Finish it – move on.

could it be turned into a shelter for the homeless, maybe give back to those who have lost everything?

The Oireachtas meetings should be moved here. No finishes and no bar and no free car park – they can use the Luas. They can just wear their overcoats and have there meetings standing up. No cost for furniture windows etc.
Then Leinster House can be a Monaco style International Casino where a real contribution to National income can be achieved. This system of taxation applies in many Mediterranean towns. Come to think of it it has been a casino for years but the plain people of Ireland supposed to be all equal befor ehte law have not benefited.

A childrens museum.

Finish building. It will only be a reminder of what w@nkers this country is full of

Does the proposal just involve crudely photoshopping trees and windmills randomly onto the building? If we go for a “vertical park” surely we can do better than that.

Can we turn it into a nice cake and a cup of tea?

If there was enough money, it would be fantastic to see it finished and given to the people (considering we are paying for Anglo Irish W***kers. So people who want to start businesses or companies can be allocated the space for free. It would be a city centre base in an area that always has been a symbol of our economic abilities (once), and could help get some home grown businesses and projects off the ground.

ROGUE BANKERS PRISON………include inept Auditors, Regulators, Politicians etc. Of course this will never happen unless you could put the legal profession in there too!

Vertical park??!! The world’s biggest urban park – Phoenix Park – is beside it!! Sell it on.

The park is a nice idea, but the floor slabs won’t have been designed to have the amounts of soil etc. required for any sort of garden put on them.

What about free office space for people / groups who are dedicating themselves to helping others during the recession a sort of financial hospital?new beginnings springs to mind that would be ironic !! headquarters for for St Vincent de Paul there are loads more of organisations I’m sure who would benefit from having a new modern facility from which they can continue to offer support
The sooner empty shells like this are sorted the quicker we progress and move forward

I agree, turn it into a prison for bankers.
Call it Mountmisery

Heard the idea voiced some time back .. excellent idea. Why not start a trust so we can “buy a plant” for the garden. It would probably be the most cost effective option to change a derelict into a functional piece of architecture and would be far greener than demolition.

Who would pay to finish building to turn it into anything, make a car park out of it, ask the bondholders to contribute towards it

A prison.

I’m sure someone in the dail could get their hands on some Semtex that would finish it off

Rezone it for residential purposes and then build affordable homes in it: a fitting poke in the eye to a failed bank.

Knock it and obliterate memory so we can move on.

The building should be completed and turned into an incubation centre for new, small and developing businesses in the smart economy. It’s right beside loads of multinational companies. Big businesses with wedges of cash could be openly encouraged to meet with the small businesses to give advice/money etc. The big boys are always in town for at least one or two days a year and are always looking for great new businesses to invest in. How do you think Nokia got into phones, they made wellies, tyres and tvs until 20 years ago. It’s called investment Holmes.

i think what has been built should be leveled as its f’ugly. turn it into something positive, sure. a blossoming green space would be great with kids amenities. it’d show that amongst all the fickle dollar signs (which the docklands is presently) there is the glimmer of a human spirit.

Vertical grave yard…

I think it would be a great idea, especially if we cud put Sean Fitzpatrick under a fecking great rock right in the middle of the building !!!!!

Perhaps it should be finished as apartments and given to families in need, specifically those families who’ve suffered a suicide because the banks forced them out of their homes for missing a few payments because they lost their jobs in the recession.

Such idiocy as that idea, although it may find much agreement, is more suited to a movie from a hundred years ago. Grow up Declan, learn to manage your anger, and contribute in positive ways.

Turn it into a new Children’s Hospital..

Low rent office space, or a hospital.

Or a community area with amenities for the unemployed, local youths, etc.
i.e. Workshops, financial advice centre, training classes, youth activities, business enterprise initiatives, sports facilities,jobseekers support, clubs and societies, etc. Somewhere where local people can go to try and get on with their lives with the country the state it is in.

