Miscellaneous Pics
- This topic has 57 replies, 14 voices, and was last updated 18 years, 1 month ago by Anonymous.
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April 3, 2004 at 8:46 pm #706965BulldozerGirlParticipant
Finally, I got a camera, and I will try to post pics of things in the city which I think should be commented on.
Here’s what I have for now. The Jury’s Montrose Hotel, Stillorgan Road, from the side. Apparently, the side that isn’t facing the road wasn’t given much attention. I heard this is actually a 4 star hotel, is that true?
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April 3, 2004 at 11:51 pm #742058BulldozerGirlParticipant
No comment :rolleyes:
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April 4, 2004 at 11:35 am #742059shaunParticipant
Girl, that hotel or whatever it is looks like shite. Jurys hotels generally look like shite, have you seen the Jurys hotel in Ballsbridge, it looks even worse at the front than that one does from the back.
So what’s your problem with the Spike ? It’s the coolest thing in the whole town, and don’t start giving out about those marks on the base, they look good.
Next time send a GOOD example and a bad example and keep things in proportion.
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April 5, 2004 at 4:07 pm #742060AnonymousInactive
The Montrose is interesting in that it keeps on being subjected to ‘face-lifts’. This latest incarnation is about 7 or 8 years old now (not sure exactly, but I remember it being done), and is beginning to look dated. This is why there is such a contrast between the front and the back of the building.
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April 5, 2004 at 7:43 pm #742061garethaceParticipant
BG,
a useful observation about the treatment of hotels, and building skins in general from a point of view…. I will look forward to these observations of yours… I too have studied the Stillorgan road lately as I commute that way now.
I don’t know it myself… but could someone please inform me, as to what traditionally have been the ‘landmarks’ along the whole length of Stillorgan road… i.e. How do people normally distinguish, at what point of the whole length of the thing they are refering to?
Does the Montrose tower, TV transmission, steel, web-y thing gets cited alot as a landmark? I dunno this road at all, just wondering what to people use to orient themselves out around there?
Brian O’ Hanlon.
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April 6, 2004 at 12:49 pm #742062roskavParticipant
Wow you’re genuinely inquisitive….
Coming from Bray …cornelscourt from the old cabinteely road.. when you went to santa and got your new toy gun conficated because “that was the thing that shot john lennon”…… Ireland’s first dual Carriageway Foxrock… now sadly expanded(ired) ….Blakes…. those bits of chicken and getting used to the idea of eating out in the 1980’s… on and on until the flyover at UCD… still a major landmark as it’s the only stretch where people keep to 40mph. The RTE mast was the main thing … along with that really dodgy junction .. there always seemed to be glass over the road at that point. One of the other things was at night … entering into a tunnel of orange sodium lights… a true entry to a city. -
April 6, 2004 at 12:55 pm #742063garethaceParticipant
Interesting… I still make out that anything along this route, even with broken glass looks ten times cleaner and polished looking than the state in which Dame Street and similar city centre locations presently look – Dame Street/College Green are wearing the dirt and filt well… but they haven’t got that same cleaness of streets like Donnybrook, Lesson St. even….
Brian O’ Hanlon.
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April 6, 2004 at 1:56 pm #742064shaunParticipant
The Mount Merrion garden suburb from the 1930’s will be of interest I would imagine, get off the road and have a trip around the suburb, it’s like another world.
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April 6, 2004 at 1:57 pm #742065garethaceParticipant
Thanx, will do that.
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April 6, 2004 at 2:34 pm #742066AnonymousInactive
Just beside the Stillorgan Park hotel there is a gem of an Art Deco house. Recently a small block of apartments has been built beside it which is trying to echo its style slightly. It is not finished yet, but I think it is quite nice.
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April 6, 2004 at 5:46 pm #742067BulldozerGirlParticipant
phil, I think I know which house you’re talking about. Is it the yellow one?
The weather hasn’t really helped the past few days, and I didn’t have much time to take pics, but here are some from last week.
