Belfast stole a march on Dublin when its magnificent Waterfront Hall opened in 1998, instantly becoming the emblem of a new era. Now it has trumped us again by completing a landmark complex down-river that includes an indoor arena, science centre and multiplex cinema.
The local media were very dubious about the idea of spending £90 million sterling on Odyssey, even likening it to the folly of London's Millennium Dome. But all the criticism and sneering suddenly ceased last December after the 10,000-seat indoor arena packed out for the first ice hockey match.
For Odyssey was conceived on a heroic scale in terms of its ambition and architecture. It was to be a millennium project of landmark status, not just for Belfast but for Northern Ireland as a whole, and hopefully the catalyst to regenerate a swathe of redundant shipyards on the east bank of the Lagan.
Like the Waterfront Hall, the new arena has a low-domed roof to signal its presence.
"We tried to make it float like a halo," says Brian Madden, project architect with the Consarc Design Group. Lit up at night, the halo effect is quite remarkable - especially with the neon-lit Lagan Weir in the foreground.
The complex is clad mainly in red terracotta tiles, similar to what Renzo Piano used in Berlin's Potsdamer Platz, to stand out against the predominantly grey skies of Belfast. Silver metal panels, which blend with the sky colour, are used in secondary areas, such as the box-like Imax theatre embedded in the complex.
Odyssey would be an even more impressive landmark if it were not visually cut off from the city centre by the M3 cross-harbour expressway. But, unlike The Point in Dublin - and even more so the proposed indoor arena at Abbotstown - it is within easy walking distance from the city centre, thanks to new riverside walkways.
The project had its genesis in 1992 when Consarc was commissioned by the Ulster Museum to look at the feasibility of a science centre and by the Sheridan property group to examine the viability of a multi-purpose arena. It was at the instigation of the UK Millennium Commission that these projects were merged, along with a new multiplex cinema, to become one of its flagship projects.
The 11-hectare (26-acre) site chosen for the complex has fine frontages to the Lagan and the broad expanse of the Abercorn Basin, once used by Harland & Wolff. And what convinced the commission to approve it was a scale model made by the leading Dublin-based model-maker David Murphy. Following an open competition, Consarc was appointed lead consultants and architects for the project in September 1997, with a brief to develop a single landmark building to accommodate its three distinct elements - arena, science centre and pavilion cinema complex - taking full advantage of the riverside setting.
"The master-plan design concept was to relate the elements to each other in a manner that produced a series of spaces of an urban scale, linking inside to outside and referencing the building to its unique context", as Consarc puts it. The architects and other consultants have certainly managed to do that - and much more.
Operating for a year from huts on the site, what they have produced is a leisure centre on a grand scale, grouped around a vast central courtyard - 197 ft long, 98 ft wide and 82 ft high - topped by a Teflon tented roof to keep the rain out. When you walk into this space, it almost takes your breath away.
Amidst the bridges, walkways, suspended escalators and high-level flying masts and cables supporting the roof, the giant oval window of the Science Centre provides a focal point at one end while two glazed lifts climb its 66 ft high terracotta-clad wall. Bars, restaurants and "speciality retail units" will fill out the ground floor.
A generous foyer for the cinema complex, Warner Home Village, is located upstairs, where an enormous window overlooks the landscaped plaza in front as well as offering panoramic views of the city. With a total of 3,100 seats in 12 plush cinemas, this should attract people from far and wide.
The science centre, W5 (for Who, What, Where, When and Why), was designed to "unlock the scientist in everyone" by letting them play with hands-on exhibits that relate scientific concepts to everyday experiences. And as the busloads of kids milling around the centre every day would tell you, it is truly wonderful.
From the mesmerising fire tornado just inside the entrance, through floor after floor of interactive exhibition spaces, to the working science lab at the top level, W5 is just as engaging as the Cite des Sciences in Paris or the Metropolis science centre in Amsterdam - Renzo Piano's half-submerged oil tanker in the harbour.
It is the type of facility that the Discovery campaigners, Rose Keavany? and Noo Wallis, have been trying to get off the ground in Dublin, with the still derelict Stack A warehouse at the Custom House docks as the target location. But while they beat their heads against breeze-block walls, Belfast just got on with it.
W5 has a floor area of 3,300 sq metres (35,500 sq ft), including a 200-seat lecture theatre with a view of the Harland & Wolff gantries and a fully glazed, prow-like corporate hospitality suite, where there is a sensation of being suspended over the Lagan. The only crass exhibit in the centre is a "mini-Tesco", in which children can play at shopping.
But Brian Madden believes that the inclusion of commercial elements in the Odyssey project was the key both to the success of the funding bid and its future viability. "It's all about `critical mass'," he says. "People could spend a full day here, first in W5, then going to a movie and having something to eat before attending an event in the Arena."
The Sheridan group provided £16.5 million sterling towards the cost of building the complex, matching a grant from Northern Ireland's Department of Education. A further £9.25 million sterling came from the publicly owned Laganside Corporation, £2.5 million sterling from the Northern Ireland Sports Council and a whopping £45 million sterling from the Millennium Commission.
The Arena - completed last December just two years after work started on the site - provides a spectacular setting for major sporting and entertainment events. Ronan Keating is there for two nights next week (although his promoters have billed it as Oddessy rather than Odyssey) and the World Amateur Boxing Championships follow in June.
Under its curved truss roof, with a clear span of 197 ft painted in vivid ultramarine, the arena has also hosted the former US president Bill Clinton and the jubilee of the Rev Ian Paisley's Free Presbyterian Church. Its ice pad is a permanent installation - floors can simply be floated over it as required - and there is also a 200m hydraulic running track.
A Calatrava-style suspension bridge spans one end so that large trucks can service the arena floor. Seating configurations were designed for maximum flexibility, with toilets and concessions tucked underneath. Wide concourses to cater for large crowds are finished in durable concrete block-work, painted white and set out like ceramic tiles.
Overall, the Odyssey complex is a triumph for everyone associated with it. Like the Waterfront Hall, it lifts Belfast city from provincial status and gives the people of Northern Ireland a world-class facility. And whatever about the wealth generated by the Celtic Tiger economy, it leaves Dublin in the ha'penny place.
