Wood Quay

Doing nothing to quell the scandal that still follows the harshly modern Civic Offices on Wood Quay, Michael Warren’s solid and domineering Wood Quay piece works hard to pull together the old world of the quay’s Viking past and the unapologetic modernity of that sharp out-​of-​sync new construction.
When it first went up, there was hue and cry to protest the lack of consideration for Dublin’s medieval past (not to mention Warren’s serial commissions throughout the city centre for architect Scott Tallon Walker). The dust has settled, but I’m still not won over by this hulking trunk of stylised wood that reminds me more of soggy particle board than art zenith.