View of residential area from my living room (I don’t know the names of communities). Sometimes I see smoke coming out of their chimneys, and I wonder how many chimneys big mansions with many fireplaces have. I don’t think I recall spotting a lot of chimneys on them. Are these houses made of wood?
The Heineken building in the city centre. I think if this building wasn’t there, the area would look very backward for a city centre. I consider it a good example, shaun.
Btw, I put in these pics from last week to try to stop garethace from blabbering and turning this into a 52 page thread with text and few pictures :p I think the major landmark for Stillorgan Road is the RTE tower, and an ugly white pedestrian bridge.
I love the AIB buildings on Amiens street or whatever it’s called. I’m sure Archiseek already has a picture of them but the administrator will ban me if I display pics from his server and waste bandwidth.
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April 6, 2004 at 7:14 pm #742068GrahamHParticipant
Never thought Jim Gogarty could be beaten in the wandering stakes til now!
Dublin’s 50s semi-ds are usually of breeze block construction.
Yes mansions do have many chimneys – Castletown has over 90 hearths – with chimneys often concealed behind parapets or flues sharing exposed stacks.
The white pedestrian/cyclist bridge is another good landmark, most reports on the news relating to traffic are inevitably shot from here.
O’ Cll Bridge House – enough said…
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April 6, 2004 at 7:31 pm #742069AnonymousParticipant
Originally posted by BulldozerGirl
phil, I love the AIB buildings on Amiens street or whatever it’s called.The building you refer to is known as the West Block. It is the centrepiece of the three buildings that launched Dublin as a serious Fund Management location. It was built in 1989 by Hardwicke and compliments Busaras quite well.
One thing that always confused me were the names of the three buildings. IFSC (closest to the river) was correctly named the South Block, The International Centre was named the West Block, but La Touche house (clostest to Connolly station) was called the East Block when in fact it is clearly the most Northerly of the Three. :rolleyes:
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April 7, 2004 at 1:05 pm #742070bluefoamParticipant
Originally posted by phil
Just beside the Stillorgan Park hotel there is a gem of an Art Deco house. Recently a small block of apartments has been built beside it which is trying to echo its style slightly. It is not finished yet, but I think it is quite nice.They tore down the twin to that Art Deco Gem in order to build the apartment block, I posted a comment about it at the time but no one seemed interested.
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April 7, 2004 at 2:10 pm #742071AnonymousInactive
Yes, I remember your other post. I could not remember the one which was destroyed to make way for the apartments. I had always only noticed the one that is still there. I still, to this day, cannot figure out why I never noticed the one that you are referring to.
Thanks
Phil
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April 9, 2004 at 5:32 pm #742072BulldozerGirlParticipant
I have seen electricity or telephone wires (I dunno what they are really) on poles in the city in several places. I thought such sights were usually reserved for intercity highways or rural areas. What are these cables and why are they not running underground or wherever they should be?
Here is a pic of Kildare street (I think that’s the right name), where many supposedly high-class buildings are, and yet there are some cables running from one side of the street to the other. It’s very ugly.
Are the people in those buildings using plastic cup phones to communicate?
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April 9, 2004 at 6:29 pm #742073dc3Participant
On the Stillorgan road, have a look at the poor old Esso Building – not ever a masterwork, but always well kept, in nice grounds, until very recently.
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April 12, 2004 at 1:23 am #742074BulldozerGirlParticipant
I thought I was going to be able to go out a lot this Easter vacation, but I couldn’t after I nearly killed my sis with wrong medication..
Anyway, I couldn’t stray far from home due to the circumstances, but here’s what I think is a nice shot of the Radisson SAS hotel.
I think it’s gorgeous.
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April 12, 2004 at 2:35 pm #742075GrahamHParticipant
Shock – lanterns in Dublin without CFL bulbs in them!
To be fair, the lines on Kildare St are the only ones in the city centre; they link the Shelbourne’s car park in that red Georgian across to the hotel – the internal phone system probably.
What are much more crude are further down the street, where loads of security cameras erected last summer were simply tacked onto the lamposts with the yellow wires draped across to the Ntl Museum and Ntl Library, with some wires even suspended between lamposts.
