‘History is the best judge of quality’
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The best indicator of a quality architecture is a
structure that grabs you and makes you want to look at it even if it is incongruous, in Dublin one could easily site the Central Bank on Dame street as a prime example of this, and there are other examples too.
Do you pass it without looking up at it or feeling it’s gravitational pull as you walk under it ? Or when you walk through Merchants arch
from the quays and appreciate what a charming Georgian urban vista this is and then are faced with the massive block of the Central Bank as you emerge out the other side
and are struck by this daring 1970’s urban vista ? Dublin does have it moments, though I’m not sure a Dutch town-planner would have dreamed it up.That’s an interesting point Phil about the likes of Stack A, the Victorians would look at us like we had two heads for appreciating such coarse and utilitarian structures.
Even standard domestic Victorian interiors, which even architects and artists of their day criticised, are drooled over by most people today (including myself!)
It’s extraordinary how older buildings have gathered such status, immunity from any form of criticisim – almost sacred.
What I’ve always wondered is will it ever cease? I mean for example, the listed structures on Grafton St – the CC or conservation groups, even the public, certainly in the medium term, will never allow these structures to be demolished.
Soon they become 200 years old, further elevating their status. Then 250, then 300 – it goes on.
Soon they are on a par with medieval structures in the UK and become untouchable.
And eventually they are equated to the Parthenon etc in age, and become sacrosanct.
Will there ever be any other buildings on these sites?
I’ve always wondered what would James Gandon or Lovett Pearce have said if you told them their buildings would be worshipped in 200/300 years time, and that the foundations they were looking at were unlikely to ever see the light of day again?
(excluding 1922!)
It’s a facinating area.I think the ‘Georgian’ vista as you emerge from Merchants Arch is fantastic, one of the best experiences of the city – they way you move from the warren of streets of Temple Bar to the comparitively massive scale of the Liffey and ‘the Georgian city’.
What a shame the Georgians never developed the quays properly, leaving Zoe Developments of all people to pick up the pieces.
They could have made a much better job at historical accurracy than they did, and the rendered happy happy brightly painted infills are laughable.Graham, imagine one day if those infill buildings on the Liffey were listed??????????????!!!!!!!!!!!
I think we will be turning in our graves:)personally i think the listing of such rubbish is crazy. only good buildings should be listed..eg old churches etc. knock this crap down and provide modern facilities. then in 50/100 years do it again..to keep these crap is just for the sake of keeping it. absolute nonsense.
Fin, there was something in the Irish Times today saying that Dublin City Council are going to remove 500 buildings from the protected structures list.
I noted with interest that Arthur Griffiths house is one of those that they are proposing to ‘de-list’
Not to say that everything listed should be listed either. But I think it is a good thing that the list is revisited every five years.
I remember during the Spencer Dock enquiry that Campions Bar on North Wall Quay was a ‘protected structure’ anyone who knew it would know that it shouldn’t have been.
As part of a terrace yes but alone and in the condition it was in, not a chance.I sometimes wonder if listing makes much of difference. For example I recently saw a house in the middle of a listed terrace being converted from a residential house into offices in a few days. The garden was destroyed with parking bollards etc and all remaining grass was removed. Should this have been subject to planning?
I am not a great fan of over-rigid zoning myself when it comes to a strict line on the conversion from residential to office.
I think Wellington Rd in Ballsbridge is living proof that offices and houses can be mixed in mature areas.
The parking issue is the one problem in the conversion matrix. As any typical victorian/georgian house could usually accomodate 10-15 office workers easily.
It is for that reason that the planning authority should be consulted.
Gardens should not be converted from amenity to carparking without consultation. The local planning authority would be best placed to decide.
Thanks Fin. I am tempted to get on the case about that one.
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