hugh lane

so the hugh lane extension is too the right as you look at it in teh old ballroom…

what the deal with the buildings on left the school etc they’ve been empty for years are they being incorporated into the museum too

“Dublin City Council is delighted to announce that it has recently voted in favour of the Gallery’s extension programme. Designed by architects Gilroy McMahon, the Gallery’s extension, on the site of the former National Ballroom, will be one of Dublin City’s most exciting and important cultural undertakings in recent years. As well as increased exhibition space and enhanced visitor facilities, the new extension will house in a specially dedicated room, the recent bequest to the city of nine paintings by the internationally renowned artist Sean Scully. This dedicated Sean Scully room is the only one of its kind in Europe. (Kimball Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas, is the only other Gallery to have a dedicated room to Sean Scully.”
From the Hugh Lane website

Will the big Ballroom sign be left there?

kind of weird the way the branches of the tree flash in and out as the new extension does in that flashy photo isnt it?

Will the big Ballroom sign be left there?

I hope not.
It is not very attractive and will have nothing to do with the new expanded gallery.
Which at this stage has to be regarded as one of the most significant galleries in Europe.

Ballroom sign should be restored and left as the equivalent of a modern art installation.
It has genuine history for several generations of Irish people and I don’t think it would detract at all from an extended Hugh Lane.

I agree Kefu, that is why I was asking the question. I hope it stays.

Originally posted by phil
kind of weird the way the branches of the tree flash in and out as the new extension does in that flashy photo isnt it?

I guess its showing that it will be finished in spring or summer? Thats why the branches are there with leaves? Maybe?

I too was most impressed by the new galleries – though one point about circulation is that you don’t know whether to avail of the link from the existing right-hand ante-room of one of the old gallery rooms to the extension, or continue on in the traditional fashion to the far end of the old galleries and up through Bacon etc. Though in any event, there is still only one entrance to the extension so it’s easy enough.

There’s a fantastic string installation at the moment that I’d imagine some Archiseek engineers would like to have a gawp at 🙂 – very accurately executed if you look closely. The current-day artists’ work outside this room is equally stunning.
The stairwell is pretty simple: fresh, crisp, white. Just pleasant, nothing to write home about.

The older galleries have also had a nice lick of paint, with the entrance hall being especially nice. But massively scarred by the most astonishingly bad conservation practice – giant garish white PVC security windows with big moulded plastic handles adorn the inside of the sashes of the main hall! What the heck were they thinking? 😮

The views of the Square from the extension were rather disappointing – I expected to be a bit higher up.
You’re also right up aginst the Ballroom wall, so that blocks out a chunk of the city too.