More refined work was carried out on Merrion St. -
April 13, 2004 at 9:36 am #742076AnonymousInactive
Reality really is a bummer isn’t it?:)
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April 13, 2004 at 4:23 pm #742077GrahamHParticipant
And as for the white lines on the road – what are they about?!
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April 13, 2004 at 4:36 pm #742078d_d_dallasParticipant
older public lights can be connected above ground with a common switch wire. To underground might mean replacing the pole… Also – Dublin has alot more overground electricity than you’d think – this isn’t the UK.
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April 15, 2004 at 5:36 pm #742079BulldozerGirlParticipant
Originally posted by d_d_dallas
Dublin has alot more overground electricity than you’d think – this isn’t the UK.Yeah, I’ve seen a lot of overground electricity. Look at this pic of Woodbine Road:
This wouldn’t be so bad if it was a rural village on the West coast, but for a residential area in the capital city – it’s a sign that there is corruption somewhere….
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April 15, 2004 at 5:58 pm #742080Paul ClerkinKeymaster
Originally posted by BulldozerGirl
This wouldn’t be so bad if it was a rural village on the West coast, but for a residential area in the capital city – it’s a sign that there is corruption somewhere….lol… yeah thats it
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April 15, 2004 at 7:12 pm #742081garethaceParticipant
Just on that point lads,… because it is a good one… the Dublin traffic lately in the mornings did resemble something like rush hour after Sunday mass in a small village in Bally-go-backwards…. than the usual Dublin traffic which people are most used to.
I still think that providing ways for kids to get to school, somehow, other than driving through the traffic in moms back seat…. is going to be the answer in Dublin… I mean, look at a picture like that… you would probably get soaking wet before you reached the end of that road, not to mind getting to the local school this morning in the rain.
If things were denser, it would be much more efficient to run public transport systems… I think this point was raised quite well in the LUAS threads here at Archiseek.
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April 16, 2004 at 3:27 pm #742082GrahamHParticipant
It’s definitely quieter alright.
I had the privilege to speak to John Henry of the DTO about this.
He says kiddie traffic constitutes a whopping quarter of the city’s traffic in the morning – at least!
But interestingly the Office (who essentially plan the city’s transportation) really don’t blame parents for driving their kids to school, they acknowledge how dangerous the city is now for children, mingling with busy roads and being hassled by weirdos etc.
They fully accept that children under 10 or even 12 shouldn’t be cycling or walking alone, esp in the dark winter.
But they are trying out walking bus programmes where parents take it in turns to gather kids up in the mornings and walk them all to school. Other aspects they want to implement are better pedestrian crossings and public lighting, for kids who live closer to school and who can walk or cycle.
Certainly more buses for the ‘in betweens’ are need though.It’s interesting, something that’s perhaps even evident on this site, is that out of the 8,820 teenagers cycling in Dublin (almost exclusively to school) 8200 are male, with a pathethic 620 female.
Going by that figure alone, and factoring in that maybe more girls walk to school (unlikely) there’s at least another 7000 girls capable of cycling to school – not even accounting for the vast hoards that are in cars either way!Sorry for hijacking Bulldozergirl – keep the pics rolling.
I think the power lines in the suburbs, esp around Crumlin and Templogue and Terenure are kind of charming, kinda homely and communityish! -
April 16, 2004 at 3:40 pm #742083antoParticipant
yeah cycling is definitely the way to go. It’s a great way of linking up to public tranport as well. Lots of people drive to dart stations for example. Try cycling that mile or 2, great way of getting a bit of fresh air. It’s a shame more offices don’t have changing and shower facilities to encourage people to cycle to work aswell. As for the fairer sex not cycling well I think a lot of them think its a bit of a sweaty business, might ruin their hair etc.
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April 17, 2004 at 2:04 am #742084BulldozerGirlParticipant
I am scared of driving on the roads here because they’re so narrow, bumpy, and there are too many double decker buses – there is no way a sane person (most women are sane) would want to cycle on these roads. And anto is right; it’s not good for the hair, and you can’t carry shopping bags on it, so why bother?
