The Strand

I cycle past these apartments every morning on the way into town, and every bus route that serves north east Dublin goes along the North Strand, so a lot of people will be familiar with this recently constructed apartment complex.
Just look at the photo. Don’t they look fabulous? They are built on the site of what once was a cinema back in the day, but for years was a grotty-​looking derelict bowling alley. A lot of the old cinemas became tile showrooms when they closed down (like the one in Terenure and another on Collins’ Avenue, to name two). I like the way that they kept the look of a cinema to these buildings; a new building on the same site that looks like a cinema is the next best thing.
Developments like The Strand, and the nearby Crosbies Yard, were built a couple of years ago in an attempt at gentrification of the distinctly rough North Strand/​East Wall area, very close to town and the then über-​trendy docklands. This probably seemed like a great idea at the time, but then the property market bombed, and no-​one has rented the retail space of The Strand and I imagine that there are plenty of vacant units, too.
This is a pity, as it is a pure architectural gem.