From the Spring 2017 edition
Redevelopment of the former Bank of Ireland building on Baggot Street is currently underway. The complex, designed by Ronnie Tallon of Scott Tallon Walker Architects was constructed in two phases during the 1960s and 1970s. Its signature bronze cladding echoes that seen in the Seagram building, New York by Mies Van Der Rohe. In the late 1970s it may have been considered at odds with the surrounding Georgian architecture. Time changes everything and today the building is acknowledged as being among the best examples of International Modernism in Dublin. Part of its new look includes an upgrade of the public plaza with new trees, benches and lighting. A fountain and the re-siting of Red Cardinal, by sculptor John Burke will create a respite from the busy Baggot Street area. Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara of Grafton Architects have been appointed curators of the 16th International Venice Architecture Biennale in 2018. This is a further honour for the recent winners of the inaugural RIBA International Prize for the Universidad de Ingenieria y Tecnologia (UTEC), a vertical, concrete university campus in Peru. The designs for the campus had previously won the Silver Lion at the Venice Biennale in 2012.
Eleanor Flegg is a writer and craft historian.
