Crosbie's Dublin

Unashamedly capitalist. Unashamedly optimistic. Unashamedly Dublin. In ‘the current climate’ Harry Crosbie carves his legacy. But what of it? The man was born on Clonliffe Road in Drumcondra, North Dublin and found his destiny down the road; men of this breed don’t tend to talk about destiny though, rather capitalism; Crosbie concerns himself with commercial ambition and veils it in allusions of civic responsibility. In a generation’s time, the kids will look out the river from the Sean O’Casey Bridge and inevitably say “They could have done better.” They being Crosbie and co and their legacy being the architecture they sanctioned.

There are arguments that the Dublin Docklands lack excitement in both urban and social terms; cold hearted glass facades instil passive disinterest as the business gentries move quickly through the wind tunnel, and the low rise, mono-height facade adorning the river where it yawns out to Dublin Bay ought to be taller. Crosbie has at least tried to stifle the mundane, he has plans for the Watchtower skyscraper by ScottTalonWalker on hold, he had wanted to build a 35metre Giant Man that people could walk around inside of, he is about begin a Dublin Eye at the Point Village site along with the due-to-commence Parlour civic space. The latter two projects both born out of the recession when Crosbie’s original plans, along with so many others, got put on indefinite hold. The man is nothing if not resilient. They are those things that haven’t happened (yet) – if he stopped now though he would still have left his mark.

In searching for immortality some will look to art, literature or sporting heroism – it is with architecture and urbanism in Dublin’s Docklands that Crosbie realises his. There are three particular built projects with which his legacy will be written; the refurbished Point Depot, the National Conference Centre at Spencer Dock and the Grand Canal Theatre. With due respect, the man went about his business in seemingly sound manner, though debate will resound over one of those buildings without cessation until some succeeding generation sees fit to knock it.

Crosbie’s ambition was always likely to ensure a world class music venue for the new Point Depot. Architecturally, he’s achieved as good as is possible for a music theatre, and the external facade, somewhat of a faux Tate Modern, is subtle enough with the historical stone and brick to reaffirm itself as the eastern bookend to the city.

Daniel Liebskind’s Grand Canal Theatre is another starcitect crossed off the list for Dublin. Liebskind’s theatre is certainly dramatic, and it along with Martha Schwartz’s landscaping has already become the icon for Grand Canal Dock; it is a drama some architects will abhor but it is a drama that will excite most others about the potential of the craft and thus serves a worthy purpose. As for opening a theatre in the ‘current climate’ Crosbie’s response is as defiant as you’ll have come to expect; "It's a very bad time to be opening a theatre, it's a very bad time to be doing anything," he said speaking to the Irish Independent in November 2009; "If I'm wrong, I'll be losing my own money because we don't get grants, this is capitalism . . . If it sells, we put it on and if it doesn't, we won't.”

Owning as much of the Docklands as he did, Crosbie was always going to play a significant impact in its realisation, the mundane nature of many of the buildings will be acceptable so long as the punctuations offer excitement, in old Dublin they are the spires and industrial chimneys; as the city’s epicentre drifts east public buildings will again punctuate. It is with the most prominent, however, that Crosbie has let his city down. Built with Treasury Holdings and Irish Rail Consortium, the National Conference Centre rises above all but the Beckett Bridge, over scaled and designed as an infill building with a single debatably interesting facade yet surrounded by water on two sides and a Luas line on a third. Employing Irish-American Pritzker Prize winning architect Kevin Roche implies fine intent on the part of the client; alas in urban and architectural terms it fails in every way – save giving Dublin dwellers something else to talk about.

Crosbie has said he “plans to build a better city.” He has done very well, but those kids on the Sean O’Casey Bridge in a generation’s time will be right, They should have done better.