I don’t think children should be allowed to use public buses, because I’ve seen many who do, and they only take up all the seats in the bus and ruin everything for non-school passengers. The danger posed for school children who walk is greatly exaggerated. The SAVI report said that the majority of child abuse is from relatives of the child, not from strangers. How far are the schools from home anyway? They should force them all to use a school bus.
Anyway, here’s a pic of Deansgrange business park:
OK, I know it’s a bit boring, but it’s the only worthwhile thing I saw on my short trip. It’s not really that special but the location is fantastic. The people there have a wonderful view. It’s a classier place than those silly Georgian building offices in Leeson or wherever else in Dublin, who think they’re all that. I don’t like these old brown buildings which make the whole city look the same.
phil – I was looking for the Art Deco house today; it disappeared!
garethace – I never understand what you say.
Paul Clerkin – Congrats on the new wider forum layout. We will save many pages.
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April 17, 2004 at 11:25 am #742085garethaceParticipant
But interestingly the Office (who essentially plan the city’s transportation) really don’t blame parents for driving their kids to school, they acknowledge how dangerous the city is now for children, mingling with busy roads and being hassled by weirdos etc.
🙂
I agree, lets just ‘roll over’ and just let those ‘weirdos’ have the public domain, which is the city all to ’em selves eh? 🙂
Seriously though, I haven’t a child or nothing has ever happened to a child of mine…. my co-worker has three though…. and judging by the amount of ‘hassle’ he has with even simple things every hour and every day of the week… I can ‘kinda’ see where you are coming from.
However, some of these drivers driving to schools are trying to get out of suburban estates, onto ‘major’ commuting arterties,… only to exit 5 minutes down the road again,… and que up with another 50 cars leading up to a school gate or something like that…. then the said mother/father repeats this whole process except often in reverse this time…. so that they can get back to their suburban estate and meet ‘Bernie and Jossie’ for tea and pies at 9.30am and a good old chat on the sitting room couch, while the washing machine and dish washer does the work in the kitchen…. by then… it is time to start thinking about ‘collecting’ the kids again!
it is this nature of the way a car carrying kids to school behaves, which makes it cause that many problems I think to general ‘people going to work’ kinda traffic. Noone is going to tell me…. there isn’t some other way… to hell with weirdos… I am not really sure who are the weirdos and who are not anymore to be honest…. the kids who grow up like this have absolutely no sense of their own independence…. and grow up ‘hating’ their own parents for being so over-protective and over-bearing upon them as kids and their personal space…. they do not actually thank the parents for it.
The point is, that in other more well planned, higher density urban environments…. things like LUAS actually become things, which the kids can grow up with and become very familiar with… and learn to trust and to ‘know’…. as all the other kids do. I mean, nowadays… the only highway that kids in Dublin city are beginning to know and trust unfortunately is the information super highway…. and we all know what this leads to…. all kids get carted back and forth from schools nowadays… have computer and broadband connectivity and I think end up… to much in these little ‘computer cell worlds’ both at home/school/university…. where you can really meet the ‘weirdos’….
Modern housing design trends…
http://www.planetizen.com/news/item.php?id=12711
Brian O’ Hanlon.
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April 17, 2004 at 3:24 pm #742086garethaceParticipant
Here is one miscellaneous pic, which I think is worth posting…
http://www.cyburbia.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=4915&password=&sort=1&size=big&cat=508&page=
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April 17, 2004 at 4:09 pm #742087GrahamHParticipant
Good pic.
It’s important to point out it’s young children the office speaks of, the likes of whom everyone gives out about seeing in the back of Mammy’s four by four, who’s feet can’t even touch the ground, and who feature in every car ad.
They don’t blame these parents for bringing these kids in the car if the distance is over 10/15 mins, and nor would I.Also of note, and probably the most important factor that you mention Brian, and the DTO, is that it all fuels car dependency with kids growing up thinking the car’s the only way.
All of this ties into the DTOs vast brief of planning transport that is fundamentally linked into planning as a whole, higher densities etc.
BDG, that’s classier than silly Georgians – or indeed anything else for that matter?
