Re: Re: Dun Laoghaire Library Competition
Reddy,
You miss my points. I am not opposed to competitions, I am all in favour of open spaces and better circulation for traffic (wheeled and on foot.) However, one cannot just dump an open space in an urban environment and just leave it there, it has to be planned, managed, cared for and policed. DLRCC has a record of destroying localities with their crap notions and laziness, hence my comments yesterday on the manner in which they manage other open spaces.
Everyone seems to agree that the winning drawings/representations are inaccurate and misleading. It is not possible to see the negative impact this will have on the seafront & landscape without looking at it in its correct context.The site is sloped, running from South to North, rather like a gradual embankment running down to the sea. Along the coast there is a busy road, now a busy artery because part of Dun Laoghaire main street is pedestrianized; just inside and parallel with the road is the DART railway line, in a deep “cut.” Inside that are “The Metals,” a pedestrian / cycle path, dating to the early 1800’s and initially used to bring granite from Dalkey Quarry to the harbour. Inside that is a series of unlinked open spaces, including the site in question on the eastern extremity. On the southern side, at the top of the slope, there are terraces of old houses and the Royal Marine hotel, all of which form a pleasant line (height) and a mixture of styles, punctuated by an occasional spire. On the western end the old pavilion cinema has been replaced by a shopping centre/apartments/car park complex which fronts onto Marine road and has its ass to the open space, with no integration and exacerbated by the entrance to the car park. The mass of the proposed library is equally heavy and creates more frontiers.
In my view Imagen got it right with their proposal and comments on the site – see:
http://ireland.archiseek.com/unbuilt_ireland/dublin/dlr_library/imagen/index.html
What really needs to happen to the space is a mixture of Imagen’s design (or similar) and to roof over the railway line to create a wider linear space along the seafront with a great number of connections to the front.
Landarch – the open space you describe is under the control of the Harbour Company and is policed by the Harbour Police. The gougers do not go there for many reasons, the latter being one of them. Usually it is so windy there it puts most people off.
Kb
PS When I googled to find our about Imagen, their website is so artistic it does not work (unless it is so minimalist that they have just one page?
