college green/ o’connell street plaza and pedestrians
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Pedestrian hit by bus in Dublin
The incident happend at about 7pm when a bus on the 123 Marino to Walkinstown route hit the woman at College Green on Dame Street, Dublin 2 .
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2009/0113/breaking70.htm
These things happen however its just another reason to redesign the whole place…
That’s from the Robert L. Chapman collection, yes?
I got the book for christmas (edited [?] by Christiaan Corlett- a busy man recently)- well worth a look for any architecture, Dublin, Wicklow, bike and/or photography enthusiasts. The photo of Leeson Street Bridge in particular is a hoot.
I heard it had sheelagh-na-gigs facing Trinity (lending weight to the speculation that they had an apotropaic function)- you just can’t see them in the photo. 😉
@dermot_trellis wrote:
There used to be a round tower on College Green?.. Interesting!
it was the pivot around which Ireland rotated 😉
wasn’t it used as a sun dial?
every platz needs a circle?
or centre point…what goes around comes around ready for blast off:)
Makes you wonder why the Pillar or the spire wasn’t put there – seeing as everything else is on the southside anyhow :p
@missarchi wrote:
what goes around comes around ready for blast off:)
Traditional early Irish ICBM, well-camouflaged, circa June 1932. Winning design was by a M na gCopaleen, who subsequently went into the port-tunneling business.
there are still the railings to debate and the little moat but???
to big… or to small.would it fly the ICBM that is???
@Frank McDonald wrote:
The Pars carpet gallery beside Philips, which passers-by would remember for its gilt-framed woven portrait of a fixed-grin Mary Robinson in the window, closed down nearly a year ago and has just reopened as yet another Spar.
And now I see that Spar didn’t even apply for planning permission for their new shopfront. They’ve a retention application in. Quite extraordinary with such a high profile case, and indication yet again of the appalling lack of regulation of convenience stores. Not only should the shopfront not be there (which while reticent, is clumsily detailed), the shop shouldn’t be either.
nothing beats a butlers hot chocolate… ‘World leaders’ meeting at an economic forum have a lot on their mind – their own interests, writes Vincent Browne.
and
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/motors/2009/0128/1232923368264.html
We use Scats (Sydney Coordinated Adaptive Traffic System). It’s from Australia and we’ve been using it for about 18 years.
“We need more people to go on public transport – to use buses, to cycle and to walk,” says Traynor. “There needs to be more integration between public transport and traffic management systems, which we are working on.”This is good! From today’s times 28/1/09
Habitat store to be replanned as cafe
OLIVIA KELLY
A PROPOSAL to locate a branch of German low-cost supermarket Lidl in the former Habitat furniture store on Dublin’s College Green has been scrapped in favour of redeveloping the building as a “Viennese-style†cafe.
Dublin City Council has granted permission to Pixtell Ltd to change the building from a retail premises to a licensed restaurant.
Pixtell is controlled by Tony Leonard, who, with Paddy McKillen, bought the former Bank of Ireland branch in 2002 for €22 million, before leasing it to Habitat. The furniture store closed last May following what it described as a severe deterioration in sales. Habitat had hoped to sell on its lease, and Lidl was among a small number of parties who expressed an interest in the site.
However, the supermarket chain was reportedly unwilling to pay the €2 million, reduced from an initial €3 million, asked by Habitat.
The lease has since been returned to Pixtell, who remain the owners of the premises, and the company has decided to convert the building into a cafe/restaurant instead of seeking another retail lease with Lidl or any other firm.
The planning permission sought, and granted, is unlikely to be appealed to An Bord Pleanála, as it involves a substantial restoration of the original fabric of the mid-19th century building.
The recently added mezzanine floor is to be removed, and the wall between the protected period property and the modern building that adjoins it on Suffolk Street, which was part of the Habitat store, is to be rebuilt.
The application was referred to An Taisce, which said it welcomed the proposal for a Viennese-style cafe as long as the architectural character of the building was maintained and enhanced.
