O' Connell Street, Dublin

[notjim]

Excellent, thanks!

[Smithfield Resi]

More of this sort of thing!!

[StephenC]

Rather a city museum though

[GrahamH]

17/4/2011

So I see the redevelopment application for the corner of O'Connell Street and Henry Street has been referred to Further Information by Dublin City Council, who are seeking clarification on a number of matters. Nonetheless, it is clear from the tone of the planner's report they have got what they wanted - demolition of the Victorian building on the corner with Henry Place and the Georgian building in the middle. Only the 1750 corner building at Nos. 68-69 O'Connell Street Upper is likely to be retained.

Given the overwhelming weight of development pressure from within DCC, it is understandable, if depressing, that the Further Information only relates to consolidating the conservation gain for the important corner building and not the wider outstanding questions about this proposal. Sadly, the pleas of others in the Council for retention of all buildings, including the case planner one suspects, are not reflected in the planning assessment. Even a rigorous assessment of the viability of level floorplates spanning across a contemporary infill building and a retained Victorian corner has not been asked for, never mind a design option for better interpreting this 'war-torn collection of buildings' as the Conservation Officer suggested. This is not just unfortunate: it is simply unacceptable. And not exclusively from a conservation point of view either, but from an architectural perspective also. How can we promote challenging, creative design in Dublin - as espoused by DCC's freshly lodged bid for World Design Capital 2014 - if we simply demolish existing stock without even questioning the possibility of dynamic synergies? This typifies the lack of clout - and the commonplace lack of understanding - of the architectural profession.

The latter is further exposed by the City Architects Division's and the Conservation Officer's respective submissions stating that the proposed new building should be predominantly of brick, rather than the overly complex and distinctly bling approach proposed by the project architects. As I stated here previously, this is a far more appropriate option for re-interpreting this modest infill site on a predominantly brick street. The building should not take its design cue from the attention-grabbing neoclassicism of O’Connell Street, but from the measured reticence of Henry Street. Again, not on 'conservation' grounds, but on grounds of good urban design principles.

The Further Information rigorously picks through the proposals for the retained corner building, requiring retention of its distinctive plan form and further research be conducted into its original layout, clarification of design approaches between ‘old and new’, revised approaches to services passing through the building, retention of a proposed part-chopped out corner chimneystack, and a more traditional shopfront befitting of ‘Number 1 Sackville Mall’ which I fully concur with. Feck off with your imported stone lads – let’s get some classy indigenous timber craft going here.

If there is a single thread of humour here, it is the submission from the Griffin Group of Londis fame, World Class Leaders in the Field of Unauthorised Development of Convenience Stores: Specialising in Architectural Conservation Areas. They object, no less, to this development on the grounds of ‘Damage to the historic fabric of central Dublin City’, in particular the buildings' ‘nostalgic and emotional significance’ and their being located in an Architectural Conservation Area. You couldn’t concoct this stuff if you tried.

Manahan Planning also submitted in a similar vein on behalf of Bulter’s Chocolates, The Body Shop. Korky’s Shoes and others, devoting most of their submission to conservation philosophy no less! It’s hilarious how business interests can turn on the rose water when they want to get one over on the big guys, especially in this case with the applicant being AIB. Unfortunately the conservation approach outlined is not particularly well informed and is something of a disservice to the submission.

In other O’Connell Street news, Eason is getting in on the trend to turn Dublin into World Landfill Capital 2011 by erecting a giant banner across their facade advertising their wares, in contravention of ACA policies. As if the store wasn’t cheap enough, they’ve just brought it down to a whole new level. One hopes it doesn’t fit in with Eason’s managing director, Conor Whelan’s, vision for turning around the chain by making it more up-to-date and improving its image through investing €20 million in store refurbishments and IT. What a way to start the process.

