Re: Re: what now for Irish Times D’olier Street buildings?

Repairs and reinstatement of missing details on original fabric has also been sorely lacking, This is the standard of repair work undertaken across the board.

Mortar specification for even the most basic task of joint filling is clearly inappropriate. Compare the refinement of the original with the new.

Entire mouldings have been crudely built up using a dense, grey plastic repair mortar instead of splicing in new stone. It has also been liberally smeared over wherever a gap was encountered.

This ugliness stands in stark contrast to the works executed by The Irish Times c. 1990. Compatible granite carefully spliced into place.

Unlike the current project.

Arguably decay of this kind is part of the integrity of the historic fabric. But a simple form such as the above does warrant careful splicing. More elaborate carvings should be left alone.

The iconic corner capitals are in a good state of repair.

All stonework appears to have been sensitively cleaned. Before and after.

Again, excuse the hanging baskets. Somebody please save these people from themselves.

The focal point of the new development is the remodelled central shopfront of the 20th century houses, which retains the older granite insert as a striking proscenium arch. One may stand at ideological loggerheads over the failure to reinsert the original shopfronts, but on its own merit, HKR have done a fine job here in concept, if not quite in execution. The new entrance and flanking window fronts a large reception hall, reading to the street as a confident, yet reticent, crisp insert in the mellow granite surround. Really quite beautiful.

The tinted glazing is sultry and elegant.