Best and worst designed buildings in Ireland

i dont think ireland really has that many big stand alone buildings etc that stand out as ugly simply because to be really ugly it must be really big or in a very prominent place. Most of the ugly development has been the hap hazourd industrial development on the outskirts of towns, or big warehouses and units plonked in the middle of the country, really the ugliness stems from in appropriate planning rather than from bad design of individual buildings
 
The Northside Shopping Centre in Coolock,it hurts my eyes to look at it,an obscenity on the landscape.
 
Croke Park may well be the best designed building in the country, with excellent views, ease of access, egress etc.

Thomond Park is another candidate, it looks very good but I've never been inside it.

I'd consider Terminal Two in Dublin Airport to be one of the worst designed buildings. For a new building, it's missing many of the basic facilities that are taken for granted in Terminal One, eg its extremely difficult to access non-DAA buses from T2. And every time I've been there, the check-in areas are cramped and stuffy.
 
T McGibney said:
I'd consider Terminal Two in Dublin Airport to be one of the worst designed buildings .. check-in areas are cramped and stuffy.
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I've been there once and can't understand why one would think that of the check-in area.

And the availability of non-DAA buses is hardly a building design issue. More likely to be a DAA policy issue ?
 
TarfHead said:
I've been there once and can't understand why one would think that of the check-in area.
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We must have been there at different times. When its busy, its almost as cramped as Terminal 1. And its too hot. And it is a maze of escalators and stairs, both before and after security. Certainly not worth the gazillions they spent on it.

TarfHead said:
And the availability of non-DAA buses is hardly a building design issue. More likely to be a DAA policy issue ?
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Forcing customers to walk in the rain to the main car parks and the coach/bus area is the essence of poor design.
 
Limerick:

The bad - all that 1980's brown brick like the old Dunnes on Sarsfield street and that block, Henry Street Garda station, a lot of UL, the Parkway. UL student residences with timber cladding - washed out grey already. Sarsfield House (another version of Hawkins). Dark greybrick building on Dock Road - opposite Steamboat Quay apartments.

#1 vote for worst building in Limerick, nay the country, goes to the Eircom building on Roches Street - I saw a guy being dragged out of a Lada in there for interrogation - I jest but that's the emoption it invokes.

The good - Thomond Park (only iconic modern building in the city - ignoring the 'Toxic Tower' (Riverpoint) which is a reminder of the crash), Brooks sandstone colour building on Henry Street (& most of the redeveloped Henry Street).

Most modern stuff in the city is "grand" - not offensive but nothing to write home about.
 

I agree about Croke Park. Thomond is also good but doesn't stand-out.

I don't like T2 because it could be any airport terminal in the world. I do find it easy to get around & find it well laid out.
The only bus I get from there is the one to the private long-term carpark, the one that goes from the back of the short term carpark at T1. It's easy enough to get to from T2. No airport is perfect and Dublin is, in my opinion, one of the better ones.
 
I posted a Derry building earlier in the thread that I believe is a great example of a fantastic design.

And here is another Derry building, this time at the opposite end of the scale. It has always been regarded as ugly in the city

[broken link removed]

Even worse, it is a big lump of a thing, and blocks out a large section of the city's historic walls.
 
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