Dublin: it isn’t that ugly
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[font=Verdana:2ihrakt6]i agree. i bought an art painting out in ardgillan castle (recommend it to anybody who has not been there) but i would hesitate to tell anybody in work about my purchase. there is just a lack of appreciation of arts and culture which extends to architecture.[/font:2ihrakt6]
@Dooid wrote:
I think Dublin has some really good Architecture but the one thing I’d love to change is the attitude of the general public to architecture and monuments. I don’t think the Irish believe the investment is worthwhile, not like Paris where the people have an almost inate love of it. If I could change one thing it would be that. You need only listen to all the anti-spire talk, whether you like it or not I still think investments like that are important and worthwhile but since all the public did was complain I don’t think it will be easy to secure more in the future.
Hi there, I’m new to this site but i’d suggest perhaps the following to improve Dublin (of which i am very fond!)-
buildings that must go –
Hawkins street house, Screen College Green, apollo house and liberty hall – The ugliest few acres in the country
O’Connell Bridge House
Loop line bridgebuildings that should go –
BHS O’Connell Street
the horrific glass section of arnotts Henry Street
monstrosity on top of grafton street (no not the Shopping centre but the newsagent)
Canada House stephen’s green – it would be wonderful to see a walkway through here to the underutilised iveagh gardensAdvertising to be removed –
Loop line bridge hoardings
Baileys and Irish permanent on O’Connell bridgePedestrianise –
College Green / Dame street / North quays (this’ll never happen but one can dream)Move –
The procathedral onto O’Connell street – the derelict Carlton siteBest things to happen to Dublin last 10 years –
millennium bridge and new docklands bridge
boardwalk
screen o’connell bridge is forever gone.
connolly station
collins barracksHi dodger,
Many of the old favourites cropping up there 🙂
Though some I’d question – notably the inclusion of Connolly Station as one of the worthy contributions. Certainly it’s an improvement on the dingy shed that used to masquerade as an international railway station, but the idea that what has replaced it has been one of the best contributions to the capital in the past decade is ever so slightly way off the scale…:). If that’s the best we can come up with… 😮
Do you proposed lifting the Pro-Cathedral, portico and all with Herself clinging on for dear life on top to O’Connell St, or a new building? Certainly an interesting concept…
And as for applying the demolition ball to Grafton St, s sur surely you don’t mean our much loved ship-on-the-corner??! No not the Mississippi steamer across the way, but the corner newsagents??
afraid so graham, always have hated that corner!
Think you’re a bit unfair to connolly – the new luas entrance is striking.
I don’t see why you can’t move the procathedral brick by brick. It struck me as absurd when the corteege for the kevin barry funeral paraded up o’connell street and then had to snake around behind to the cathedral entrance. I ebleive it was alwys meant for o’connell street but i defer to our historical experts on that.
Forgot to mention the old department of justice.
All in all a few well placed wrecking balls would make a massive difference.
@Frank Taylor wrote:
Take the first turn left on Harcourt Street as you walk from the Green.
It’s well worth a visit.Cheers. Walk up Harcourt every day but could never figure out where the entrance was. I heard it was a hidden gem.
Remember I had a most embarrassing time tring to find the entrance too – round in circles for about half an hour…
I love the crumbly bits of statuary that crop up occasionally from underneath foliage – an arm here, a leg there, an urn of fruit in the corner 🙂Can’t agree with you dodger about Connolly, including the new canopy – though the works inside recently are a huge improvement all right – esp the acres of new seating. And it only took six years to install it :rolleyes:
As for the Pro-Cathedral, what about the GPO? The Clash of the Porticos would be one war too many for poor old O’Connell St 🙂
To an outsider I’d say Dublin does have an air of a provincial British city in terms of its built environment; I can see it in the faces of tourists every day, but anyone who knows anything about these two nations will notice just how different Dublin is – on a host of levels, not least its architecture which has a uniquely Irish tinge to it, even if it has its roots in UK design.
What would be uniquely Irish in foreign architecture?
Boyler wrote:To an outsider I’d say Dublin does have an air of a provincial British city in terms of its built environment]
The first paragraph is supposed to be a quote.Countries sharing a common civilization have an influence upon each other (positive/negative) in a variety of ways and not just architecturally. I emphasize civilisation rather than culture as culture is defined by its genus civilisation (with local variation). The modern european state is today the repository of cultural identites commonly referred to as Western Civilisation. For all of us within this great civilisation ((whether we like or not), it is national identity which instantiates (and provides local variation to) this common civilisation.
I know that the Giant’s Causeway is a World Heritage Site. Skellig Michael is one as well. Don’t know the third but it may be Newgrange.
I’m a bit surprised that the Bank of Ireland on College Green isn’t a World Heritage Site. It was the first purpose built parliament house for two chambers, the Houses of Commons and Lords, in the world.
Boyler here is the list:
http://whc.unesco.org/pg.cfm?cid=31
As you can see there is a bias towards Natural Heritage and Pre-Rennaisance architecture with only 788 properties afforded this designation on Earth.
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