D'Olier & Westmoreland St.

[thebig C]

OMG, its not too noticable walking past, but, the photo from the opposite side of the street really highlights just have damaging that storefront is. Almost akin to covering a beautiful face in plaster of Paris....to use the Prince Charles analogy:)

Paul, have you got any renders of the proposals for the ICS/bloodbank building?

C

[GrahamH]

It really is one of the most bizarre shop front maulings in the city, as if the new pieces were cut out with scissors and pasted on with Pritt Stick. Even the street sign was shifted over to accommodate the unholy mess.




How coherent it was originally.








Still, Drew's desgn was considerably more elegant. How Westmoreland Street could look today.







Presumably it would have been faced in red Scottish sandstone.

The gloomy side elevation as built. The upper facade is no match for that heroic ground floor.




What on earth is going on with those skinny central windows - never mind the bluntness of the breakfront as a whole.




A clunkily detailed Venetian window.




At least the wonderfully plastic vermiculated rustication - seemingly of Portland stone - injects some animation into the stern street level frontage. Great skill here.

[gunter]

I think the building was intact up to the early 80s, at which point the owners [wasn't it the Coal Board or some such semi-state outfit?] hacked the rustication about to make a shopfront which only lasted a couple of years.

At that point, the premises [already with the bland flat stone re-facing] was sold to a guy who wanted to put in a restaurant and he engaged the slightly eccentric, but meticulous, architect Ross Cahill-O'Brien, who had just done the excellent Tosca Restaurant on Suffolk Street, to come and do his thing. The budget was tight and I don't think the interior ever reached the standard of Tosca [also now altered and called something else], but the trademark curvy steel window that Ross put in is still there, although I think the entrance and ovbiously the signage has been altered again.

I remember having a discussion with Ross at the time on the subject of the butchered rusticated stonework and, if I recall, he said he had tried to talk the client into restoring it, but as far as the client was concerned, the damage had been done by the previous owner and was presumably sanctified by planning permission, and there was no way he could afford to sink half his budget into reversing it.

Having said that, even in it's original condition it was never going to win any beauty contests.

[GrahamH]

Aha - interesting gunter. Yes the fine steel windows are a saving grace. A point worth making.

[Paul Clerkin]

Yeah Gunter - it was something to do with coal - I remember that vaguely - very bland shopfront too.

[Devin]

Very small, but here is an old photo showing that shopfront before alteration.






Back to today, and this dirty ugly sign mount has been standing useless outside the same building for ....... months and months, within the O'Connell Street ACA.

What was that in the ACA's Scheme of Special Planning Control about "ensuring the provision of a high quality public realm that is managed to the highest standards"? (Part VI - The Public Realm)

http://www.dublincity.ie/SiteCollectionDocuments/oconnell_special_planning_control_scheme.pdf

[missarchi]

The state is having an identity crisis.

[StephenC]

double post

[StephenC]

months and months??


surely you mean years and years.

never mind the Luas works will remove it as part of their visionary plan for the centre (i.e. its in the way of a pylon)

A huge collection of junk and clutter along here.

[StephenC]

Actually, I'm surprised this hasn't been used to tell us how to get to the National Wax Museum +

[fergalr]

Actually, I'm surprised this hasn't been used to tell us how to get to the National Wax Museum +

Given the general infidelity of Dublin street signs to pointing in the correct direction, this one pointing into Temple Bar will probably soon bear a directions to the National Gallery.

[Alek Smart]

Has DCC got some form of aversion to providing any streetlighting in Westmoreland Street ?

The southern end around the BoI and Fleet Street is blacker than Calcutta`s hole,,,Why should this be so ?

[tomredwest]

Has DCC got some form of aversion to providing any streetlighting in Westmoreland Street ?

The southern end around the BoI and Fleet Street is blacker than Calcutta`s hole,,,Why should this be so ?

yes i only just noticed this last night since winter's creeping in. it's terribly dodgey in that part

[StephenC]

The overgrown trees are the culprit here

[mud hut!]

