Waterford's Hotel we want to hide from the World.

samsham

The tall ships are soon to arrive in Waterford, the city is looking good, all except that block of concrete that has scared the city since it was first built. It was burned down in recent years and use by kids to drink and take drugs, It's inner wall's host the graffiti of Waterford's jobless youth. Despite being the ugliest building in the south east of Ireland since it's conception 40 years ago. It's now looked upon as a symbol of Ireland's rollercoaster ride and it's boom to bust experience. Despite always being ugly Waterford's population now want to hide it from their visiting Tall Ships later this summer. The site is own by the Mc'niff hotel group. However it's tax payers now paying to secure the building to keep the youngsters drinking on it's roof away and safe.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ccYDG7k2GA

mike65

You do know it looks nothing like that now?

dubhthach

I'm kinda confused what exactly does this has to do with Infrastructure? Perhaps the thread would be better in the Waterford City forum

Bards

samsham wrote: »

The tall ships are soon to arrive in Waterford, the city is looking good, all except that block of concrete that has scared the city since it was first built. It was burned down in recent years and use by kids to drink and take drugs, It's inner wall's host the graffiti of Waterford's jobless youth. Despite being the ugliest building in the south east of Ireland since it's conception 40 years ago. It's now looked upon as a symbol of Ireland's rollercoaster ride and it's boom to bust experience. Despite always being ugly Waterford's population now want to hide it from their visiting Tall Ships later this summer. The site is own by the Mc'niff hotel group. However it's tax payers now paying to secure the building to keep the youngsters drinking on it's roof away and safe.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ccYDG7k2GA

Nope - Mc'niff Group sold it to a Cork developer during the boom

dubhthach

Moved from Infrastructure.

-Dubh

AndyKiely

I haven't been down that end of town recently. Last I heard it was covered wasn't it? Just like a giant cover on top of the hill. Better then what was there to be honest.

abouttobebanned

Its now the worlds largest big screen telly. We're kinda proud of it tbh

STIG83

Looks better than it did before.

BlaasForRafa

It was a fairly well designed building for its type and era, not perfect but certainly not ugly. Its not the architects fault that it was left fall to ruin by a developer. Any building can be ugly as f==k if its left vacant and unsecured, just look at how bad the old Infirmary was during the 90's.

KingLoser

It's now a minimalist sculpture dedicated to the mistakes of the boom years.

kkdela6

it used to be a beautiful hotel. some fantastic memories from there, especially the christmas parties when i was 8 or 9 years old.
such a shame what happened it. the interior was even worse than the exterior

Mysterious&Shy

I really think that it looks well now - at least it is more or less hidden! Must get snaps tomorrow and upload.

OP - you obviously have not been in Waterford in a while...

Cabaal

KingLoser wrote: »

It's now a minimalist sculpture dedicated to the mistakes of the boom years.

Problem is the hotel and building itself has existed long before the "boom years", the hotel itself was actually built in 1969 afaik

So surely a more accurate discription is its a sculpture deadicated to the design mistakes of the 60's and 70's just like Waterford's trainstation, the ESB before it was re-designed etc.

If you want to see a sculpure dedicated to the mistakes of the "boom years" you need not look any further then railway square and the building there that will date horriably .

merlante

That hotel was really very nice back in the day but by the 90/00's it was showing it's age. It was not a victim of the bubble, it was a victim of time and circumstance, having been sold on a few times and not really looked after. It was doing badly for years before the bubble burst.

The fact that they could write "PEACE" for most of the Christmas period with their hotel room windows shows that there was nobody at all staying there for parts of the year...

BlaasForRafa

Cabaal wrote: »

Problem is the hotel and building itself has existed long before the "boom years", the hotel itself was actually built in 1969 afaik

So surely a more accurate discription is its a sculpture deadicated to the design mistakes of the 60's and 70's just like Waterford's trainstation, the ESB before it was re-designed etc.

Its a matter of taste really, I don't think that the Ardree, train station or the ESB building were mistakes at all. They were all part of a defined style that took hold world wide from the late 50'a to the late 70's, the International style. The ESB building especially was a very nice example, like a downsized Seagram Building (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seagram_building), until they put that ugly cladding on it last year and for the most part ruined its aesthetic appeal.

The Enterprise Ireland building on the industrial estate (formerly the IDA building) is another nice example of this style and again was slightly marred last year by some ugly cladding that was put around some of its brickwork.

Some of the more recent boom era buildings like the Railway Square mess and the Tourism building at the WIT are ones that deserve criticism for their lack of any definable style and their general ugly and seemingly haphazard design.

scallopbutty

what about the other hotel we need to hide...... the maryland

daftdave

Mysterious&Shy wrote: »

I really think that it looks well now - at least it is more or less hidden! Must get snaps tomorrow and upload.

OP - you obviously have not been in Waterford in a while...

i would love to see a few snaps of the place if anybody would care to upload them , im down under at the moment but will be home for a couple of weeks when the tall ships come :D

mike65

scallopbutty wrote: »

what about the other hotel we need to hide...... the maryland

:eek: *cough* :eek:

MitchKoobski

scallopbutty wrote: »

what about the other hotel we need to hide...... the maryland

I Love Cheese

scallopbutty wrote: »

what about the other hotel we need to hide...... the maryland

BlaasForRafa

scallopbutty wrote: »

what about the other hotel we need to hide...... the maryland

samsham

The Maryland Another ugly building now just a stone
trow from the new Waterford crystal visitor center.
Ever look a the top of that building a the wooden
decking that makes up the top floor, where did planning
come for that. As for the cover that now surrounds Jury's
It simply makes it look like the building it was before. Ugly

dayshah

Pitty they didn't light it up with the Man U/Barcelona match. Until a better idea comes along, we may aswell use it as the world's largest TV.

Anyway, those above pictures are misleading. It looks far far better now than it did before the cover up.

CantGetNoSleep

Anyone have recent photos?

dayshah

CantGetNoSleep wrote: »

Anyone have recent photos?

There is a photo from this weekend here.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=72436406&postcount=21

mike65

http://www.flickr.com/photos/63008901@N02

samsham

mike65 wrote: »

http://www.flickr.com/photos/63008901@N02

looks like a block of Lego.

The building without a window..

Trick of the Tail

Also a pity that the City Council / Tall Ships wouldn't entertain my idea of using the place as a screen for a fantastic Architectural Projection show, a lá AC/DC at Rochester Castle.

It would have been the most amazing public show the country has ever seen, and really put Waterford on the map, but I'm afraid small-mindedness prevailled.

A.

samsham

samsham wrote: »

looks like a block of Lego.

The building without a window..

as it looked today..

mike65

Hmm they should have painted it green.

daftdave

alinton wrote: »

Also a pity that the City Council / Tall Ships wouldn't entertain my idea of using the place as a screen for a fantastic Architectural Projection show, a lá AC/DC at Rochester Castle.

It would have been the most amazing public show the country has ever seen, and really put Waterford on the map, but I'm afraid small-mindedness prevailled.

A.

they are currently doing something along those lines here in sydney at the moment , the pics look great http://vividsydney.com/gallery ,

i know we dont have an opera house in the deise but having the ard ri on the hill could be used to the same effect, and with so many people gonna be in waterford for the tall ships , the images would be seen by many many people who are there and also im sure it would go widespread in the media.