Busaras revamp

€20 isn’t it?

Originally posted by Andrew Duffy
€20 isn’t it?

NOte on any appeal that you are paying the €20 under duress and that you require a receipt so that if and when it gets appealed to the European Courts and is found illegal, it can be claimed back.

Wow. “Overhaul”, “modernising”, “upgraded” these are certaintly not words I like to see in plans for a listed building. (Sounds like they have their eye on the ilac canopy that could find a new home down on store street or something.)

The article also says

“CIE chief architect John Clancy explained that Busaras is a listed building. So the revamp will be primarily internal”.

Judged on that statement alone it would be fair to interpret Mr. Clancys understanding as being if a building is listed you just have to hang on to the facade. That would be scary stuff. I’m sure he has been misquoted or something. As a chief architect he surely understands the full extent of what protection is implicated by the protected structures list.

A first step [particularly if the planning application is available yet] could be to ask John Clancy to clarify his statement. Have you ever met the guy on your research Paul?

God no!!! Connolly while welcome is very cheap and tacky. A clean up of Busaras yes, but don’t wreck it!

Paul – where is that quote from? Haven’t seen that in the papers. I presume an application hasn’t actually been lodged with DCC yet.

It’s from property section of indo online.

Is Seamus Brennan hopping a ball, hoping we’ll take our eyes off Luas?

great thesis, by the way, paul. i read through it one weekend and then spent a few hours checking out the building.

Did anyone catch the interview on this on News Talk this lunchtime?

I don’t know – missed it myself – interview was refered to in the news segment on Damien Kilberd.

I doubt the overhaul will be anything greater than a scrub up – the budget seems miniscule for anything more involved.

‘The building is listed so the works will be primarily internal’
Brilliant!
That’s a quote for the record books!
Did you ever hear anything like it?!

I can easily see the slatted ceiling inside the concourse being the first feature to be ripped out, this application must be got hold of straight away.
I’ll keep gaurd if you like, I come out of Connolly every morning and pass by.
I’ll stick my head in every day when/if the works get underway!

Typical – its like the “Georgian buildings – well its only the facade that people like so lets keep them and build 2,000 sq m of office behind it” argument

Surely the new “protected” status under the planning act means that the whole of the building is protected including the interior !

I was in Heuston this week and saw some of the new works going on there. Whilst I can understand that their budgets are cut the standard of materials and finishes is very poor. False economy as well because as with Connolly it will become shabby very quickly. God help us if the same approach is taken at Busaras.

JJ

I was hoping they’d learn from the mistakes of Connolly when dealing with Heuston – clearly not then so.

This could be horrendous or it could be sympathetic. Let’s wait on the planning appl.

I really think that Busaras is so under appreciated. I really hope that they do not mess it up. I am sure they will though. Then in about 2053 they will be trying to find out how it looked when it was first built and trying to restore it to its original look.

Paul

If I might correct you and even suggest an apology is due:

Regarding An Taisce and the Irish Georgian Society’s attitude to Bus Aras:

An Taisce have been raising Cain with the City Council and CIE over proposed plans for the ‘renovation’ of Bus Aras and have been doing so with little or no support since the first tranche of major internal refurbishment about seven years ago when most of the original Scott designed fittings were trashed.

As to the general attitude of AT to modern Architecture I was peripherally involved in the last round of recommendations regarding lisitngs in the Dublin Area, quite a number of modern movement buildings were recommended for listing with almost none accepted by the City Council for preservation .

You may also be forgetting the role of AT in relation to highlighting the scandalous illegal demolition of Archers – the prominance given to that building did’nt just come out of the blue – a lot of work was done by AT just trying to persuade media to cover it and the City Manager to take action.

Similarly the ‘renovation’ of the Old Dublin Airport Terminal Building – I have a deep an abiding suspicion thatif it were’nt for Ian Lumley that building would’nt exist even in its current bastardised form.

I’ve noticed it before not so much on this website but in your own comments: a tendancy to be very unfair in this regard to AT.

As to that – I am sure that An Taisce is unlikely to pursue the matter – the staff have more on their hands than your forum comments. I would however add, as an outgoing council member that you might care to check the accuracy of such statements with your solicitors before making them. You’re usually very careful about libel and slander on this forum – by all means criticise, but don’t invent.

By the way I completely and utterly agree with the majority of the comments on this site regarding the significance of Bus Aras.

Apologies in advance if this posting is seen as something of a rant. I don’t mean to offend anyone on this board, but I feel that there is a fundamental lack of respect being given to the human beings who are the ones who have to actually use this building – the people for whom it was designed and built.

I note very little concern given in the above posts to the actual purpose of the building – which is to facilitate the people wishing to travel and ensure that they have a central and reasonably comfortable / convienient hub, with suitable refreshment / shopping / information resources available.

Busarus was built to provide a decent bus station for the travelling public, against huge and vocal opposition from the great and the good who felt that they were undeserving of such a building, and sure wouldn’t they be better just waiting in the rain on the quays like they used to?

That attitude still seems to be prevelant today.

A similar effort by CIE to provide a terminal for city bus users was squashed in the 80s when after years of building up a land-bank, it was taken from them for the Temple Bar scheme. The result being that almost every street in the city is filled with bus termini, people still wait in the rain (shelters impractical or not allowed in many places) and the view of many fine buildings is obscured.

Please don’t deny a modern, revamped terminal to the thousands of tired and weary travellers who use Busarus daily.

If you really care about the building so much, then arrange to donate a similarly-sized and centrally located plot of land, with planning permission for a modern terminal, and the funds for it to be built.

Then you can sit in Busarus and gaze at it all day long!

Gabriel

but Gabriel, what problem would the tired and weary etc have with a carefully restored busarus? it was designed as a terminal.