college green/ o'connell street plaza and pedestrians

[StephenC]

A nice photo, but strangely still no sense that this is the great civic space of the city.

[StephenC]

A nice photo, but strangely still no sense that this is the great civic space of the city.

[GrahamH]

Alas, the very nature of the space, with major thoroughfares entering from all sides, coupled with the advent of omnibuses and trams in the 19th century, ensured College Green served as a busy traffic intersection from a relatively early point.

A modern-day comparison.



Jaysus.

[markpb]

Has anyone else noticed the blobs of tarmac on the footpath around Kylemore? They seem to be the remnants of the repair work of the collapsed basement but they've been there for a while and there's no sign of the paving being replaced. Surely this is something that DCC should be all over like a rash since they won't (shouldn't) have to pay a penny to fix?

[StephenC]

Dont you know mixing tarmac with top quality granite is sooo a la mode!

The monstrous streetlamp in the right of that photo has to be the most ugly in the city in terms of location. I love the two strap-ons added as part of the College Gate scheme....classy that. I know there is no money (a mantra for the coming decade) to redesign CG, but at the very least DCC could put in some good quality lighting.

[PVC King]

You can't beat a pieballed pavement !!unless you combine it with an overscaled stainless steel lamp that is 3x appropriate scale.

Buses are the problem at this location; you can see the early 1960's planners widening the road space in all directions for traffic; this has been partially reversed with the larger traffic Island; finish the job put Luas down to O'Connell Street and have no bus pass Church Lane in the direction of TCD; then 2 College Green and TCD can be truely appreciated by visitors. A civic space of this quality can only be fully utilised if it is pedestrianised.

[missarchi]

spot the difference...

http://www.rpa.ie/Documents/Metro%20Nor ... 0North.pdf

&

that stupid celtcia website...

[missarchi]

Are these two photos suggesting movement?

[lauder]

Finally some good news for College Green. Abercrombie & Fitch to take old Habitat shop. The life this will inject into the area will be invaluable and may encourage the council to de-clutter the street and widen the footpath due to customer numbers.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/commercialproperty/2011/0209/1224289333752.html

[PVC King]

Abercrombie & Fitch will be a great addition to College Green; the impact they made on Saville Row W1 was substantial, from a sleepy extremely niche retail destination it has seen its footfall mushroom since its opening. The opening of this store combined with the former INBS branch on Lower Grafton Street converting to American Apperell will see this area become just a little to cool for school with the 16-25 fashionistas.

It is time for Luas down there....

[StephenC]

It appear that Sierra are doing some works to the pavement/roadway here but its not clear what. A widened pavement is the very least that can be achieved with the cycle parking removed. Other cheap and easy immediate options for College Green:
1 remove unused items of street furniture such as telephone kiosks (who would make a call here!)
2. replace the ugly industrial street lighting. I would suggest a column similar to those at the GPO as an interim measure.
3. declutter all that extra rubbish signage put in place for BusGate. we know it is there now.
4. remove all the brown finger signage (including Mr Waxy Museums colection) and install proper wayfinding.

Of course the whole area needs a thorough analysis and a visionary plan but in the meantime lets just do some basic things! The above could be done in a matter of days and I bet the the result would be striking.

See a related thread about cleaning up tatty shopfronts.

[mrdarcy]

The biggest clutter here are the trees, maybe remove them?

[missarchi]

where going around in circles with no Honorable Mention...

big dks

http://www.big.dk/projects/ger/slides/GER.pdf

[GrahamH]

2/10/2011

More repro standards on College Green. It must be said that improved lighting here is very much needed...its very dark at night. Looks like they need to do a bit each Sunday due to traffic volumes....so it may be a while before we see the finished scheme. I hope the take the awful standards at Grafton Street down while they are at it - 1970s industrial park chic.

Okay, it's confirmed - I officially give up on this city.

What appeared earlier in the week to be an innocuous enough, typically ill-informed project by Dublin City Council to stick a few Scotch Standards on College Green, has morphed into outright farce.

This has to be joke, it just has to be - there is no other explanation.








Literally centimetres apart.




More mindless clutter.




You couldn't make this stuff up if you tried.