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April 17, 2004 at 6:13 pm #742088garethaceParticipant
what is their web site?
I mean, for myself and those other posters who aren’t aware of who/what/where/when/how….. in relation to DTO…
Talking of environment/health/school transport etc, etc…. I am sure I am not alone in this experience either…. but when I attended a comprehensive down the country about a decade ago now, we had to endure an hour long bus journey each and every morning/evening of our lives….. which basically went all over the landscape to various little bungalows collecting the kids who lived in them.
Now, it is very topical at the moment to talk about smoking and how secondary smoking can damage the health of those working in pubs…. but I was a non-smoker going to school and still am thankfully…. but for every day of those five years I did attend the secondary school, for a full hour to and from school every day…. I was in a bus designed to transport around 50 or 60 students I think, which instead carried about 100,…. or which 70/80 of them smoked!
I.e. Everyone except the youngest first years… I can tell you one thing,… when the bus reached its destination at the school in the mornings… one could not see from one end of the bus to the other, the air was so laden with smoke. This is no exaggeration, or embelishment of the truth. It is just funny how that was ‘tolerated’ 10 years ago in Ireland, while today, 50/60/70 year old regular pub go-ers cannot even sit back at weekends and enjoy their smoke/drink with their buddies,… in some well ventilated area of a local pub.
Brian.
P.S. Nice pics of a new design for a train station/park n’ ride type of thing here:
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April 17, 2004 at 10:46 pm #742089AnonymousParticipant
Originally posted by BulldozerGirl
OK, I know it’s a bit boring, but it’s the only worthwhile thing I saw on my short trip. It’s not really that special but the location is fantastic. The people there have a wonderful view. It’s a classier place than those silly Georgian building offices in Leeson or wherever else in Dublin, who think they’re all that. I don’t like these old brown buildings which make the whole city look the same.Re: Comments on system built close to Bakers corner:
It’s called economy class
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April 18, 2004 at 2:49 am #742090BulldozerGirlParticipant
Really I think any new building in the city is a welcome sight. It freshens the rotten place up a bit. Georgian buildings are depressing, especially brown ones. I don’t have any pics of a typical nasty all-brown street right now because it was raining today and I couldn’t get any.
As for public transport and health, I have noticed that the back seats of Dublin buses usually smell of urine and are hot when you sit on them. It seems that drunk people prefer a place where the driver can’t see them.
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April 18, 2004 at 1:38 pm #742091AnonymousParticipant
Tried to insert an image of Upper Mount St, but my new computer of 1999 has aged badly, a little like shiny low spec buildings perhaps?
😀
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April 18, 2004 at 5:18 pm #742092GrahamHParticipant
Uggghh
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April 19, 2004 at 10:10 am #742093AnonymousInactive
Originally posted by BulldozerGirl
OK, I know it’s a bit boring, but it’s the only worthwhile thing I saw on my short trip. It’s not really that special but the location is fantastic. The people there have a wonderful view. It’s a classier place than those silly Georgian building offices in Leeson or wherever else in Dublin, who think they’re all that. I don’t like these old brown buildings which make the whole city look the same.phil – I was looking for the Art Deco house today; it disappeared!
garethace – I never understand what you say.
Paul Clerkin – Congrats on the new wider forum layout. We will save many pages.
Bulldozer Girl:
I don’t want to cause any offence or anthing, but I really am confused by your chain of thought here! Could you explain what it is you are trying to say? -
April 19, 2004 at 6:48 pm #742094BulldozerGirlParticipant
phil – I am trying to say I find the city to be old, brown and depressing. Any new-looking building makes me feel better. Graham Hickey’s pic sums up what Dublin looks like in general:
Coming up next time hopefully.. cracked sidewalks.
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April 19, 2004 at 6:53 pm #742095shaunParticipant
Phil,
It reads a bit like, Dubai is a glitzy, shiny, new and tall paradise risen out of the sand and Dublin is silly, brown and old and soooo
boring……..only messin’ around with ya b’girl, it’s always good to hear the opinions of foreign residents on our infra-structure. -
April 19, 2004 at 11:47 pm #742096AnonymousParticipant
Thanks for the pic Graham, the one I was trying to post was taken from the doorway of No 1 Upper Mount St and takes in the Shiny New Cresent Hall. Do you have any pics of the deco garage it replaced?