Nonetheless, never did the flagship O’Connell Street store need a makeover – it’s horribly dated, cluttered, cheap and incoherent. The new business plan intends to integrate all aspects of the business’s product lines more seamlessly into each other, so rather than ‘departments’ of books, cards, stationary etc, they would bring it all together, and more coherently branded through ‘merchandising, signage, lighting, shop flow, cross merchandising – the whole atmospherics’. They hope to refurb a trial store this year – here’s hoping the O’Connell Street outlet will be one of the first.

[missarchi]

deep...
I could never write that...
any pictures?

[aj]

I am guessing DCC approves demolition with conditions only for the permission to be overturned by ABP?

Given the lack of pre 1916 buildings still standing in the area surely ABP will throw this out.

[GrahamH]

It is unfortunate how the demand for 'modern floorplates' and the resulting 'need' for extensive demolition has largely been taken at face value. This need has not been adequately proven by the applicants, yet it is on this central issue that the development proposal hangs. I do think the planner has admirably weighed up the policy objectives in the Development Plan regarding the reinvention of buildings in the ACA for modern uses versus conservation requirements - this is rigorously argued. But critically, it is not the exclusive issue in this instance: rather it is the adaptability of the existing buildings within this commercial context - in particular the retention of the Victorian with the potential for infill in the middle - that is at stake. Yet this question hasn't even been asked. The applicants have stacked up the case as a pair of non-negotiable questions: 1. Retention of all buildings as non-viable, and 2. Retention of the corner for 'major conservation gain', with the development concession of demolition to the rear. Question 3 isn't on the table, never mind a Question 4. In my view, this is developer-led development. They haven't posed all the options, so the planning authority won't either.

The question also has to be asked that, with the exception of Carlton, this is the first 'regular' case to come before the planning authority posing demolition in the O'Connell Street ACA, and almost certainly it is going to be granted. This does not set appropriate precedent or standards for the rest of the ACA where the key issue of the adaptability of existing buildings is not being thoroughly assessed. This is the key objective of any ACA, and if the principle cannot even be relied upon in the premier ACA in the city, never mind the State, one cannot hold up much hope for the rest of the country.

[GrahamH]

25/4/2011

On Easter Sunday just past, O’Connell Street served with dignity its now annual role as host to the Commemoration of the 1916 Rising – this year marking its 95th anniversary. The deep enclosure of the GPO plaza surrounded by distinguished lime trees affords dignity to the setting of the ceremony – a function envisaged by Dublin City Council as part of the initial planning of the space in the late 1990s.



Aerial views of the plaza during the event captured the eye-catching pattern of the square contemporary setts of the carriageway, beautifully evoking the historic setts that paved the roadway outside the GPO in 1916. It is a shame this effect is not appreciable from ground level.

In assessing an event of this nature on a forum of this kind, one must primarily focus on the nuts and bolts of its presentation. But it is also the civic character of the occasion, the ceremonial of State, the deployment of the urban environment as stage set to public pageantry, and of course the commemorative function of the event itself, that all help to shape the tone and nature of the proceedings. In this respect, it is probably fair to say that the host location, as now evidenced on a yearly basis, far exceeds the standards applied to the ceremony itself.

Troops from various divisions of the Defence Forces are aligned on the carriageway in front of the GPO, as well as on the pavement flanking the portico.




While the Army Band occupy a by now well established position encircling Jim Larkin.







Beyond them (in the background) the median of the plaza is occupied by senior government representatives including the Cabinet, probably senior members of the judiciary, and high ranking members of the Defence Forces.

In a carefully cheorographed sequence, the Minister for Defence is always the first to arrive, followed by the Lord Mayor of Dublin, followed by the Taoiseach, and finally the President. (When competing heads of state are involved in these sequences, quite the farce can often ensue, as occured between Margaret Thatcher and François Mitterrand before the European Council Summit in 1990, as both endlessly encircled Dublin Castle trying to out-do each other in the late arrivals stakes. I can’t remember who blinked first).




An Taoiseach Enda Kenny.




Lord Mayor Councillor Gerry Breen.




And finally An Uachtarain Mary McAleese approaches with a Presidential Escort of Honour, comprised of thirty motorcycles that are usually drawn from the 2nd Cavalry Squadron of the Cavalry Corps.