Not only does this bonkers arrangement of lampposts look utterly preposterous, not only does it fail to acknowledge the format of street lighting historically deployed on College Green, not only does it fail to acknowledge even a basic axial alignment with the Bank of Ireland, not only does generate a completely unnecessary level of clutter through a ridiculous over-concentration of standards - but the scheme is made all the worse by at least five additional standards scattered all around the perimeter of the central island, including a further insane concentration at the entrance to Foster Place.

Truly, one has to ask how the city's public authority, time and time again, can get away with such outrageously financially wasteful, visually illiterate, and what one can only describe as incompetent, projects such as this - in this instance damaging not only the setting of nationally important buildings, but also the very image of Dublin on an international level.

Who is in charge of this scheme? Where is the architectural input? The public realm design input? The conservation input?

Frankly, it is so grossly unfair to citizens and the few people who dedicate so much of their time and working lives to trying to improve Dublin city, that at virtually every stroke they come up against a brick wall with those who are charged with running this city. This scheme is an insult to everyone who wants to see change in Dublin.

It is well known that management of the city centre is now bordering on non-existent, in spite of the considerably reduced workload of Dublin City Council since the recession. How the likes of the above can still take place at a time when there has never been more breathing space to have expert input on all significant projects is completely beyond me.

[gunter]

College Green has always been a place of huge cultural/political significance, laden with symbolism, that’s a tricky context into which to insert something like this.

Graham's points about clutter are certainly valid, but I think sport, as a focus for identity and national pride, does possibly deserve a place in all of this and that presents a considerable design challenge.

If you go down the figurative route, BOD on his own maybe personalizes it all a bit too much, but on the other hand, the fifteen of them would crowd out Grattan and dominate the traffic island, and more importantly, it doesn’t leave any room for Trimble.

Best [concerns about a shoulder injury] practice is probably to go the symbolic route, but where do you draw the line. OK between the posts obviously, but nothing has been won yet, what if it all goes pear-shaped down-under-and-a-bit-to-the-right . . . . . this is could all look very foolish in a couple of weeks time.

That would be my concern.

[OisinT]

Quite easily the post of the year here from GrahamH... couldn't possibly have said it better myself. What an absolute disgrace!

[StephenC]

And it doesnt end there. Say you want to introduce a map panel and wayfinder signage as part of the city scheme. Where do you put it?

Do you take out the crappy phone kiosks which no one uses on the pavement in front of the cigar shop?
Or do you take out some of the many telecom cabinets which litter this space, put them underground and use that space?

Naww..you stick it beside Mr Grattan and his two lovely lamps (and a new heritage standard) (and assorted busgate clutter)

Photo opportunity anyone

[kefu]

I like what they've done with the paving underneath. Makes for an elegant contrast.

[missarchi]

They could easily be insecurity cameras...
Given some difficult site lines?
Maybe someone in DCC or the park is watching them...

[Morlan]

I sent a link to Graham's post to Cllr Mannix Flynn from the DCC. He had this to say:

"I wish there were more like you that would support me in ridding this City and the country of unnecessary cluttering. This cluttering is inconsistent with DCCs Dev. Plan and there is no policy or strategy in this area. Keep in touch."

Mannix earlier called for a pedestrian forum to be setup in DCC
http://www.herald.ie/news/pedestrian-pl ... 67780.html

Get in touch with him because he needs support from people like us that want Dublin rid of this clutter.

[StephenC]

Thats interesting Morlan - councillors don't usually "get" these things.

He is always welcome to support Dublin Civic Trust which has long advocated for measures to improve our streets.

[Peter Fitz]

un-fucking-believable.

[missarchi]

dark Punch buggy no returns...
What is news with that epretender?

http://irelandafternama.wordpress.com/2 ... et-dublin/

[missarchi]

10 reasons architects probably won't fix it???

http://www.archdaily.com/174185/10-reas ... 9t-fix-it/

[StephenC]

Yet another drawn out scheme by DCC Lighting. The majority of the standards are in place but works seems to have stalled for now.

Perhaps add to a range of other not fully completed lighting schemes about the city:
-Pearse Street
-Ringsend/Irishtown Road
-Dorset Street towards North King Street
-Drumcondra Road
-South Quays in Docklands