The plaza contains the sculptures Reflections by Michael Bulfin and Red Cardinal by John Burke.
Miesian Plaza (formerly known as the Bank of Ireland Headquarters) is an office building complex on Lower Baggot Street, Dublin. It is designed in the International Style, inspired by the architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, particularly his Seagram Building.
It was designed by the firm Scott Tallon Walker, one of the founders of which, Robin Walker, studied under and taught with Mies van der Rohe, though the building was chiefly designed by partner, Ronnie Tallon. Dublin City Council described it as “one of the most important Modernist buildings in Ireland” and “Dublin’s finest example of the restrained and elegant Miesian style”, and its facade and plaza are protected structures.
Miesian Plaza includes three buildings of four, five, and eight storeys in height, with a central plaza. The two shorter buildings are adjacent to Lower Baggot Street with the 8-story building behind them, minimising its towering effect on the street.
The complex’s facade and plaza were listed as protected structures in 2010. The facade is identical to that on Mies van der Rohe’s Seagram Building.
Michael Bulfin (born 1939) is an Irish sculptor and visual artist, based in Dublin. He is the son of Irish republican Éamonn Bulfin and grandson of William Bulfin of Derrinlough, Birr, County Offaly. He was educated at University College Dublin and Yale University, Connecticut, USA. He was awarded a German Government Scholarship in 1965 to study at a research laboratory in Hamburg, Germany, German Academic Exchange Service (Deutsche Akademische Austauschdienst DAAD). He was chairman of the Project Arts Centre and the Sculptors Society of Ireland, and is a member of Aosdána.
His notable works include Reflections (1975) at the former Bank of Ireland Headquarters on Baggot Street, Dublin, A Walk Among Stone (1988) at Ballymun Flats (the sculpture and flats both since demolished), and Sky Train (2002) at Sculpture in the Parklands.
LOWER BAGGOT STREET – MANY OF THE STREETS ARE BEING RECONFIGURED AT PRESENT
Baggot Street is is named after Baggotrath, the manor granted to Robert Bagod in the 13th century. He built Baggotrath Castle, which was partly destroyed during the Battle of Rathmines and demolished in the early nineteenth century. The street was named Baggot Street in 1773.
The street runs from Merrion Row (near St. Stephen’s Green) to the northwestern end of Pembroke Road. It crosses the Grand Canal near Haddington Road. It is divided into two sections:
Lower Baggot Street – between Merrion Row and the Grand Canal. It was called Gallows Road in the 18th century. Upper Baggot Street – south of the Grand Canal until the junction with Eastmoreland Place, where it continues as Pembroke Road.
Lower Baggot Street is distinguished by Georgian architecture, while Upper Baggot Street has mainly Victorian architecture with a few buildings of 20th-century vintage such as the former Bank of Ireland headquarters, Miesian Plaza. The Royal City of Dublin Hospital, opened in 1834, is on the east side of Upper Baggot Street, just south of the junction with Haddington Road. Cook’s Map of 1836 shows the north side of Upper Baggot Street and Pembroke Road almost entirely built on.
Modern development such as the Miesian Plaza has been viewed by some as destructive to a previously unified Georgian streetscape. Journalist Frank MacDonald characterised the Plaza as a more violent interjection on the street than the contemporaneous ESB building on Fitzwilliam Street.
On 13 July 1973, two nurses escaped from their flat in number 11 Lower Baggot Street when the back and side walls of the house collapsed following the demolition of three adjoining houses to make way for an office block. The 1978 offices built for Bord na Móna, near the Miesian Plaza, were designed by Sam Stephenson, and won the Buildings in Context award from An Taisce.
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