The former famous bright blue motorcycles were replaced with these deep green Honda models three years ago. Personally I don’t think they have nearly the same effect, while the loss of connection to the vibrant blue of the Blue Hussars mounted escort is of considerable shame. Another element of civic continuity thrown by the wayside.




And the car itself. De Valera's 1947 Rolls Royce is largely only used for inaugurations. Curiously, the Taoiseach’s Mercedes always seems to have flashing blue lights, but the President’s doesn’t.



The Tricolour always mounted on the left and the Presidential Standard on the right.

As ever, the President got the loudest applause on arrival, in contrast to the weak reception of the other dignitaries. And not just loud, but thoroughly warm – applause reserved for somebody above politics. Which doesn’t say much for politics.

[GrahamH]

Like those before her on the same spot. Mary McAleese stood for a salute, before inspecting the Guard of Honour.




Okay, so I missed a decent shot of the car, but I wasn’t gonna miss out on this opportunity. Bullseye!







And sorry, it just has to be said – Mary has the most marvellous hair in Ireland. If you walked into a fancy dress shop anywhere in the world and asked for a presidential quaff, this is what would be passed over the counter. A marvel indeed.

By contrast, I will not repeat various overheard remarks about the cut of that ravishing pink coat. One knows better than to dabble in the murky underworld of women’s fashion.

At noon, the Tricolour was lowered to half mast atop the GPO.



A sombre moment, somewhat deflated by the flag’s hoisting, not as one would expect by an immaculately turned out, medal-bedecked member of the Defence Forces – but by a short-sleeved Garda with a walkie-talkie and what appeared to be an aul lad in a fleece. You couldn’t make this stuff up.

Two members of the Defence Forces then approached the centre of the portico to invite the President to lay a wreath in honour of those involved in the 1916 Rising.







A minute’s silence was then observed.

As an aside, it is worth noting that the BBC insists at civic events of this kind that all crew in public view or directly involved in the midst of an event are appropriately dressed for the occasion. As can be seen above, it was a typically zero-standards approach from RTÉ. This should not be tolerated by the Department of the Taoiseach, which manages all protocol.

The deliverance of links, the Proclamation, and various statements were superbly choreographed and eloquently stated by senior ranks of the Defence Forces.




The crowd listened on in the April sunshine. (A rare considerate touch was turning off the traffic signals).




About 3000 people gathered this year – a little down on previous years.




The Defence Forces then left ‘on parade’, concluding the ceremony.

[GrahamH]

All in all, a distinguished event – one that is considerably added to by the salutes, laments and anthems of the Army Band. Indeed a little more by them during the ceremony certainly wouldn’t go amiss.

Unfortunately, it really is the standards we set ourselves for managing and presenting events of this kind that so let us down. For example, why does O’Connell Street have to be turned into a giant galvanised dipping plant on Easter Sunday?



The giant steel barriers with army plastic thrown over them, believe it or not, are the entrance gates for dignitaries, which are hastily pulled apart when they arrive! Yet this is by now a long-established event – a civic event at that – so why isn’t there more appropriate infrastructure in place for it? The same purpose-designed elements could be used for countless civic occasions and should be in the possession of Dublin City Council or the Garda to be rolled out as required.

The same can be said even of the plaza at the GPO itself. Embarrassingly, even here galvanised metal pens are used to surround the ceremonial site. A cattle shed has more dignity. Again, in most European cities elegant timber or metal fencing is held in the possession of the city authority and brought out for civic events. Indeed, the question has to be asked, why wasn’t temporary ceremonial furniture designed as part of the O’Connell Street project? Presumably for the same reason why a multitude of design elements for the street never came into being.

Likewise, the positioning if the large screens – incidentally with 16:9 aspect ratio mushed into 4:3 – is nothing short of a farce. They are dumped by Mongey Communications, complete with associated paraphernalia, speakers and control units, slung over with plastic tarpaulins, in front of the GPO itself!



