Re: Re: Should the Clarence Hotel redevelopment get permission?

The outsider intervenes again, but are you in Dublin not rapidly approaching a Wood Quay or a Hume St moment? The Clarence and Stephens Green proposals are such monumental (sic) affronts to the integrity of the city that somebody should do something; in today’s media-hyped world with its penchant for the tabloidesque think of the negative publicity. ‘Over-hyped (and over-there) fading popgroup and megalomaniac starchitect conspire to ravish defenceless old dame on the quays’ (or something like that). You can no doubt invent a better scenario for the green yourselves.
Instead of the relentless quest for the ‘iconic’ and the mega, DCC should concentrate on ‘improving’ and consolidating the city within the canals. There are plenty of continental examples of good practice, just get on with it. It does not mean you build nothing new, even less that you give up on ‘contemporary’ architecture, since there are plently of vacant spaces and genuinely dilapidated buildings to focus on. Why not try Newmarket or Thomas St as exemplars and get a genuine debate going about best practice? ABP gives every indication of having been bought or at least contaminated, so the last line of defence has now gone.