Dublin Public Realm Strategy
- This topic has 86 replies, 23 voices, and was last updated 12 years, 8 months ago by
.
- Posts
Interesting article on the growing privatisation of public space in the UK (and London specifically) http://m.guardian.co.uk/ms/p/gnm/op/s2Zc6FRpIX5hFvcBze9WCLA/view.m?id=15&gid=uk/2012/jun/11/granary-square-privately-owned-public-space&cat=most-read
The comment about London life that you can either work, shop or spend time in a restaurant is quite telling. I have just spent the past few days wandering about looking for some free space to work…not even wanting to use wifi. Few and far between. With libraries under attack here due to funding cuts its more and more obviously how much common social spaces are needed in big urban centres.
Yes, it never fails to amaze how the same mistakes are made over and over and over again, no matter how many glossy documents, public workshops, public consultations, design statements, development plan policy objectives and an overarching crippling waste of taxpayers’ money is thrown at something as primitive as decent, common sense public realm design. What is going on over on Palace Street at the minute is a disgrace and an insult to citizens and everyone who gives up their time and knowledge to Dublin City Council to try and improve standards.
Firstly, the entrance to Dublin Castle is being treated like the construction site of a ghost estate in a field in Roscommon. Is this type of presentation acceptable in the ceremonial heart of any other European capital?
What an embarrassment.
No decent hoarding, no visualisations, no apology, and no public information about what is happening. The various signs hanging off the tatty railings are in themselves a late innovation, arriving a fortnight after site works began.
Secondly, the design itself. What is proposed is a chaotic jumbled mix of design concepts and materials, with the River Poddle demarcated in a jagged path of limestone through the roadway. This in itself will not actually accord with where the Poddle culvert is running underneath, never mind the indignity of such a crass concept for such a prestigious location. This will be flanked on either side by new Leinster granite, in turn flanked by re-laid narrow antique granite pavements. These in turn will be flanked by concrete paving out on Dame Street and the imported white granite used on Barnardo Square. You couldn’t make this stuff up.
The site at present.
Jaw-droppingly, after the past five years of head-banging against a granite wall, STILL a complete balls is being made of the antique granite paving here – one of the most critically important paved locations in the entire city. It beggars belief what is going on. Look at this mess. The historic granite paving sweeping around from the Castle gate to Barnardo Square is being relaid ‘sympathetically’, and yet a modern granite kerb is being reinstated alongside it! Yes, this premier ‘flagship’ antique pavement veers from wide historic granite kerbing outside the Sick and Indigent Roomkeepers, into narrow modern kerbing flanking Robocop, and then back out again into wide kerbing on Dame Street! Someone please shoot these people.
Not only that, look at the ridiculous junction created, with postage stamp infill.
As the pavement approaches Dame Street, it widens back out again into regular historic kerbing.
This, the busiest entrance into the ceremonial Dublin Castle complex…
Also, as can be seen above and below, this is the type of world class jointing being executed around a shore cover. A thick band of cement. You wouldn’t accept this on your suburban patio. Who the heck is in charge of this?
Then we come to the jointing itself. What should be buttery, delicate lines of lime mortar are crude wide crevices apparently filled with cement.
As for the artistic design treatment of the signature curved sweep as it joins with the existing granite pavement on Dame Street…
Truly shocking stuff.
What should be a gracious fan equating to this…
Is this.
What an outrage.
Then we come to the public lighting. At the very minimum, one would expect pedestrian scale historic standards with high quality copper or bronze heads addressing the entrance gates to Dublin Castle, acknowledging the ceremony of the location and the intimacy of this small enclave. But no – instead we get a giant, gawd-awful skinny reproduction Scotch standard with slotted-on decorative hoops designed in the 1990s to line arterial routes into the city. This truly beggars belief – you’d think this were a joke, were it not for real sitting there in front of you being paid for with our money.
A farce.
The gimmicky jaggedy line emerging at the Palace Street gate composed of flimsy modern kerbs – an insult to this gracious historic enclave.