Who on earth manages these events? Evidently someone who excels in organising the Killorglin Puck Fair. What’s even worse is that the screens aren’t even positioned for the benefit of the public, but rather apparently for ease of draping cables through the window of the parcel office behind. Can you just image the Queen standing at the Cenotaph with a pair of giant plastic-wrapped Mongey screens looming down on her? This is primitive stuff chaps.

And need it be confirmed?



A rank of Woodies domestic plastic planters ‘dresses’ the ceremony. No really... honestly... who are these people?

And the icing on the cake – where does the ceremonial wreath go after the event? You guessed it!



Marvellously versatile things these Woodies planters. They can host everything from petunias on your patio to, er, State wreaths under the portico of the General Post Office. The cut out plastic ribbon-on-a-roll is a particularly eloquent touch.

Is this what they died for? Jaysus, they’d sooner expire for Queen and Country than be honoured like this. Truly, the dignity of Irish State ceremonial knows no bounds.

Annnyway, it's genuinely lovely to see O'Connell Street used in a truly civic way. Some fine tuning and it will soon be worth writing home about.

[Morlan]

Good stuff, Graham! Hard to believe it's been 5 years already viewtopic.php?t=4856

[Cathal Dunne]

Great photos Graham, as always. You really did have a great vantage point. That photo of the President is amazing. O'Connell St. really does look like a proper national main street when looking at these photos but those plastic window boxes of flowers are ridiculous. What is this, a village féte? They should have proper pots for state occasions like these.

btw, has anyone noticed how Enda Kenny has gained about a stone since becoming Taoiseach? I never saw him with such a paunch before. As Leader of the Opposition he looked a lot slimmer than he is now.

[missarchi]

I like this : )

http://img801.imageshack.us/i/neverseenthisbefore.jpg/

[GregF]

Great photos Graham as usual. I was delighted when the FF government reintroduced this annual ceremony for the 90th anniversary of the 1916 Rising in 2006.
It coincided with the much needed makeover of O'Connell St, although the street was not finished at the time for the occasion....typical!

Unfortunately, such a ceremony means nothing today....our Republic means nothing now when we have the IMF and the EU running the show. Our country sold out by FF.

The guard of honour looked well. but the military brass present, particularly the head of our non existant 'air force' is farsical. (The sight of our troops giving a gun salute wearing big ear mufflers is comical).

The plastic containers of lillies sums up our so called 'republic' beautifully ... kinda cheap and shallow!

[hutton]

> Runner Up Award, 1972 Tidy Towns Competition, Category: Rural Sub Post Offices.

[StephenC]

Great photos Graham as usual. I was delighted when the FF government reintroduced this annual ceremony for the 90th anniversary of the 1916 Rising in 2006.
It coincided with the much needed makeover of O'Connell St, although the street was not finished at the time for the occasion....typical!

Unfortunately, such a ceremony means nothing today....our Republic means nothing now when we have the IMF and the EU running the show. Our country sold out by FF.

The guard of honour looked well. but the military brass present, particularly the head of our non existant 'air force' is farsical. (The sight of our troops giving a gun salute wearing big ear mufflers is comical).

The plastic containers of lillies sums up our so called 'republic' beautifully ... kinda cheap and shallow!

A bit cynical maybe....but utterly true

[Satrastar]

The building at the corner of Eden Quay and O'Connell Street has finally had the hideous Irish Nationwide lettering removed!!!

Hurrah!! Pediments are still painted that minging green colour though.

I would attach a picture if I figure out how to do that.

Next steps for improvement-
Remove the advertising from the building at the other corner on lower ormonde quay and remove its cladding
Demolish Penneys
Demolish that building where the comedy lounge is now
Close down Burger King
Demolish O'Connell Bridge House and the fake Ballast building at the end of Westmoreland Street
Replace Traffic lights with less ugly ones
Recobble

[Morlan]

That's great news. The Baileys sign was replaced a while ago with Nokia or something, wasn't it? Why? Is that building exempt from the IAP?