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April 20, 2004 at 12:45 am #742097BulldozerGirlParticipant
shaun – We’re not comparing Dublin to any particular city. All we’re asking for is standard stuff for any major city. 😉
This thread is running out of pics.. but I had a question. Is it true that the small bit of pavement surrounding the spike will have tables and chairs for an outdoor cafe? Are the people going to sit in the middle of the road with cars and trams on both sides plus pedestrians crossing? 😮
You know what would have been a great example of some stupid thing like that? The small “fountain” that was between Dunnes Stores St Stephen’s Green and Eircom for a short while. It was just a pipe sticking out of the ground and spilled water everywhere. It was horrible to look at, especially when it rained. I’m glad it was removed, but it shows how some silly things can actually be done because of the presence of people without taste in certain places.
OK.. sorry if I make no sense, it’s late and I drank a lot of milk.
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April 20, 2004 at 2:13 am #742098asdasdParticipant
I think Ms BullDozer, that you don’t necessarily understand that Dublin could do the Dubai thing, knock down all it’s old buildings, and build to the sky. Even if it did that and create a Manhattan, it would not be Dublin anymore. More than likely, however, we would create a soggy Los Angeles with no soul, nor meaning.
i am not sure what you mean by a “modern” city; such wanton destructiveness would see Rome burned to the ground and replaced by shiny Steel and Glass monstrosities, and new roads destroying everyting in their path: all to facilitate traffic flow. Dublin needs some more newness, tis true, but not at the expense of the old. Even if the old is not, we admit, quite as old as Rome.
i’ve been to Dubai myself and wasn’t altogether impressed, though it was nicer than Abu Dhabi. It would shock you to find that on that trip to the UAE ( where my brother lives) and surrounding countries, I prefered Muskat.
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April 20, 2004 at 2:13 pm #742099AnonymousInactive
Originally posted by BulldozerGirl
phil – I was looking for the Art Deco house today; it disappeared!garethace – I never understand what you say.
Paul Clerkin – Congrats on the new wider forum layout. We will save many pages.
Bulldozer Girl, this is what I was questioning! What do you mean by those quotes you used?
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April 20, 2004 at 2:20 pm #742100AnonymousInactive
Bulldozer Girl: Sorry about my last question. I have just realised what you are saying. The house I am talking about is just beside the Stillorgan Park Hotel. What is the Yellow one that you are referring to?
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April 20, 2004 at 5:56 pm #742101BulldozerGirlParticipant
asdasd – I didn’t say you should build another Dubai in Dublin. I didn’t mention any particular city for you to compare it to. I also didn’t say old buildings should be destroyed. They can be left as they are, but there doesn’t seem to be any plans on building new ones anywhere else in the city or even outside the city. There are very few plans. Also why do you call a building that is made of steel and glass a “monstrosity”? It depends on what the design is like and the location.
You can’t really compare Dublin to Rome. If you mean there are old buildings, yes there are old buildings, but certainly not the same as Rome. As for Dubai, it never had any “classic” buildings to start with (with the exception of the Bastakiyya and some late 18th century palace). But yes, they did the right thing in demolishing 70’s or 80’s buildings that were past their expiration date to keep things clean and safe.
Speaking of safety, although Dublin is a small city and quite safe compared to other places, the northside is still a dreadful place to be in alone. I know I’m in a dangerous neighbourhood when I see clothes hanging on a balcony washline. It seems that there are a LOT of such areas in the city. Is half of Dublin full of washline buildings?
