Re: Re: Dublin Fruit Market

gunter: I agree with you completely; I was not advocating the ‘creation’ of a planned series of ‘squares’ (or spaces) – as a former planner, I know how difficult that is to design and execute. But the FM bldg must be the centrepiece of the whole project, not just an incidental (or even a ‘nuisance’ for some great planned sceme). I was advocating retaining the ‘spirit’ of the place – difficult i know, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try. So what if you design buildings and spaces deriving from the neo-renaissance of the FM; we need architects and designers with the balls to resist howls of ‘pastiche’ from the modernist lobby. You don’t have to ape old styles, just draw your inspiration from them.
An example: one of the best (and most actively used) spaces in Glasgow is the area (really an elongated triangle) in front of the Concert Hall (an awful neo-1950s lump), with a long prospect down Buchanan street (Grafton St eat your heart out!). It was not ‘planned’ to be a happening space – it just is. And it links old posh Glasgow (Sauchiehall St) with the new trendy (Buchanan St). So the statue of our esteemed late leader gets a few traffic cones and loses its specs – that’s life!