What about giving individual parts/lots of the building to people whom have lost everything as a result of the inept decisions of out politicians and bankers. Let the recipients of these build their own apartments within the space allocated to them. This would allow them to get a fresh start.
Alternatively, you could donate the building to Focus Ireland and let them kit it out as a homeless shelter.

Given that neither of the above might actually happen, level it.

finish it and give it to st vincent de paul

RAINBOW RAPIDS!! Or a Go Kart track.

A prison.

New hq for MABBS….

In my opinion everybody is being too single minded with it, the scale of this project would allow multiple uses- a park of this size in that are without uses to draw people through it would become a haven for crime and vandalism. Why not mix it with the ethical business starter/charity center? that way people would go through the park to get to work making the park safer for people to actually use.

A big theme park! Along the lines of a big haunted house complete with overnight stays in haunted bedrooms. It would make an absolute fortune and bring in tourists from all over Europe. Hand it over to MGM or Disney.

Get artists and architects to make it decay safely over time as an art installation, timed to finally collapse when we finish paying for the bank guarantee. Like Gaudi’s La Sagrada Família in reverse.

I worked beside it for years. This is only one part of a huge site that has been excavated around it and descends down at least two stories. Hard to know if this section could be finished and used as an office building. The site also regularly floods due to the proximity of the river. There’s also no ground to support all those trees you see stretching east down the river.

I can’t see how the building could support what is proposed and that there could be safe public access to it. Sure you have a tram stop beside it but there are no other bus routes and on street parking is very limited.

Some of the sheninigans that went on over this site were also beyond belief. Battles over the planning permission, two well known developers trying to get one up over the other and also, I understand, there was also some controversy over the social housing element of the development (the larger development included apartments).

Believe it or not there was once plans to put a floating hotel in front of the site!

I would make an ideal open prison where swindlers, corrupt bankers and other similar discredited scum could be incarcerated to prevent them from corrupting the general prison population.

Seriously, though. We all have a lot of anger about being ripped off so massively, but the only sensible solution is to offload it without any further burden to the public purse, with conditions in place to ensure it is completed properly and contributes to the economy in the future. Even though it will be long remembered in the public consciousness as a mammoth Temple of Greed.

I think we have invested enough money in this toxic bank that a return should be enabled. The building should be completed as planned, and the building offered for floors to be rented at a significantly reduced cost, (for the area), subsidised by the state (us in other words), enough to pay for ulitlity bills & maintenance, to groups/organisations who have a genuine interest in helping people in distress eg: New Beginnings & other groups who are looking for a base that is very central and easily accessable to ALL counties of the state. As it is on the Luas line, people from all over the country can avail of public transport via rail/Bus/Luas. I think we have enough ‘parks’ and amenities – what people need is some practical help during these times which will last for at least 10 years. Or some idea similar, where the building is used to GIVE BACK to the people in a REAL way. Completing the building will provide work – and these jobs/apprenticeships should be given to those who have completed Fás courses, and all of the other ‘upskilling & training’ the government is so bloody proud of providing

At present the shell is an eyesore. The image offered above in not significantly better. The most important thing is NOT to throw any more public money at this folly, rather to maximise whatever value is in it and resolve the issue promptly.
(Would the Vatican like to buy it as an Embassy? I imagine it might be affordable)

Like the boardwalk another place for junkies to congregate!!!

Convert it into a charity and NGO centre of excellence, housing charities, projects and a global collaborative think tank. As the organization behind this building took from the people, now give it back in a constructive way. (pun excused!)

Something needs to be done with it and I don’t care what. When I look out my living room window that is what I see :( can’t stand it. Thus whole is a mess of empty and half built building sites, depressing to look at everyday after spending a fortune buying and apartment for the privilage. There was such great plans for this area. It would be great to have a small bit of money invested into that building and get something done with it once and for all. Especially with tourist and business people coming to this area with the big wheel and the conference centre.

