Leinster House
- This topic has 37 replies, 11 voices, and was last updated 23 years, 3 months ago by
.
- Posts
I don’t believe my eyes, but I am certain that some of the timber sash windows on the front elevation have been replaced with PVC sash. They look very similar, but on closer inspection, the glazing bars are plastic.
Has anyone else noted this? If this is the “restoration” of historic buildings by the government’s own parliament, what hope elsewhere…?
I think some of these replacements were to the left of the main door.
I don’t belive you! I knew it! I just knew it!
I’ve always been deeply suspicious of their cumbersome profiles but never dared venture inside the Houses’s hallowed grounds to find out what they were made of.
They look extremely clinical even from the other side of Kildare St, uPVC dosn’t surprise me in the least, although it disappoints me greatly.And I read in the Sunday Times a few weeks ago that the security huts at the gates are not to be removed but simply redesigned. Hence I am assuming that the railings to the front are also not going, nor the Victorian entrance lodges/gateposts, nor the barbarrac hoardings going down the sides of the Ntl Library & Museum that are pawned of as some sort of Victoriana.
Just imagine how fantastic this space could be, a vast imposing piazzia enclosed on 3 sides by the country’s most important institutions and architectural stock, imaginative paving and lighting, water features, benches, information on the buildings and the city, a fantastic tourist area, a wonderful backdrop for news reports and satelite up-links, a fantastic image to convey to the rest of the world on election days and events of national importance.
Spectacular floodlighting at night, highlighting the wonderful variation of colour, features, orders, ornementation and textures of the buildings, and culminating the vista up Molesworth Street in a manner it deserves.It would create a whole new area in the city.
It is disgraceful, shameful and bloody typical of this city not to recognise such potential for this space, esp how affecting it is on an international level, and more typical to do nothing about it.
If we cannot have our Parliament House on College Green back, the very least we can do is improve on what we do have.
Originally posted by Graham Hickey
IJust imagine how fantastic this space could be, a vast imposing piazzia enclosed on 3 sides by the country’s most important institutions and architectural stock, imaginative paving and lighting, water features, benches, information on the buildings and the city, a fantastic tourist area, a wonderful backdrop for news reports and satelite up-links, a fantastic image to convey to the rest of the world on election days and events of national importance.
Spectacular floodlighting at night, highlighting the wonderful variation of colour, features, orders, ornementation and textures of the buildings, and culminating the vista up Molesworth Street in a manner it deserves.Plus piss, vomit, fast food wrappers and winos…. keep the railings
I’m not a fan of this new trend to remove railings from public places
Ah yes but what a wonderful area it would make for our paint-throwing friends to destroy a historic building – in the name of peace/farmers/students etc.
Not a chance of the railings ever coming down! In two words – security issues
Eh, fast food wrappers and vomit on the salubrious southside? (although yes, there is that club on the corner of Kildare St)
But what is the point in having these prized buildings if you can’t appreciate them?
Put it this way, if you set out to design a national parliament building, adjacent to 2 national institutions, the existing set up of offensive railings etc is most certainly not what you would come up with, indeed it would be considered grossly offensive, symbolising ‘keeping the little people out’ and there’d be uproar over it.And surely we cannot let a minority of winos etc destroy our vision for the city. And as for security concerns, sure you can walk by the railings as it is! If they were to be removed, a strong security presence could still be held, with suitable posts for guards underneath parts of the colonnades of the Ntl Library & Museum, on either side.
It’s just a lack of vision and foresight that clouds such developments.Originally posted by Graham Hickey
And surely we cannot let a minority of winos etc destroy our vision for the city.Sure why not, the planners and councillors have been doing that for decades!
OMG, what is it with this country and uPVC? Its EVERYWHERE! I really lothe the stuff, uPVC doors, windows, facias, cladding. and that ugly cheap tacky “Tile effect” roof cladding stuff! Whats wrong with wood? whats wrong with tile or slate! Soon there will be piles of PortaKabins surrounding Lenster house!
It is destroying this country and the UK. Whereas the UK arereverting back to wood and sashes big time now on more upmarket homes, Ireland persists in uPVC.
