Dublin's O2 arena opening next month has been designed to cater for up to three million patrons a year
THE ROMANS would recognise the shape of Dublin's new O2 arena on North Wall Quay, even though it is all indoors and festooned with air-conditioning ducts and lighting gantries, with bars and food outlets lining the cavernous semi-circular concourses.
The word arena derives from its original Latin meaning as sand - used to mop up the blood after gruesome public spectacles. Promoter Harry Crosbie hopes there will be "blood on the stage from artists giving their all for people of Ireland".
Vast is the only word that describes the new venue, which opens next month. It is at least twice as large as the earlier Point that grew out of the old Midland Great Western goods terminal, a protected structure now remade yet again.
The new arena can take 9,500 people on padded seats with plastic backs, or up to 14,000 in a different configuration - with retractable seats pulled back to make room for 8,000 standing in front of the stage, and the rest comfortably seated.
"It's going to be a world-class rock venue and the biggest people- magnet in Ireland," says the irrepressible Crosbie. He believes it will attract as many as three million patrons a year - much more than Croke Park, which is used less intensively.
The old Point, Crosbie concedes, was "grungy 1980s" - a rather makeshift auditorium installed in the shell of the railway depot, with a box-like fly-tower projecting above its neo-classical façade. It served its purpose, though, even for Eurovision.
Now renovated and extended as the O2 arena (Crosbie will not say how much the mobile phone company paid for the naming rights), it has been turned around 90 degrees on an east-west axis, instead of north-south like the old Point.
Designed by HOK Sport Architecture, the new venue cuts a dash on the skyline with its translucent polycarbonate cladding extending two storeys upwards above the original building, with a built-in lighting system programmed for all the colours of the rainbow.
"We wanted to make the architectural expression as light as possible," says Damon Lavelle, HOK's project architect. The lighting gives an "ethereal, diaphanous effect" that contrasts with the stone and brick of the railway depot, dating from 1878.
Almost the entire west side of the Victorian building was demolished and some of the material salvaged for reuse. The tall cast-iron columns of the old train shed, for example, now provide structural supports for the concrete upper tiers of the arena.
Ken Jones, of structural engineers Buro Happold, was particularly keen to detach the new elements from the old and to expose as much of the original building as possible. Staircases are suspended in space behind the east façade, where the main entrance is located.
The arena has also been sound- proofed to make sure that noise from the likes of AC/DC - due to blast the O2 in January - does not disturb nearby residents. It has an "extremely well-balanced sound profile, approaching that of a concert hall", as tests by Arup Acoustics confirmed.
"That's the holy grail for a venue like this," Lavelle says. "Even the air-conditioning was subject to a strict noise reduction regime."
The concourses feel like they belong more in a stadium than a theatre, although this robustness is relieved by stainless steel handrails above the wire-mesh balustrades.
According to Crosbie, "every penny of the O2 sponsorship went into the building". There's no shortage of space for the stage - it is 54 metres wide, 18 metres deep and 20 metres high, to the rigging grid above. It is served by a trucking bay big enough to accommodate four juggernauts carrying equipment and props for touring rock bands.
The O2 is to be operated by Live Nation, a US-based operator, as will the Grand Canal Theatre - which Crosbie also owns; this venue is due to open in late 2009. "There's no conflict - one will be a world-class rock venue and the other a world- class lyric theatre," he says. "This is not just about me. Mike Adamson [Live Nation's managing director] and all the staff have worked for five years on this. It's a team effort. We're also going to be staging free outdoor events for the public in the new square at the back of the arena."
Crosbie emphasises the context of the Point Village, which will have a shopping centre anchored by Dunnes Stores, a 285-bedroom hotel, offices and apartments - all served by the Luas.
Its centrepiece, a 40-storey tower, is on hold for at least a year due to the economic downturn.