We may as well make something good of it…..no point dwelling on failures forever.

Find a tenant. Finish it. Sell It.

It should be used as a training area for apprentices in all areas of building and maintenance of buildings. And maybe artists could use parts of it for exhibition purposes. Make spike Island a prison again.

Leave it the way it is…… as a constant memorial to our national stupidity…… Lest We Forget already!

new comedy club… or instead of.spending money on sky fest… get everyone down to the southside docks to see it get blown up….

All the banker prison ideas make me think of the town scourging platform in The Scarlet Letter- perhaps we can sew a scarlet ‘B’ on all the bankers and make them stand there while we throw rotten tomatoes at them? That wouldnt be ridiculous at all.

Take all the shareholders and management to the site and make them demolish it by hand so that they are reminded for the rest of their lives on how much misery they have placed on the taxpayers for generations to come.When they have finished the demolition make them eat the rubble.

As the world’s largest public urinal. At least we can get some satisfaction from pissing on Anglo’s grave!

One great big KFC , let’s get this fat tax working for us.

Any park plans for this site should seriously consider playing areas for kids, including quality pitches and courts for football, tennis, basketball etc. Very few places in the inner city where kids are allowed to play. Always an after thought, but has massive health benefits and could help curb anti-social behavior.

Why not finish it? We have seen that buildings of this nature are still commercially viable with increased interest in Dublin as a home for tech HQs. Does anyone remember the sale NAMA made to Google of a building with a similar size?
Granted, it would be nice to have something that is creative, however I think it needs to be finished and sold off… hopefully creating jobs for those who find themselves without any.

Sure would. A downwards one

What about.. a recreational centre for young adults/college students, as in age 17+ , America is full of places like this about time we young people had somewhere to go where we can have fun and be social and make new friends in a safe environment. :) it would be so popular!! and never know they might become a franchise and there could be one on the north side and southside. : ) like include an indoor skate ramp, climbing wall, gym, swimming pool in the lower level, footy pitch outside/inside, tennis court, basketball court, squash room, pool tables, air hockey, arcade games, jukeboxes, function rooms for events / parties and maybe a small cinema for private screenings. , maybe a library at the top with an open air roof cafe/ indoor cafe, or a bar that opens later on in the evening for with bean bags and funky motifs n junk on the walls, or walls you can write on with your friends. and maybe their could be stage too for open mic nights, or bands to to perform, or comedy shows and live entertainment. charge different prices for each activity , or in deals for the sports and leisure facilities. and let the main part open to everyone so they can spend money on the facilities that are available. the place would be buzzin.. hey name idea.. “The Hive” :D love it :) any other name suggestions.. ??…

Can I vote for two of the above? There has been a lot of work done recently on greening entire buildings, both vertically and on the roof, while still using the building for its original intended function. Obviously, at this point, we need an option besides a bank. Might I suggest its antithesis: a centre for creative arts?

Im liking Laura’s idea about rec centre.
How about doing a survey with all the surrounding locals, seeing as theyve had to put up with that eye sore for long enough now. maybe a feature that can attract more people/businesses into buying up all the vacant apartment / office blocks nearby. The Point Village for example, looked like there was so much potential to turn that into a sub-city so to speak, unfortunately it was built at the tail end of the boom.

It’s probably too late to add to this article, but another proposal that is currently being drafted for consideration is to turn the building into one of the worlds first urban vertical farms, incorporating a permanent farmers market, rooftop restaurant and garden, research & education centre and allotments for the local community. This would be a self-financing, sustainable social enterprise giving back to the local community and investing in future technologies where due to the population explosion effective farming techniques need to be brought into the city. With the latest news that the Central Bank is considering purchasing the building more noise needs to be made about the alternatives. Do we really need the central bank building in the heart of Dublin city to end up abandoned? There is a vast amount of fit for purpose office space in Dublin, do we really need more? Not to mention the fact that finishing the building will cost about €65million and guess who’d be paying for that?