And yes, demolish that hideous Penny's facade and OCB House.

[StephenC]

I understand that Enforcement Proceedings have now been taken by DCC against the Nokia signage. Perhaps some progress can be made.

Unfortunately one of the host buildings of the Nokia sign - the lurid green one - continues its spate of unauthorized development with a new Tourist Information office (another one, to add to the recent addition at the corner Henry Street and O'Connell Street - unauthorized again - and the long standing one further along Upper O'Connell Street).

[StephenC]

I understand that Enforcement Proceedings have now been taken by DCC against the Nokia signage. Perhaps some progress can be made.

Unfortunately one of the host buildings of the Nokia sign - the lurid green one - continues its spate of unauthorized development with a new Tourist Information office (another one, to add to the recent addition at the corner Henry Street and O'Connell Street - unauthorized again - and the long standing one further along Upper O'Connell Street).

[GrahamH]

That’s good news Stephen – hopefully we’ll see some action for once. Ironically, they shot themselves in the foot on this one, as it was only the change in signage that triggered enforcement proceedings.

Good news also on the Irish Nationwide signage. It says a lot about the implementation of the ACA and Special Planning Control Scheme that the only designated signage to come down on O’Connell Street in nearly a decade has occurred through the horrendous death of a window cleaner in 2005, who pulled down the Chas F. Ryan signage over Ann Summers in an attempt to save himself, and in the case of Irish Nationwide – well, the implosion of the world’s financial system and the decimation of the Irish economy. One dreads to think what is needed to remove the other advertising on Eden Quay – World War III? With any luck Helga II will sort things out for us.

The removal of the lettering (if not yet their substructure, which probably requires planning permission) makes a considerable difference.

2007




2011








The fine late Edwardian facade decluttered.



Unfortunately, that nasty floodlighting, which only went in a few years ago as part of the equally crude repainting job seen below, was not removed.


(2007)

This site was of course occupied by a fine red brick building that comprised part of the Wide Streets Commissioners’ 1780s set-piece composition framing the entrance to Sackville Street.



The corner building, as with that that still survives on the opposite side of the street, was a relatively narrow building in appearance (though the same width as the other plots on Sackville Street) that hosted a feature tripartite window at first floor level – its principal elevation facing onto Eden Quay.

The famous jewellers Hopkins & Hopkins occupied the ground floor shop unit both before and after the 1916 Rising reduced the building to rubble. Famously, they were the makers of the original Sam Maguire cup (now replaced with a replica for match use).



Their fine new premises, built from a hefty insurance claim, was erected to the designs of the architectural practice O’Callaghan & Webb, who made considerable hay out of the rebuilding of the area post-1916.

The building is one of the firm’s more successful designs – robust, decorous yet streamlined, and above all elegant in massing and detail. The masonry is a little gauche in places, but for the most part ingenuity is displayed with deep voids, confident channelling and a well proportioned hierarchy of storey treatment. The building composes itself much more successfully from a distance, as intended to be viewed from O'Connell Bridge.



Unfortunately, the building’s sophistication is considerably diluted and its architectural expression cheapened by the painting of its double-height timber window bays in white. These are not simply an accent or a detail of the building – they are a central element of its facades’ composition. To decorate the frames with the frivolous notions of the 1980s, rather than carefully selected finishes that give full acknowledgment of their equal importance to the cut stone that surrounds them, is to change the building into something it was never intended to be. The bays are supposed to read as heavy, punchy, robust voids in the facades – not as trashy, garish white effects that clash rather than harmonise with the overall composition.

Here is an original photograph of the building from shortly after its completion in 1922. What a pleasing and thoroughly elegant composition it makes on the corner.



The deep, dark voids are reminiscent of the luxurious bronze bays of Selfridges and the many banks and insurance offices of early 1900s Britain.

[GrahamH]

Here we see the building rising from the ashes in 1920 – the first floor is beginning to take shape.




Reaching completion here around early 1922.




