“Ugly Buildings” in Dublin

Reading this piece in the IT I was a bit amused to see that the 8-storey block in the middle of Phibsborough is described as one of the ugliest in Dublin. I have to be honest – I’ve a different attitude to it. Back in 1982 or 1983 I spent a week there one Summer clearing offices on a couple of floors and chucking stuff into skips in the basement area. It was the first proper paid job outside the area I’d lived I ever had and – I don’t know if exotic is the right word for what was a drab old structure, but it seemed almost futuristic. I loved it. Was kind of my own boss for the week and enjoyed the work. There was a supervisor who dropped in from time to time to ensure I wasn’t on the hop but otherwise it was great. And it paid, for the time, IIRC, fairly well.

It can’t be demolished but:

The tower will, however, be clad with “expanded metal mesh” and existing roof-top antennae will be screened with the same material. The developers could, under the city development plan, have added an additional storey to the eight story block but have chosen not to.

To be honest I’m kind of partial to that style of 1960s/early 70s architecture. That was the future when I was growing up – not the airy streamlined structures that represent it today. And it was a bleak and totalitarian future – all Blake’s 7, Faranheit 451, any number of dystopian shows on British TV. But it was the future.

Still, it got me thinking. Any nominations for other ugly buildings in Dublin? Or perhaps the ugliest?