Stephen's Green Centre redevelopment

It should have reflected the Georgian city. Not some Disney Paddle Boat.

a tiny tiny number of people make comments on issues and they are mostly those who want to vent and many rarely try and understand reasons behind what they are venting about.

You'll always hear, and the media will elevate, the very miniscule number of people that have an issue in a health service (any - worldwide) yet million and millions of people use those heath services and get brilliant care - but they don't make comments.

Same with this eyesore. It was seen as an appalling design in the 80's. Known as a bad replica of a steamboat or like a nouveau rich couple's extravagant wedding cake. It was pig ugly back then and still is today.

People also reminisce about the dandelion market. A filthy dirty ramshackle group of stalls that literally was created to ensure some life was on the derelict site.

The new design is not great either. Very little imagination, but supremely better than the eyesore that is currently there.

Problem is these serial objectors usually have a habit of blocking critical infrastructure with their nonsense too or leave sites as derelict holes for years.

This is a rare case where the building in question is still in use.

With the exception of the entrance the design is an homage to Georgian architecture..The sides are just a pplain square brown brick building with loads of plain rectangular windows. How much more Georgian can you get.

Anyone know if it's the same architect McManus got for the rugby museum. It looks like the same style ?

l didn’t realise those two were behind the new developments

How do you propose it should have reflected a Georgian city? Presumably not mock Georgian right?

What is wrong with pastiche? Just because it isnt actually of the time period doesnt mean it cant look good as an homage.

Can you provide any example of a modern building designed in a centuries old style, as a homage, that looks good?

Post WW2 many european cities rebuilt cityscapes full of destroyed old buildings in the same style of those built centuries earlier, and they look amazing.

Old town Warsaw is less than 80 years old, but looks like it could be 300+. Its a beautiful place even if the buildings are imitations of those that came before.

Rebuilding cities destroyed in a global war, is very specific architectural undertaking. And fundamentally very different to build a modern building.

Why do you laugh at the word pastiche in relation to architecture? It's been around since the 1800s, and probably common for a good few decades. It only really makes sense in relation to art and architecture - I'd find it strange if it was used in relation to some thing else, like a style of football, or super cars.  A building is either good to look at or it isn't. It's not complicated.

….A building is either good to look at or it isn't. It's not complicated.

Hawkins House wasn't a pastiche. It was also horrific….

Buildings are either (subjectively) good or bad. I'm not sure what you think that means in relation to pastiche?
Hawkins House was terrible in its own right.

It's ironic that you've used it so many times.

Pastiche simply means to imitate or minic a styles and/or blend styles.

Stephens Green Center is riverboat on the outside, French train station on the inside and 80s brick and concrete in various other places.

Kinda works on the inside but it's not a very usuable space. Outside you either love it or hate it.

Kinda struggling to think of Irish shopping centers that look good and work well.

I don't think there's any reason to save the old building. I agree they need to re think the new one.

About six weeks ago. Long time emigrated Dub back for a trek around my old haunts, and oblivious to the redevelopment proposal.

I'd be in the same boat as @Arseboxing : when it was built, I thought the SGC was one of the most interesting new developments in an otherwise architecturally stale Dublin. I really liked it back then - inside and out - and still do … from an "art and design" perspective.

What's struck me over the last couple of decades, though, is that commercially it's the same bland nothingness that you see in almost every other main shopping street in Dublin City Centre these days - Grafton Street, Mary Street, Abbey Street, Henry Street, Moore Street … There's absolutely nothing about any of them that gives off any kind of unique Dublin vibe any more.

In that regard, the proposed new development is completely in keeping with the banal, uninspiring English County Town aesthetic that seems to be favoured by Dublin CC. Everything from the red brick façades, through the cheap concrete pavers to the "classic" black street furniture. And all the major British retailers/telecoms/fast-food chains.

I used to be offended when foreigners I'd cross paths with over here on The Continent would tell me they found Dublin rather boring and opted for, well basically anywhere other than Dublin. Now I find myself in the same boat: the city I spent my first three decades traipsing the streets of is gone, replaced by an overpriced, soul-less "international" retail park. Preserving this one quirky building isn't going to reverse that decline.