Liberty Hall to be Demolished (again?!)
Daragh | October 9, 2009We first wrote about this back in 2006, but it would appear that the story is doing the rounds again, with Liberty Hall owners SIPTU releasing a statement outlining their plans to demolish and rebuild what many consider to be the ugliest building in Dublin (I personally think the Department of Health gives it a good run for it’s money!).
The statement outlines the plans as below:
The new Liberty Hall will consist of a welcoming public entrance area over which there will be 16 storeys of offices and meeting rooms. It will include public and cultural facilities such as a theatre and conference centre as well as a three-storey area above the offices comprising of a major Heritage Centre, focusing on the history of the country’s labour movement, and a Sky Deck which will provide an unprecedented panoramic view of the city.
I personally think that this is a very good thing, and I look forward to returning to Dublin once this has completed. As someone who now lives in a country that wholly embraces high rise development, it’s a shame to see that Dublin still has not had the foresight to grow up, instead of out. This would have been a brilliant opportunity to lead the charge with a forward thinking, real highrise development. I would be interested to hear other peoples thoughts on this.
Finally, the release also contained some artists impressions of what the new development will look like, which I have included below.
Socialism seems to be profitable. I wonder will there be a datcha style apartment for the president.
If the tower block wasn’t owned by SIPTU would it get planning permission? They let the old Liberty Hall turn into a rusting decaying tower of scrap and in 30 years time the new one might well be in the same condition. It drags down the whole area and ruins historic sites like the Customs House. I think we need to go high rise but the location is all wrong. We should be building them out in the docklands.
I like the new building design itself, but it does seem like an awkward location. On the front page of this morning’s Metro, there was a picture of the new design with the current building also pictured in the corner. Amazing contrast.
Why does it has to be a high rising building? Does Dublin need to look like any other city on the planet? Besides, I don’t think that the location is quiet right for a high rising building anyways. Are there no architects with some inovative ideas around in Europe?