Store Street Plaza

Could someone possibly post a photo of this new plaza, for those of us who do not live in Ireland?
Thanks

I’ve always thought this place would make for a lovely square or plaza… It’s really cosily tucked in behind Busaras.

bring on the winos!!!

@fergalr wrote:

I’ve always thought this place would make for a lovely square or plaza… It’s really cosily tucked in behind Busaras.

I’ve always thought the same.

Some camera phone pics from this morning. Sorry for the crap quality but I hadn’t even had coffee when I took these 🙂

I guess all the bike locks are gone? Great move DCC – the plaza should look great with bikes locked to all of the lamp posts.

Skateboard tabs are being retrofitted nest week. Council made the decision to move the bike racks somewhere else

Did they decide where?

I think they are moving them down onto Lower Abbey Street

Much safer than outside a Garda station 😛
At least they didn’t just remove them, anyways

Given its location, near Busaras and the Luas stop, I imagine bikes will be chained to the poles here unless bike stands are located closer than Abbey St.

Sure who would want to cycle to a bus station or a Luas stop and park their bike there? Mad!

Stayimg on topic though…anyone think the whole plaza is a tad over-designed?

That is my impression: it is not a huge space and they have managed to make it look crowded, the scale of the balls is off and they emphases the separation of the landscaped area from the surround, it would have been better if this was presented as an amenity location for the whole square north of Busaras: maybe introducing the same design elements outside of the triangular area the current plaza occupies. It is good though to get some seating, some trees and some public art.

Agreed. The art installation was sponsored by Isaacs Group which owns the hotel and two hostels nearby. Basil Good, who owns the group, is also the charman of the Dublin City Centre BID so I imagine this type of urban imporvement is something he will be happy to see more of. The BID is also hoping to introduce a series of capital works to improve key part of the city. Im sure these works were in no small part due to Mr Good, who I understand is also a member of the NE Inner City Task Force. Credit where credit is due.

Robustness was the main point of the brief.

Giving the Garda no opportunity to park on the space led to the idea for the enclosing arcs of spheres. They sometimes have a tendancy to abuse their position of power.

The spheres were originally to be 500 dia. but on consultation with th Council for the Blind of Ireland we increased them to 800 dia. as not to cause obstruction. I think they have a much better sense of scale in a public area now that they are in place.

@StephenC wrote:

Sure who would want to cycle to a bus station or a Luas stop and park their bike there? Mad!

Even crazier notion… Some of us might like to take bikes on the Luas.

A man can dream…

@Landarch wrote:

Giving the Garda no opportunity to park on the space led to the idea for the enclosing arcs of spheres. They sometimes have a tendancy to abuse their position of power.

And the sun sometimes has a tendency to rise in the morning. :rolleyes: 🙂

I like the seating platforms and the planters look smart; the balls along the west side work well in defining the space, my real reservation was that the work didn’t encompass the whole square rather than just the triangle in front of the garda station. It has made something pleasant of what was a messy parking area.

The Lord Mayor of Dublin, Councillor Paddy Bourke, will launch and unveil the new Store Street Plaza and Sculpture, on Friday 9th November, at 10am.

Dublin City Council has redeveloped the public space at Store Street to create an exiting, new, user-friendly space, with a unique sculpture at its centre.

“Scáthán”, meaning mirror, is the title of the sculpture. The name is inspired by the action of light on reflective surfaces and its proximity to the Liffey. “Scáthán” was designed by Robert McColgan.

The plaza, designed by Costin Associates, is completed with Chinese silver granite paving, lighting and five evergreen trees, which will enhance the central space surrounded by Busaras, the Corononers Court, Store Street Garda Station, Hotel Issac and the Luas Stop.

“The new Store Street Plaza, with its extended vistas stretching in every direction, will be a distinct focal point in this burgeoning part of Dublin”, the Lord Mayor commented.

The City Council thanks the major sponsors of the sculpture: The Isaacs Group; Ulster Bank; Brian O’Donnell and Dr. Mary Patricia O’Donnell; and Bennett (Construction) Limited. A contribution towards the project made by the Railway Procurement Agency (RPA) was very much appreciated. The support of an Garda Siochana and the assistance of the National Council for the Blind of Ireland must also be acknowledged.