If there is a solitary saving grace in this disaster zone, it is the reappearance of new Leinster granite on Dublin streets, probably for the first time in over a decade. It is a beautiful material, with all of the coarse granular qualities and warm rusty tones we are so familiar with.
A joy to behold, unlike the rest of the works being undertaken here in the name of public realm ‘design’ and historic paving ‘conservation’. One truly despairs about the lack of change in this city.
An utter disgrace. This scheme was conceived and led by the Heritage Officer of the Council at Part VIII stage and is being supervised by the City Architects division. There isnt even the excuse of blaming it on aesthetically challenged Roads engineers!
You couldn’t make this stuff up.
This might sound naive coming from an emigrant, but could the unbelievably shoddy workmanship have anything to do with the lack of skilled laborers in Ireland – a brain-drain symptom of the recession? Or is it just a lack of proper supervision due to a totally dysfunctional administration in DCC?
I recall a few years back, a landscape architect from Paris once said to me how amazingly impressed he was with the GPO plaza finishing – such pristine quality and careful attention to detail. Shouldn’t that project not have set a benchmark for the standard of future street improvement schemes in the city centre? How can the same local authority be so inconsistent?
@GrahamH wrote:
Then we come to the public lighting. At the very minimum, one would expect pedestrian scale historic standards with high quality copper or bronze heads addressing the entrance gates to Dublin Castle, acknowledging the ceremony of the location and the intimacy of this small enclave. But no – instead we get a giant, gawd-awful skinny reproduction Scotch standard with slotted-on decorative hoops designed in the 1990s to line arterial routes into the city. This truly beggars belief – you’d think this were a joke, were it not for real sitting there in front of you being paid for with our money.
Perhaps elegant lamp heads such as these are proposed for this prestigious location.
okay okay so I am being churlish…these were erected on Marlborough Street opposite the Abbey Theatre a couple of months back but are clearly temporary…aren’t they?
Something like this might be more suitable…
From the new promenade and town centre improvement scheme in Dun Laoghaire. They’re generic but quite attractive none the less. The style of lamp you find in many Spainish cities, where they tend to mix modern paving and public realm and smart heritage lamps with a high degree of success.
The Dun Laoghaire scheme is really impressive…and little commented on.
The lighting scheme extends along much of Marine Road, Crofton Road and Queens Road. It looks very smart…very continental.
The scheme is intended to complement the new promenade area on Queen Road.
Looks great…bright and colourful.
Some playful coloured lighting adds interest. These look great to me and would really suit somewhere like South King Street in the city centre.
The planting is very smart too. Lots of buxus hedging.
These generous tree pits line Marine Road and Crofton Road around County Hall.
So a month on from Graham’s post re Palace Street, how have things progressed.
A large part of the paving has been completed. As Graham noted the quality of stone is excellent, a warm buttery tone that exudes style. The scheme however appear to have deviated significantly from the original plans. Not least the limestone zigzag that was intended to replicate the course of the River Poddle. The limestone has been replaced by cobble setts..which make much more sense. The pattern looks silly to me though. Overly fussy. Its also broken into bands. Its all very bizzare. I have heard it referred to ‘The Lightening Strike’.
The view towards the Castle gate…now more or less complete
Uplighters have been set into pavement here to light the gate. One hope OPW will remove some of the add ons here…the silly sign and that redundant notice board. A pair of wall mounted lanterns, similar to those on the opposite side of the gate would also look well.
No resolution yet of the poor paving to the front of Chez Max…perhaps to be resolved at a later stage.
The centre section…with cobbled zigzag
Towards the mouth of the street a new kerbline has been created along Dame Street and this section is now under construction.
Hmm, all a bit of a mess up this end.
The original plans also proposed trees on the street. Not much sign of these though.
Plus that awful lighting column is still there.
Work is almost complete. The final fixtures (bollards, poles etc) are just going in.
The final product varies wildly from the original concept. The zig zag pattern is a bit meaningless to me.
The paving is very good quality but much of the detailed work lets it down.
This section looks a little hurried
And finally, surely savour the outdoor terrace before the inevitable application for screens and umbrellas, etc
The original proposal for the street by the City Council Heritage Office
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