We can get some vague sense of what the building would be like returned to its original paint scheme with some crude image trickery.

Today




Restored




And the colour version for what it’s worth.



(Note what Ulster Bank's high class aspirations next door have turned into within the space of months - unbelievable stuff).

The finest attribute of No. 1 O’Connell Street must surely be its beautiful original shop front, which survives almost entirely intact today. It is astounding the degree to which the early 1900s is overlooked in terms of shop front design – the principles of which are not only applicable to the modern store, they also set the standards that international chains unconsciously aspire to the world over. These chaps had the art fine-tuned when rebuilding the north inner city in the 1910s and 1920s, yet we gloss over them in favour of either poor reproductions of Victorian shop fronts or late 20th century models. We would do well to take a leaf out of the 1916 generation’s book.

The exquisitely proportioned, polished silver granite shop front of Hopkins & Hopkins.



Expansive display windows address Eden Quay, while a beautiful curved entrance bay appropriately addresses O’Connell Street. The chamfered corner bay was cleverly deployed for use as a captivating window display, catching the eye of thousands of pedestrians crossing O’Connell Bridge. The displays elegantly responded to the horizontal glazing bars of the windows, keeping the top lights free of clutter. Like the character of the whole building, the shop front exuded all the charms of a miniature trinket box quietly sitting at the entrance to O’Connell Street.

The shop front today, with a nasty 1980s signage panel erected over the original granite fascia where reticent pin-mounted lettering was once located. The entrance bay with curved glass has also been crudely altered. Why hold on to picturesque notions when one can have a utilitarian security lobby?







Handsome bronze capitals adorn the tops of the pilasters, while a further band of bronze dresses the top of the fascia panel.

A more subtle intervention was the replacement of decorative grilles underneath the windows with matching granite infill panels.




One of the more recognisable attributes of this building to regular passers-by are the beautiful bronze plinths to the shop front pilasters. One or two have been lazily replaced in brass.



The timber window frames also feature fine bronze dressings to their bases.

An ingenious original design feature of the shop front is the incorporation of remarkably slimline shutters in the windows, the running track of which can be seen in the images above and below. It is so discreet that one would have to challenge even the most highly factory-engineered window manufacturers to incorporate such a feature today.

[GrahamH]

The shutters roll down from behind the original fascia, where one can see the original awnings also neatly incorporated! A remarkable feat of design.




The shutters in operation in November 1923.



Of course we’d want open-mesh located inside the shop today ; )

The metal fixings for all of the awnings still survive.







Quirky carved detail to the windows also.

Personally, I’m in a permanent state of two minds on awnings. Yes they’re classy, yes they’re picturesque, but architectural they are not. On a large building with a plain shop front they can work extremely well, but on a small scale where clutter can be easily generated on a street, little beats a dash of confident shop front design, as seen at No. 1. Why interfere with such a carefully contrived composition – it’s akin to tossing a throw over a good sofa to ‘protect’ it: neither having the confidence nor the will to use and keep on show what is good and of quality.

Irish Nationwide have now moved out. Another fine feature of the shop unit is its original Adamesque ceiling which survives perfectly intact, and finally on fully show now the stud partitions have mostly come down.








One of the many Edwardian style ceilings installed in O’Connell Street shops in the reconstructions, that while somewhat clunky in their use of hybrid motifs, display a charming Georgian revival style executed by the dying breed of plaster craftsmen of early 20th century Dublin.








Some plaster medallions and garlands to the walls also, which no doubt were strategically positioned above glazed display cabinets. Much of the plasterwork in the shop is in need of careful stripping of multiple layers of paint.



The clock frozen in time.

[GrahamH]

There is fabulous potential here for a gallery, fashion boutique or bistro-style café overlooking the Liffey through the picture windows.




The entire building is now on sale with offers expected around the €2 million mark – a fraction of what would have been earned for such a high profile building during the boom years. Here’s hoping the new owner and Dublin City Council recognise the building’s qualities in its refurbishment and future use.

[Morlan]

Thanks Graham.