The bike stands are now beside the bus stop facing the back of the Custom House.
They’re kind of in the way – too close to the bus stop.

We originally wanted to make a deliberate pedestrian link across the Luas lines to the entrance of Busaras The bus station is completely marooned from the surrounding area and quite an intimidating place to get in and out of for pedestrians. Development works can only take place at night within a certain distance and on Luas tracks so the idea was shelved for the moment.
Hopefully the new sculpture will act as a beacon and give travellers something to aim for when they come out the door of the station. The space and seating somewhere to go and figure out a plan

Before the regeneration….

Landarch

Was there any discussion about removing the old style lamp standards as part of the scheme. They sit so badly in the modern context of Store Street. It also a shame that so many Luas line pylons and signal boxes blot the area. I think the stone globes are a bit much to be honest but I like other elements and I think regardless its a major improvement on what was there before.

No good having a focal point for tourists if they cant cross the street to get to it though. Its a shame that no traffic calming was put in place to allow more pedestrian movement in the area.

I went through there on Friday Night and found it rather impressive – I don’t feel that it is too crowded (lets face it the plaza itself will never be thronged with people given its location) – I thought the balance was just right (felt like one of those pocket plazas you find on the content with a monument to a minor genral/royal/hero).

Nice job, well done

Yes, a definite well done here. The garda had made a joke of this area and it was like an obstacle course trying to get in and out. The sculpture looks particularly nice, if anybody has some good photos of it please post. The spherical stones are a bit fussy and also quite similar to the ones up at Portobello. But if they stop the rampant “il”legal garda parking, it can only be a good thing.

so _octahedral bipyramid_ should of read _decahedral_ bipyramid, i counted this evening, looks less crowded now more of the hoarding is down and as if to demonstrate the point a guard had parked on the pavement just before the first stone sphere.

StephenC, public lighting in the council love their traditional lamp standards and won’t be replacing them. I don’t mind them. The Luas pylons on the other hand do dominate and it was something we were concious of when picking a sculpture. We didn’t want something too narrow that would get lost amongst the pylons.

The sculpture is 10 sided to represent the decimal/metric age, something along those lines

Looks like a nice little plaza. Something more like this is what should have gone in next to Robocop.

A nighttime shot. Some of the lighting hadn’t been finished. There are led strips downlighting the limestone plinths and an led strip framing the base of the sculpture. They hadn’t been connected up properly when the shots were taken. The tree planter lighting I’m very happy with.

I think a more modern style of lighting would have been appropriate and a smaller scale. At the very least the originals should have been reconfigured to reflect the changed layout of the street here. Its all about the aesthetics afterall. anyhow…..

Any other similar schemes up your sleeves Landarch that you want to let us in on…..

What are the trees Landarch, Quercus ilex ? hard to make out from the shots.

Peter F. They are Prunus lusitanica. They had a good crown originally but were neglected and deprived of water when in storage before being planted. The crowns have suffered but the Parks Department gave them a good prune and hopefully a new flush of growth will get them looking healthy again. The tree will probably double in height and spread not a massive tree but evergreen and suited to the scheme.

StephenC, unfortunately, no other urban projects at the moment but hopefully we’ll get invloved in more throught this project.

It’s a nice job Landarch. Thanks for contributing – shame more people involved in projects don’t take a bit of time to explain their work or design concepts.

The earlier photos Sarsfield snapped give the impression of a rather cluttered space – only because it turns out that way when captured, as do many streetscapes. Not factoring in the wide roadways to either side, which give an airy feel, largely causes this. But the new plaza is in fact a spacious, coherent scheme that does justice to this little place, for so long neglected and given over to parked cars and general ancillary clutter.

I don’t think the concrete spheres are too small in real life: they’re the perfect scale.

The LEDs in the lamp units are ever so slightly tilted towards the balls: good attention to detail.

The view from the entrance to the station, with sculpture in the centre.

Lots of space for passing pedestrian traffic, hence minimal interference with the seated area. The latter is also nicely delineated with a band of darker stone paving.

Looking left towards Busáras. Solid consistent blue LED light under the seats. The construction railings suggest more clutter than there is.

The trees and surrounding seating planters are beautiful – so crisp and elegant. I can see why you’re pleased with their lighting, Landarch – it’s excellent.

So sleek and fresh.

