More for the Art Deco fans
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I just noticed the restored interior of the Gas building for the first time when I was passing by on Sunday… DROOL!!! The ceiling clock especially is quite orgasmic.
Sorry, am I over-reacting?! Just go look at it!
Siobhán.Hi there
I stopped in at lunchtime. Are thoses 2 crude stainless steel vents on either side of the door new?
I was confused by the automatic doors at first and then realised they’d kept the originals.
As for inside: have they done it up recently? I didn’t notice but then, I’m not very familiar with the interior.
The staircase and columns are gorgeous. Walnut and maple? Haven’t they always been like that too?
I walked to it form the IFSC where I unfortuntely work [but not for long] and went from the back through the Elizabethan/Tudor style Leinster Market alleyway. Wonderful!
Returning I went past such horrors as:Hawkins House
Apollo House & Tara House [Tara Street]
The Ulster Bank buildingAmazing how standards have plummetted.
John
So you have only noticed now John?
As it was to be built.
More info at http://www.archeire.com/michael_scott/emergency.html
I was in Athlone a few years ago specially to look at the building because we heard it was due to be demolished then. I have photos somewhere. I had actually thought that it would be gone by now. The concrete seemed to be of very poor quality and crumbling badly probably due to being built during the Emergency.
It was never really built as designed…. the glazed area beneath the building along the riverside was never completed.
http://www.irish-architecture.com/buildings_ireland/westmeath/athlone/ritz.html
The Ritz in Athlone has had a long history of neglect. Various plans for redevelopment were considered and binned. Developers found it difficult to meet parking requirements as well as the desire to retain soem of the existing. One wonders was it let go to wreck and ruin so it could be demolished and have a more blank canvas. Then again they could have taken the development of this prime site in Athlone seriously and got some real design input. Maybe a competition.
You can see what the Ritz exterior looked like in 1998 on the Art Deco Ireland Web Site
atPlease someone help me.
I have a school trivia question to be answered.
The 1p and 2p coins share a designer in which art deco government ministry?
Show off your knowledge. Answer, please.
I’ve enjoyed reading all the comments you Irish kids (assuming) have made, and almost envy you your time and place.
I grew up in the Los Angeles of the 1930s-40’s, when Deco was new and vibrant and all but taken for granted, probably more in that locality than in any other in America. How I wish that were yet the case…hope the Dublin we now hear so increasingly about doesn’t follow this same path. GeorgeThere are still some evocative corners in LA where you can taste the Art Deco ambience of the Thirties, e.g. the stretch of Sunset Boulevard along the Hollywood foothills, near La Cienega Boulevard.
Super!
Here are a few lesser-known examples of Irish art-deco:
Garda Station @ Donnybrook (note the lamps)
Old Players factory in Glasnevin
Building opposite the Central Bank, Dame St. (note the inscriptions on the second floor).
The old ESB logo.
Various old ESB generator builings dooted around the countryside.
The Burton Building on Dame St.
Church of Christ the King, Cork city.
Interior lobby of the Gresham Hotel (plasterwork).
Suburban houses in Terenure, Sutton, Rathfarnam (1930s – 40s).
And some more famous ones…The Carlton Cinema (to be restored in ‘a modern art deco-stle’) built c.1937.
The Department of Industry and Commerce HQ., Kildare St.
The Theatre Royal (since demolished)There are some new pages on the Art Deco Ireland Web Site, if you have not visited it recently.
It is at http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Salon/6941/deco1.htm
That’s terrific news about the Carlton Cinema. It’s always been a major greivance of mine.
Whoo-hoo! Well done to whoever is doing it.
I agree.The Interior of a building is just as important as the exterior.Sure is’nt that what the Lancefort conflict was all about regarding the new Westin hotel. For a good laugh, look at the relic of a facade their preserving beside the new millennium bridge where the fire was recently at Ormonde quay. They just have’nt a clue. Talking about Art Deco has anyone noticed the ‘Bourbon’ building at the corner of Dame St. and South Great Georges St. housing Pars Oriental Carpets and some cheap record store.
But then yet again maybe it’s more ‘Art Nouveau’ in style although it dates from 1930.To add, that Gas Office in D’Olier St. is a little over-rated. The back facade with the mock-Tudor is ridiculous.It like Zoe development’s fantasies on Bachelor’s Walk or Arran Quay.
If you want fantasy see Gaudi’s output. If you want Art Deco see the wonderful Chrysler building in New York with it’s luscious interior. Now that’s real Art Deco.Oh, I thought
‘to be restored in ‘a modern art deco-stle’
meant inside AND out. It’s the interior I was exited about as it’s the part that’s been missing all these years. The interiors of Deco buildings were usually the most fabulous part. Also of course a piece of good architecture is NOT simply a facade with a box behind it.Bonzo, that’s the ‘Burton’ building [as in men’s suits etc.] You’re right though, it IS more Nouveau.
Can anyone tell me more about the Telecom Eireann (?) building on Pearse St. down from the Bus Garage and near the greyhound track? Red brick curves at the corners, large panels of glass block either side of the entrance and, best of all, fabulous concrete projection, sloping upwards and outwards, to support the clock above. What year? What Architect? etc?
The adjacent site, which has Telecom Eireann incorporated into the railings, has a Hamilton Osborne King “sold” sign on it. Is this another building under threat of extinction?This new ritz.
See what you thinkHaving looked at the original:
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Salon/6941/ritz.htm
It was no great loss.
The new building is OK, a little disney-ish if anything but at least some thought went into it.
13/5/2004
I passed by the Gas Building on D’ Olier St the other day and WOW the interior is fantastic! I’d forgotton how good it looks – last seeing it around 1999.
The hoardings or paint covering the windows have been removed and the dazzlingly lit interior was nearly jumping out the window – what a fantastic piece of eye-candy for the people at the bus stop there.
The walls are a glowing shade of light green and the fluted coved ceiling stands out spectacularly against it.
The ceiling is covered in glittering glass pendents that are literally dripping with delicate lengths of glass – they make the place look so glamourous and when seen on a dark dull early morning and contrasting with the solemnity of the Irish Times terrace across the road looks spectacular.
And its signiature brown columns in the centre look great too.Heres hoping the windows are left gapingly clear for everyone to see D’ Olier St’s best kept secret.
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