And at least, if no one wants to build something new, they should maintain old buildings, especially their interior. I have visited some friends living in an apartment block just off Fitzwilliam Square, and the furniture and carpet haven’t been changed since 1985. It’s very unhealthy to have such an old carpet, and the price they ask for, although cheap, is still a lot for what they offer. The hotels also have very poor service and rooms. I once stayed at the Fitzwilliam Hotel, and they gave me a very basic room and charged around 380 euro per night for it. For the same price elsewhere you would have had a fancier room with more facilities in the hotel. There is also a lack of fine places to eat at. It might seem trivial, but it’s a very important thing for a city – especially since it is the biggest in the country. Shopping gets a 3 out of 10 (an increase from 2 after Roches expanded).
What most foreigners from all nationalities say about Dublin in general is that it’s expensive, old (in a bad way more than good), has terrible infrastructure, and has a shortage in everything (taxis, buses, shops, houses.. etc). The supply can’t catch up with the demand and isn’t even planning on catching up. Well, there’s my foreign 2 cents on the subject. Oh, and of course, many foreigners ask why they made the spike and where all the tax money is disappearing.
phil – I was asking if this house you’re talking about is yellow in colour.
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April 20, 2004 at 6:37 pm #742102BulldozerGirlParticipant
Just to add some pictures to this thread – an illustration for what I said in the previous post:
Fitzwilliam Hotel, Dublin – ~380 euro double room with a view of Stephen’s Green park (with air conditioner, fax as facilities).
Burj Al Arab Hotel, Dubai – ~380 euro double room with a view of the sea.
Bathroom, Fitzwilliam:
Bathroom, Burj Al Arab:
Why should anyone pay for less?
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April 21, 2004 at 5:30 pm #742103GrahamHParticipant
Ireland is a high-cost country, the facilities of the Fitzwilliam are standard and similar to that of any other hotel in Western Europe.
Dubai is hardly comparable. Either way, I agree the Fitzwilliam needs taking down a peg or two – so full of itself despite it being one of the worst buildings in the city and in a poor location.‘Old brown buildings’ are a matter of opinion, but to most people and certainly to most on this site these Georgians are incredibly beautiful to look at. Indeed I tend to favour brown stock bricks over red, they’re more sophisticated and reserved.
And we most certainly did not do right in allowing buildings to be demolished to make things safe – had anyone bothered to enforce basic matainance and upkeep on these buildings the city wouldn’t have been in the mess it was.The pic I posted indeed sums up what Dublin is like in general – but as a charming, crumbly, low-rise muddled city, not backward or regressive. My pixelated 3rd generation rubbish doesn’t do that beautiful scene justice, nor the photograph itself which I must attribute to the highly skilled building photographer Hugh McConville.
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April 21, 2004 at 5:32 pm #742104GrahamHParticipant
(No sorry Diaspora I don’t have a pic – saw it in a book somewhere but can’t remember what it was!)
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April 21, 2004 at 8:59 pm #742105BulldozerGirlParticipant
Graham Hickey – Dublin has many wonderful buildings, especially Georgian ones, but a lot of the same thing gets a bit boring. And when I say “old” I sometimes mean 1970’s buildings, and not Georgians.
Each city has its own style, and Dublin certainly shouldn’t change its current style, but what I’m saying is that they can start building more shopping areas, or highrises outside of the city. The “soul” of the city isn’t going to die, like asdasd said.
It doesn’t really suit Dublin to have a hotel with those kinds of rooms like Dubai, but it would be nice to have some Georgian-style thing. I think the Shelbourne would have that. I ought to check it out. I was thinking why prices for everything are so high here (tax :rolleyes: ). What are other reasons? I buy HP print cartridge (made in Ireland) here for 40 euro; the same made in Ireland cartridge in Dubai is 22 euro :confused:
Anyway, I was in Dun Laoghaire today, and here is a pic of Lower George’s St.
It’s a very friendly place, and I love some of the pyjama-coloured pink, yellow and blue houses in the area.
The Dun Laoghaire Town Hall:
The harbour:
This place is cool, and it will be even cooler after they change the harbour
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April 22, 2004 at 3:38 pm #742106BulldozerGirlParticipant
Some pics taken on my way back from Beaumont Hospital.