It also said a condition should be imposed to ensure that any alcohol sales on the premises should be in the context of a restaurant only and not a pub or nightclub.
The city council attached a condition that the building not be used as a public house or nightclub.
The section of the Habitat store fronting on to Suffolk Street will remain separate from the cafe and is likely to be leased as a clothing store.
Yep, an excellent development isn’t it. The application went in a good few weeks ago.
This is the type of outlet in which Dublin is sorely lacking, which in spite of a good effort, the Bank restaurant further down on College Green isn’t particularly successful in achieving. At the end of the day the bar takes precedence and the hall lacks intimacy. missarchi’s ‘Butler’s’ picture hints at what College Green is deserving of and what could be created here.
Removing the front mezzanine will do much to improve the internal character of the place which at present is disorientating in layout and the wider architectural scheme compromised. Unlike the common design device of creating a modest vestibule to emphasise a greater space, at the Habitat building the entrance just feels pokey, temporary and thoroughly unbefitting of exterior expectations. And as much as the off-white tones are crisp and elegant, a bit of ebullient Victoriana wouldn’t go amiss on the paint front.
All in all very exciting. And good move on rebuilding the party wall – that unit would never sell on with that crazed layout.
Which Butler’s is that? Or am I misunderstanding?
@Rory W wrote:
It also said a condition should be imposed to ensure that any alcohol sales on the premises should be in the context of a restaurant only and not a pub or nightclub.
The city council attached a condition that the building not be used as a public house or nightclub.
Michael McDowell is presumably allowing a wry smile to break across his face right about now.
If I have time, I’ll come back to that SCATS article- but where to begin…?
@ctesiphon wrote:
Which Butler’s is that? Or am I misunderstanding?
I think we all are. Not quite the decorated heritage fridge units we’re accustomed to.
@Rory W wrote:
This is good! From today’s times 28/1/09
Habitat store to be replanned as cafe
OLIVIA KELLY
Yeah, it’s amazing the same paper ran essentially the same article a few weeks ago. Gap is taking part of it they said then. olivia doesn’t seem to have checked their own archive.
I must say, getting back to the pedestrianisation, that I do think it would be a great idea… Or even a semi-pedestrianisation (buses and trams only?). It’s a great place with fascinating architecture, and currently, you can’t get more than a fleeting glimpse before having to dodge an oncoming vehicle, or a flood of other people trying to avoid one. Would be lovely to just be able to wander aoround and take it in.
Love the old picture of it too, wonder what that round tower was…
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2009/0131/1232923377631.html
Admitting that not all of Dublin’s newest public spaces are successful yet, she says good public spaces often need to evolve – they “just don’t spring into lifeâ€.
Public spaces The good, the bad and the undetermined
THE GOOD
Good public spaces in Dublin, according to architect Seán Harrington, include Grafton Street, Temple Bar Square, Bloom’s Lane, Trinity College’s front quadrangle and Meeting House Square when it’s not raining. Patrick Street in Cork and the town bridge in Athlone are fine examples of functional public spaces, according to architect Alan Mee. Despite controversy, Eyre Square in Galway continues to be central to public life, he says. For Dublin City Architect Ali Grehan, the piers in Dún Laoghaire and the Bull Wall are “functional but fantasticâ€.
THE BAD
For Harrington, examples of bad public space in the capital include the car-choked quays and College Green, the space beside City Hall on Dame Street, the space on Kildare Street by the Department of Agriculture Building and Wolfe Tone Park.
I dream that college green will be sorted by 2016;) but what goes below it is going to be the hard part.
@jdivision wrote:
Yeah, it’s amazing the same paper ran essentially the same article a few weeks ago. Gap is taking part of it they said then. olivia doesn’t seem to have checked their own archive.
Yeah Gap are taking the Suffolk Street bit, but there wasn’t much mention of the front section in that article
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