Just a concern over the ubiqutous stuffed-in crisp packets…

There’s something of an 80’s disco floor going on which is kinda funky :p

The sculpture plinth is outlined with more crisp 80’s-inspired LED strips 🙂

(splashing rainwater marks the glassy surfaces)

Unfortunately the sculpture itself isn’t illuminated – maybe it would just end up lighting a reflected black sky anyway. It might result in a disco ball effect too, Oooh! – actually elaborating on the 80’s theme it could rotate, with glittering light sent dotted about the buildings of the square! And blind every bus, Luas and taxi driver! Brilliant!

Above is quite a long exposure – essentially you cannot see it at all at night.

All in all a great job – though have yet to see it during the day! Only one major flaw in the scheme, and need one even need need photographic evidence :rolleyes:

The bins look so hideously cheap and nasty amongst the brushed steel features. These yokes are getting beyond a joke.

But there is even greater potential here when the trees mature – it’s clearly going to be a lovely oasis of leafy calm with expansive canopies. In that respect I think the c.1900 lampposts will work quite well in the longer term. Even as it is they look fine, but need complementary crisp white bulbs. The orangey spill feels ill-thought out.

Could you tell us the origins of the stones Landarch?

GrahamH, the photos are excellent. The paving is all chinese granite, silver flags and grey setts to fit in with the exisitng paving in the area. All the rest of the stone is blue irish limestone. The spheres are a sanded finish and the plinths and the tree planter cladding is a honed finish. We couldn’t get the spheres honed because its a curved surface. There is blue limestone in the garda station, the big wall at the luas stop at Connolly and the aib building in the IFSC.
The final material used was stainless steel. The tree grilles, sculpture, anti skateboard detail and the bezels on the sphere uplights. We always try and limit the pallette of materials and avoid visually over cluttering a scheme. We were also conscious of integrating the scheme into the fabric of the broader city area and not just designing it as a stand alone scheme.

The mirrored finish of the sculpture is impossibe to pick up with lighting. Light bounces straight off the surface. We decided to frame the base of the sculpture with blue led strips to give it some reference at night.

I love the eighties comments. Big fan of music and everthing ott from that era. Keeping the design crisp and simple was always are main ambition. The success of the scheme will be measured by people using it on a summers day and how well it will look in the years to come I feel. Summer time, it is quite a suntrap in the afternoon when the sun swings around and clears busaras.

This is what should have been done at the plaza next to the City Hall

PTB, you’ll only invited mass depression with astute comments like that. The view from the DART is great, btw. If ever there’s a non-steamed up window, I’ll try and grab a snap.

I want to get an aerial/plan photo. The scheme reads really well on the plan drawing with the two opposing arcs of the spheres and the central grid cluster of 9 squares.

The original site meeting involved bringing the client and members of the Council across to the southside of the Liffey to view the composition of important buildings clustered together from George’s Quay. The Customs House, Liberty Hall, Irish Life centre, Busáras and the buildings along the edge of the IFSC. This was also included in our original concept proposals.

The concept was that this whole area would eventually read as a distinct quarter. That all the surfaces and public spaces would be treated with the same pallette of materials and a concious effort made to integrate this entire area.

The Store Street Plaza is to act as the catalyst for the regeneration of this entire quarter.

There are plans to take down the railings around the Customs House and develop it as public space

The green area demarcs Store Street Plaza. All the buildings marked in yellow

That’s fantastic news about the Custom House… the Dept of Local Govt and Environment hardly needs railings!

@fergalr wrote:

That’s fantastic news about the Custom House… the Dept of Local Govt and Environment hardly needs railings!

More seating room for the junkies unfortunately. Maybe the cops on Store St will give a damn about somewhere other than Mayor Street now.

Wll hopefully the IFSC yuppies might get there first. And, to be fair, the liffey side is so windswept by the river entrance of the Custom Hse that it was never going to be an attractive hangout.

Railings issue discussed previously here.

fergalr- I doubt removing the railings will encourage the suits to go there, and the place already has a reputation as a hang-out for those with nowhere else to go, as tends to be the case with windswept, inhospitable areas.

The railings should stay, though the idea of opening up the park area (subject to proper monitoring) seems sound.

It’s a lovely idea, but it would need round-the-clock policing

Seeing as it’s the back yard of a government department, you’d hope that’s already the case 😮