A washline building with strange colour combination near Beaumont Rd. I wonder how clothes are expected to dry in this weather. Perhaps all buildings should have one or two large tumble dryers as a compulsory thing, and people should be fined for hanging things in the balcony (such laws have been enforced in some other countries).
An old building on Amiens St (I don’t know what it is). I like grey buildings for some reason, or cream-coloured or red – anything but brown 🙂
The sun was too bright, but here’s the “AIB” building on Amiens St. (forgot the proper name for it which Diaspora mentioned). I think it looks great next to that old grey one. This is one of my favourite streets (the other side of it is quite disorganized though).
This is one of the prettiest modern buildings in Dublin. Don’t you think if there were more of these spread about or collected in one place that it would be a much nicer place?
The above buildings remind me of these three in Sharjah, UAE:
OK, not too similar, but close enough.
Oh, and I thought I’d tell you, asdasd, that if you liked Muscat, Oman then you would love Yemen. They’re of the same standard somewhat, but there’s a risk of getting kidnapped in Yemen (actually tourism companies make a deal with mountain bedouins to kidnap people for a short time – some people like those sorts of “adventures” 😎 ). I ought to warn you though that Oman and Yemen, along with Morocco, are the world’s hub for black magic. If you are a practising Christian, I suggest you guard yourself well 😀
Btw, wouldn’t a “soggy Los Angeles” be Seattle? -
April 22, 2004 at 4:38 pm #742107emfParticipant
I really like the new lime green livery on the Dart/ commuter trains (second last picture) and also just in relation to the Georges Quay towers I think they look well from a lot of vantage points around the city!!
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April 22, 2004 at 5:35 pm #742108shaunParticipant
Keep the pics coming, b’girl, and may I say that you take an interesting photo, I mean those pyramid topped buildings on the quays, I hated them on my last trip to Dublin, but ya know, they look alright on your photo.
And you’re right when you say that Dun Laoghaire is cool, it was a great place to have grown up in. You will no doubt have noticed the massive piers that form the harbour, they were erected in 1821, when Dubai was a small fishing village and the main activity in the neighbourhood was goat-herding and the biggest export was dates and figs instead of oil.
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April 22, 2004 at 9:10 pm #742109BulldozerGirlParticipant
shaun – hmm.. it seems you have transformed this into a Dublin-Dubai comparative thread.
Yes, I have noticed the piers. Here is a satellite picture of the Jebel Ali port in Dubai which was built about 40 years ago. It is the only man-made port that is visible from space.
Dubai was a small fishing village, but it did not have goat-herding as the major activity, nor did it grow or export figs. It has never even had any considerable amount of oil, and whatever it had is almost finished now. The income has always mainly been from trade, and now, trade and tourism. The UAE is among the top ranks of oil exporting countries because Abu Dhabi is a major producer.
Dubai is a very new city, but its people still stick to their local traditions. For a certain time in history, we were all part of the same country: the British Empire :p
I thought I’d mention that many cities had great buildings and civilizations thousands of years ago, when other cities didn’t even exist, but today, most of these cities are part of 3rd world countries. So what does that say about taking pride in the glorious past? 😉
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April 23, 2004 at 10:03 am #742110AnonymousInactive
Interesting to hear Dun Laoghaire and Dubai being mentioned together as one of the Baths Projects was to be a massive sail shaped building, similar to the hotel in Dubai.
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May 1, 2004 at 3:01 am #742111BulldozerGirlParticipant
I thought I would compile a list of what I think are the prettiest buildings in Dublin, but it would take time to take a photo of all.
So it’s best if I jump the list and go straight to my favourite building in the city: The City of Dublin Royal Hospital on Upper Baggot St. 🙂
The best thing about it is the colour. It’s so bright it looks like something out of a cartoon 😀
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October 23, 2004 at 1:47 pm #742112AnonymousParticipant
Bulldozer Girl,
There is another High Victorian gem around the back of the hospital, it is a hotel. It is well worth a look.
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October 23, 2004 at 3:01 pm #742113
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October 7, 2006 at 8:22 pm #742114AnonymousParticipant
I passed this way this evening and the restoration of this building looks great; someone should post some miscellaneous pics of same
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