Re: Re: DDDA / Docklands Miscellany
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@PVC King wrote:
I think the debate on this had already taken place re their equally dumb proposal to float the Abbey in Georges Dock; I didn’t see the point in discussing it because like so many starchitect proposals around that time it was obviously never going to happen for two reasons.
1. The heritage movement would splinter into the continuity salafia faction using the judicial review *50 route if consent were secured after six months in ABP.
2. The market had no appetite for such a product as island based offices would have not been able to produce enough retail or parking to service office and residential high rise; as big as the river is the space available would be too small once retaining walls were subtracted.
Clearly the CHDDA era was very successful but that was because they had British Land and Hardwicke underwriting it; it was also accompanied by a tax break that was location specific to Financial Services; that went sometime around 2000 and once it went financial services companies decamped to locations as remote as Wexford.
What to do next with this key development zone? For starters don’t spend a fortune on an in depth inquiry; secondly build any new structure in a manner that dovetails with both Nama the principal landowner and Dublin City Council the local authority. If one lesson is to be learned from this it is that local authorities should not be competing in the same City; a coherent plan is required to get the north docklands fully developed in time for the interconnector’s delivery in 2018.
I don’t know about the – ”never goin’ to happen theory” – there were a lot of guys in suits presenting this scheme, and none of them looked like the kind you’d associate with kite flying.
I suspect that they had it in mind to mine the campshire for a Smithfield-style two-storey underground car park, although in no way would have that made the concept less ludicrous.
To be honest with you I don’t think this scheme ever entered the consciousness of the continuity-salafia movement, or any branch faction thereof [and obviously we’re using ‘consciousness’ in it’s loosest sense], but I suppose we wouldn’t have really found out until long after all the decisions had been taken and work had started :rolleyes:
It’s not that there wasn’t much discussion of the DDDA, and that scheme in particular, here, in fact, I think there were two or three threads solely dedicated to these subjects, it’s just that no one outside this little bubble seemed interested, – there were none of the usual irate letters to the editor, or ill-tempered spats on Pat Kenny, or whatever, all the usual indicators of ascending dudgeon.
I wouldn’t have expected outfits like the RIAI, or the IAF, or the Planning Institute, or anyone with an interest in loads-a-work to rock the boat by fostering a discussion on the wisdom of these matters, but the apparent absence of any critique from within Dublin City Council is not as easy to forgive.