Hawkins House (Dublin)
History
Hawkins House, with the Screen Cinema, was built on the site of the Theatre Royal which sat on the corner of Hawkins Street and Townsend Street. Hawkins House is on the corner of Poolbeg Street and Hawkins Street and was built between 1962 and 1964. It was the first of a set of buildings erected on this block, including Apollo House in 1969, the Screen Cinema in 1972 and College House in 1974. The building was the former Department of Health headquarters.
Along with College House, Hawkins House was sold for £12 million in 1984.
Architecture
The building was designed by English architect, Sir Thomas Bennett, and developed by the Rank Organisation. The 12-storey block had two curtain walls with two concrete slab facades. With O'Connell Bridge House, the impact of the height and bulk of Hawkins House led to the Dublin Corporation re-evaluating the guidelines around building height in the city.
Demolition
The building was considered to be one of the ugliest in Dublin, being voted the worst building in Dublin in 1998. Permission was granted to demolish the block in 2017, with the demolition planned to take a year from 2020. It was the last of the modern structures on the block to be razed.
See also
References
- ^ "Hawkins House, Dublin | 233025 | EMPORIS". Emporis. Archived from the original on 15 March 2016. Retrieved 29 December 2020.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ^ Kelly, Olivia (29 October 2020). "Hawkins House demolition begins". The Irish Times. Retrieved 5 November 2020.
- ^ McDonald, Frank (1985). The destruction of Dublin. Dublin: Gill and Macmillan. pp. 39–42. ISBN 0717113868.
- ^ Casey, Christine (2005). Dublin : the city within the Grand and Royal Canals and the Circular Road with the Phoenix Park. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press. p. 460. ISBN 9780300109238.
- ^ Duffy, Rónán (3 June 2016). "'Dublin's ugliest building' is going to be knocked down and turned into this". TheJournal.ie. Retrieved 5 November 2020.
- ^ "1962 – Hawkins House, Poolbeg Street, Dublin". Archiseek - Irish Architecture. 10 February 2010. Retrieved 5 November 2020.
- ^ Kelly, Olivia (7 May 2020). "Hawkins House, one of Dublin's ugliest buildings, finally set to be demolished". The Irish Times. Retrieved 5 November 2020.