O those evil evil trees,chop em down for God sake, will someone please think of the children,chop em down!
There's feck all trees in central Dublin and the last thing we need is to be removing what few thats left just because its a little dark.
The leaves are still on those trees and when there gone the light shines through just fine.
Dublin must be one of the worst city in Europe for the lack of trees lining the streets.
Those trees help the look of westmoreland st if anything.
Don't be giving DCC any excuses to get there chainsaws out, they'l only stick poles in the holes where the trees had been!

[StephenC]

I never said anything about chopping the trees down however they do need to be pruned. They are overgrown and restricting light into a number of properties along here (who I am surprised havent complained). I agree that trees along Westmoreland Street are a positive feature but they have to be managed. I would also add that they should be coherently planted so that they become a feature in the overall aesthetic of the street...not simply random features.

[Alek Smart]

The overgrown trees are the culprit here

Sorry StephenC,but them Trees are in the clear on the main charge anyway.

It`s a rather simpler and more fundamental issue of DCC`s long running aversion to providing a reasonable level of street lighting on Westmoreland Street.

Currently the Westin Hotel provides much of the illumination at the southern end whether by accident or design.

Now whilst those darn trees do have a negative effect on the Light,but when there`s hardly any of it in the first place then it`s a moot point.

I did notice,however a recent burst of new street lighting installation along the Drumcondra Road adjacent to His Grace`s Palace....rather unusually this was accompanied by a burst of long overdue tree pruning...I wonder how they managed to integrate those duties.....

Another fine example of the benefits of pruning one`s bush (:eek:) can be seen as we speak along Cowper Road by Milltown Golf Club,where for the first time in years the light can shine down upon the strollers....!

Prune for Ireland I say !!!

[mud hut!]

How about hanging lights Copenhagen style,no lampposts or bolting them on to facades of buildings.Makes far more sense and would work well on westmoreland st and many others.

[Paul Clerkin]

I seem to recall hanging style ones in Dublin as a kid

[GrahamH]

Yep Grafton Street Paul. Nasty sodium strips, Belfast-style.

[StephenC]

Well, I stand corrected and the main culprit on Westmoreland Street is a non functioning streetlight. IN fact you are right the street was particularly dark and foreboding last evening. However the trees are as much a problem. Look at the traffic island with Mr Moore and his assorted tatt. Despite the large streetlight the trees block out much of the light. Some winter pruning is required.

[missarchi]

Some winter pruning is required.

I would prefer a masterplan...

[cornflakequeen]

[quote="GrahamH"]Agreed, not least as it's the reproduction of a shoddily altered building in the first instance!

As we saw earlier on this thread, Ballast House was once just comprised of two Wide Streets Commission buildings.


Where did the courtyard street elevation come from? It's great

[StephenC]

A TGI Fridays franchise was recently announced for the Fleet Street building of the former Bewleys - the one with the famous windows. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/com ... 91484.html The article sheds some light on the various ownerships on the street.

The main development on this street - not mentioned here - is the new Starbucks/Language School and Solicitors which opened in the former EBS building. What a difference to the dead frontage that has dogged this building for so many years. But isn't it curious that all through the boom this building couldn't be developed but suddenly finds it mojo in the slump.

Its not enough to help poor Westmoreland Street though....as with so many city centre streets the decent continues. Plastic now rules in the city centre and its a free for all as far as business is concerned. DCC are invisible. I heard that a recent initiative by the management at City Council to encourage underworked Development planners to transfer to Enforcement (and augment the current 3 staff there!) met with stony silence and no takers.

[thebig C]

Stephen....of course the planners wouldn't transfer to enforcement. Like most planners in Dublin they are all busily engaged on their anti-skyscraper crusade!! As you may not know, skyscrapers are the only building type which causes any dammage to the historic core of the City!!

Sorry for the glib reply. Yes, I agree with you, the City becomes steadily more grotty.