[geogregor]

Oh for goodness sake.

This is a high quality project which is evident with anyone with eyes that has walked past it and had a look.

What exactly is wrong with this building?

What exactly is "high quality" in this building?

It has small windows, cheap looking cladding and shape on hotel in 1980s Belgrade or Minsk. Or, pushing it a bit, early 1990s in post-communist eastern Europe. Trust me I grew up in 1990s Poland

It is average at best. There is virtually nothing high quality about it, at least judging from the photos, I haven't seen it in flesh (but I genuinely hope to make my way to Belfast soon so might check it out)

Don't take me wrong. I'm glad to see any development in Belfast. This is perfectly acceptable infill development. But calling it "high quality" is in my opinion exaggeration. In fact that way you lower the bar for what a high quality should be.

 

[belfastuniguy]

The windows I’ll give you but the cladding is stone and brick for most part and in the flesh it looks good. The style may be a bit banal and average but the finish is not.

 

[WiseJoeyD]

Don't take me wrong. I'm glad to see any development in Belfast. This is perfectly acceptable infill development. But calling it "high quality" is in my opinion exaggeration. In fact that way you lower the bar for what a high quality should be.

PLus given that it's in an area with a surprising number of remaining vintage buildings, it will stick out like a sore thumb when taking the whole scene into account. I mean, heck, try this - to someone not in the know, print out a bunch of buildings, and show them just the new Sixth, and ask them to pair it with which one it's going with.... I'm betting you the match rate would be low. Or in other words, there's little to no relation to the Telegraph building and the new one.

I think it highlights that 'low quality' look. I've said before - on Chichester street with Victoria Sq, the upcoming Erskine and Chichester House, etc, it would be good (interesting question raised - are we happier with modern mediocrity when it herds together?). Here, it highlights each and every corner cut (if only! Curved corners FTW) or trick pulled to get a functional design out there.

 

[Boba Fett22]

@geogregor.

The building may not be perfect (I don't know, I wouldn't be a good judge), but compared to what was there before, a car park, it's far better.

It used to to be you'd walk past that place at night and just see the vast empty bit of space. Plus the fact that it probably wasn't the safest area, this building might deter the hoods from sticking about.

 

[hypnotoad24]

Nice photo from McAleer and Rushe's twitter.

 

[Boba Fett22]

I see they've also installed a whole row of exercise bikes in one of the bottom rooms.

 

[matni]

Surprised to see this place being given flak. It looks very decent in the flesh. Ok the design is nothing exciting but the stone and glass finish is good.

I'll take conservative design and quality materials any day over wacky "fashionable" design finished with cheap materials. The former will stand the test of time well and the latter will look dated within 10 years and look like absolute crap after 20-30 years.