One of my favourite buildings in Dublin has always been the Bus Aras (Bus Station) building in Store Street. I pass it to go to work every day and I have on occasions stared in enviously at people who get to go to work in this building every day.
Browsing the Open House listings today I saw Busaras listed so I immediately hopped on the train into town to go view.
While this building was originally only used by the bus company it is currently leased to a Government office (Department of Social Protection) and that is the part of the building we got to view.
I have a lot of photos below so you less talking and more photos - and just a line about each if ok!
First up the lobby!
Beautiful wooden panelling around the lifts with a tiled wall on the right of it.
Mies van der Rohe, Exhibition Chairs in the waiting area. Pretty posh for an Irish Government office but to be fair I think they were chosen correctly as they look impeccable in the setting of this building,
Very large brass knobs on the entrance door
So up the lifts we went and stepped out of the lift straight onto one of the viewing foyers.
It is not an exaggeration to say that I literally gasped when I stepped out.
The combination of the beautiful roof over the viewing foyer which I admire from the ground every day.
With the incredible views.
That's my work office there on the left of the pic!
From there we moved through these lovely wooden doors into the Staff Restaurant.
In the original design the intention of this was to be a restaurant for travellers. On the right of the pic is a viewing foyer (outside) the full length of the building/restaurant. The windows were framed lovely.
Another lovely door. This leads out to the viewing foyer.
Such a pity the public don't get to use this. See the nice inbuilt seating benches on the left.
Look up!
At regular intervals down the centre of the roof are beautiful mosaic tiled openings to let in light,
Have you ever seen anything like this?
The beautiful windows framed some great views like pictures.
This is another one of my favourite buildings - Liberty Hall, Dublin (constructed between 1961-65) - note the cool roof on it too.
I love the original wood flooring.
Imagine how lucky the staff of this Government office are to eat here every day.
The serving hatches are not in use anymore (white boarded up) but they remain in place nevertheless.
As for this monstrosity!!!!
Why bother with those modern mosaic tiling which look nothing like the original on the pillar on the right.
Better just not to bother in my opinion.
Plain white subway tiles would have been a better choice in my opinion.
Out on to the stairs to walk down - where the beautiful Irish Connemara marble could not be missed.
More Connemara marble
Sorry, not a great pic but you can just about see the nice 1950's style stairs.
This sign was on each landing - noting the floor number you were on.
The irish sign translates as "if you have Irish (gaelic) speak it". This is a Government office afterall...but at the same time, the style of the writing and phrasing does not look recent...
This is the building from the outside. The wood panelled lobby is just inside the doors, behind the parked cars. The beautiful (patterned) foyer roof that I showed pics of up above is at the top. This is the width of the building, the restaurant runs from the viewing foyer down the length of the building.
I loved it today. The memory will remain with me for a long time.
Unreal building!!
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