help with this would be appreciated.
And now to my building of note
Number eight, pocket-sized, like one of the clear lego brick towers i made as a child.
It's Alto Vetro, developed by Treasury Holdings and designed by Shay Cleary Architects, 51 metres, 16 storeys, built in 2009. It houses 2 and 3 bedroomed apartments. This Irish skyscraper on an Irish scale is just one eleventh the size of the Willis Tower in Chicago. On the right is the former Monte Vetro also by Treasury Holdings who went bankrupt in 2012. The building was bought by Google and renamed Google Docks, that's D-O-C-K-S. It's their Europe, Middle East and Africa operations centre.
At 67 metres or 220 feet, with 15 storeys, it's the third tallest building in the state and my ninth building of note. Architects: O'Mahony Pike. We'll return to the river now to look at the buildings along the north bank. The Convention centre, PwC offices, the Salesforce building with its geometrical glass façade, the Central Bank, all interesting, intricate, creative, not boring at all, at least that's my opinion. This old façade, the Heysham, is the next one to be incorporated into a new development. Above it will arise offices with spectacular views, which I'd love to photograph. There's no need to destroy the past, as has happened too often in Manchester. Old and new can co-exist.
The cranes, reflected in coloured windows, are evidence of ongoing construction. What is going to appear on this empty site? Keep watching AidanEyewitness to find out. We've reached the end of North Wall Quay and look back towards Liberty Hall, constructed nearly 60 years ago. What a long way Ireland has come since then, though not in terms of building heights. Across the river, the country's tallest building, Capital Dock stands supreme at 79 m. New York's One World Trade Center is equivalent to just under seven Capital. Docks placed one on top of each other. One World Trade Center is 541m or 1776 feet tall.
The controversial and unbuilt U2 tower would have been 120 metres tall, with the group's recording studio housed in a soundproofed 'pod' at the top. The banking crisis of 2008 put a stop to it. The 3 Arena, was adapted from the former goods train depot. Previously it was the Point Depot Theatre or just The Point. Here we see how a new structure has literally been placed on top of the old building, an ingenious amalgamation of old and new that's totally unique: Not bland. Not boring. It's my 10th building of note, dating from 2008 in its present form, architects HOK Sport. My eleventh and final building of note is the Exo Building, currently under construction.
With its steel, blue-painted exoskeleton, it recalls the cranes in the docks below. From the website visualisations, I can see that the views over Dublin are magnificent. You don't need to be hundreds and hundreds of feet in the sky. the best views are often closer to the ground. So is it really necessary to build higher and higher and higher? Dublin Docklands would appear to provide another way. Answers in the comments. The Exo building is 73 m tall, with 17 storeys, and it's the tallest office building in the Republic. We'll take the tram back into the city centre, concluding our visit to Dublin Docklands.