D’Olier & Westmoreland St.

It has been closed for some time and none of the mentioned plans seem to have got very far. The last one I recall was about two years ago and involved a retail development. I would think that the Luas extension/ Metro works have put off any potential developer. Westmoreland Street is due for a “cut and cover” under Metro plans according to the DCBA in yesterdays Irish Times. Hardly the most inviting of prospects for a potential Zara/H&M/Big Name retailer. I think we shoudl accept that the builidng will be vacant for quite a while.

Its quite startling the degree to which uncertainty over the proposed Metro/Luas works is allowing areas the city centre to stagnate. A visionary masterplan is required from DCC but it doesnt seem to be interested. The agenda is being set by speculative development, as with Northern Quarter and Dublin Central where two massive developments are proposed that dont even seem to relate to one another.

I was thinking they where waiting for the RPA to make an offer 😀
time will tell!!!

stephen c DCC does need a visionary masterplan this is one of dublins biggest pinch points… I have seen the old one but its not detailed enough and not forward thinking enough….

I was surprised there was no effort to link the EBS and the development of the old Times building.

A beauty salon, ‘personal training centre’ and hairdressers were granted for the site a few months ago across part of the ground floor and all of the first floor, extending into the Lafayette building. The hairdressers will overlook O’Connell Bridge from first floor level.

However the ground floor development only affects about half the frontage of the former Man Utd shop on Westmoreland Street, where an entrance hall, waiting area and small beauty retail element is proposed. The left-hand part is still vacant, as is the expansive frontage to D’Olier Street which is a separate unit also.

The EBS retail proposal from c. 2004 – knew I had it somewhere 😮

The former EBS HQ at 30/34 Westmoreland St, Dublin 2 which is to be converted into a large retail store. The front central section of the building will be retained while the remainder of the frontage will feature specialised coloured glazing. (paper caption)

To think this might actually have slipped through…

I love the streams of traffic passing by – says it all about the viability of the project.

Incidentally I was talking to someone who hadn’t been walking in the Westmoreland Street area for a year or two, and without any prompting whatever (honest) launched into a diatribe on the state of the place – from retail uses, to public domain, to shopfronts, to traffic. They couldn’t believe how much the place had deteriorated, and were mortified at the number of tourists availing of the thoroughfare. You’d wonder why they bother coming.
It’s the new O’Connell Street of the 1980s and it’s happening right before our eyes.

Yes you’re right – the entire Westmoreland Street/D’Olier Street/College Green/Dame Street axis is continuously deteriorating; the very places that should be the beating heart of the city. Dame Street is now a string of budget restaurants and bars (the odd gem excepted), language schools, internet cafés and newsagents. The banks’ presence, as welcome as it is, in such a concentration coupled with the aformentioned uses merely contributes to the problem with their deadening frontages.

The latest manifestation of this deteriorating order of uses is an appalling newsagents-cum-café across the road from City Hall, with a sparse budget fit-out and ubiqutous ‘temporary’ signage plastered across the awful polished granite shopfront with clunky aluminum windows. Permanent banner signs have also been erected on the upper facade. Meanwhile a Chinese restaurant recently wanted to set up shop next door to the Central Bank in a building with a stunning early 20th century interior, installing split-level mezzanines etc but have thankfully just been turned down – nonetheless a further indication of the way things are heading around here. The sniffing of Lidl around College Green is merely the icing on the cake – the fact they think there’s even a chance they could get in speaks volumes of authorities’ commitment to pressing for even basic standards, let alone higher order uses for the heart of the city.

It is a troubling trend that investment in the city centre appears increasingly to be consolidating around the south-western corner off Grafton Street, while the ceremonial heart effectively begins to rot.

EBS building’s back on the market. Owner died last year/earlier this year. If the Elliotts have the money they’d be obvious choice given they’re currently developing Times building

anyone know what exactly is happening to the old irish times building? looks like construction has begun?
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hope these images are a bit better, thanks notjim

This is what your getting…

When you see these in the planning office, you’re never quite sure whether the model was damaged in transit , or whether the building is actually crumpled.