What I really hate is it’s manufacturers/suppliers coming up with new ways of wooing period home owners with the latest ‘period’ features, like PVC sashes and ‘Georgian’ plastic grids between the double panes.If people were asked if they would like to have a plastic coated front door, windows, guttering, downpipes and facias they’d run a mile. But if its PVC, ahhhh, well then…
It is the most revolting material concievable, and is destroying new and old buildings.(although admittedly, matt grey windows in office buildings look rather good)
Its a pitty uPVC isnt confined to offices! The “wood effect” brown stuff looks worse dont you think? and thise terrible “stained glass” doors, CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP! (I’m so angry i’ve turned into a chicken!) you know what i mean. I still cant believe they put them in Lenster house. It like most things in there now is criminal!
Along with doors windows and cladding there is now a trend in uPVC fencing and uPVC gates! Shiney white plastic may have been fashionable for 80’s shoes but not for gates!! Honestly!
Apologies J Seerski, as far as I can remember it was you who posted about PVC windows in Hillsbourgh Castle, I said I could’nt see any on the main facade. Unfortunatly you were correct, PVC does ‘grace’ it’s main front.
And they’re not just imitation sashes, but the nastiest, crudest, slap-in-the-faceiest piles of tat that one could conjure up for use here, they have no relief whatsoever, have the obligatory plastic grids between the double panes, and of all things, open inwards by tilting from the top!
Considering the White House had old- fashioned Georgian sashes installed in it’s early 20th century West Wing to respect the rest of the house, and Hillsbourgh could’nt even do it in the 90s, George Bush must’nt be overtly impressed.(yeah ok, like he cares, I’m just trying to be current)
Oh God – I just saw the dreaded window in Leinster House – last one on the right in the main block on the ground floor. What are they thinking.
Why can’t the Unionists get Hillsborough’s windows sorted out. After all they’re always singing about The Sash…..
Sorry
‘The Window’
The statement has some gravitas dosnt it.
Annnnyway, looking at a picture of Leinster House, from around 1890s/1900, the building has Victorian plate glass windows on the ground floor, but the original Georgian sashes up above. So the OPW, in their efforts to reinstate Georgiana put in PVC??!!
Victorian windows still prevail on the garden front of the building on the ground floor.
And what about Aras an Uachtarain. For years it has had expansive Victorian plate glass windows, all of which were changed for the visit of Victoria herself. I’ve always been unsure as to whether these should be replaced with Georgian sashes, certainly they’d look much better and be in keeping with the house, but then, the Victorian additions form part of the history & fabric of the house too. Theres no doubt that the classical proportions of the Georgians would look so much better.
And there are also some grossly inappropriate 20/30s windows in the garden facade, directly beneath the garden portico that hav’nt been replaced.It has to be said – this is an architectural and conservation outrage.
PVC is ugly, has a short life, irrepairable and has no place in old buildings – maybe they can be just about be tolerated in post 80s suburbia, but cannot be used in buildings such as Hillsborough or Leinster House. These are buildings of significant historical and architectural interest.
I wonder does the Irish Times know about this – they normally kick up a fuss. FMcD would not be impressed surely?!
When looking for the window in question at Leinster House, don’t be fooled by the “sash” – it is still a PVC mock – up, with the glazing bars within double glazing.
A sad day for the Office of Public Works and An Duchas. Are they asleep????
i wish i hadn’t been told because now i realise that the windows above the merrion sq enterance of the ng is also upvc and that’s really annoying me.
as for leinster house, keep the main railings, they are handsome, they enclose the space and helps keep it nice, but remove the railings seperating the main open space from the library and the museum.
On that I will compromise.
PVC on the Ntl Gallery? Surely not. I’ll be passing later, I’ll have a look.Yesterday I went to have a closer look at Leinster House but could’nt bring myself to go through the main gates so I went down the side of the Ntl Museum instead. And uggh, shiver etc, the window looks even worse up close. And that Victorian addition that links the House to the Museum, admittedly I’m not sure if it’s are PVC, they do look somewhat clinical, although that could be because they are new/restored.
There HAS to be a good reason behind all this. But untill the reason is known – let everyone keep their eyes fixed on the pavement.
Sorry to spoil the fun, but this is a big load of nonsense. The OPW say the PVC windows in Leinster House are temporary, and there to protect the wooden windows behind which will be re-revealed in all their splendour once the work is completed.
“Did you really think we’d put PVC into Leinster House,” the OPW official asked aghast.
“Er, yes, I wouldn’t put anything past you.”Click.
Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
