O’ Connell Street, Dublin
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A new school of traffic design says we should get rid of stop signs and red lights and let cars, bikes and people mingle together. It sounds insane, but it works
Lets not – it’ll frusrtate everyone + we ignore regulations over here anyway (just try walking from Stephen’s Green to Henry Street and see how pedestrians, bikes buses and cars interact)
Er, has anyone seen the new Dr Quirkey’s shopfront unveiled today? – its, er, dreadful. Looks like one of those corpo houses that has been ‘beautified’ with grecian pilarra and some ‘fancy’ railings…
Did this get planning permission – I don’t recall…
The old shopfront was bad – but not as vile as this rubbish….
See the Savoy are doing their bit -AT LAST – the foyer looks impressive enough – all they need now is to rid the building to its left of that bits and pieces shopfront….
Its a major improvement, thankfully.
Here, I heard a proposal also that the GPO is to be sublet to shops as An Post view it as a major underuse of existing space – don’t know whether this will work. perhaps where the phone booths and the stampshops are could be better used. Even a stylish restaraunt, perhaps?
:confused:
That’s a nice idea alright – where did you here it from?
The main foyer always feels very empty, the central section stretching over to the windows is a bit windswept – no changes were ever made to around here, where entrances used to be, and the magnificent wooden clock has been missing for ages from the central table.
Must see Dr Quirkey’s, was wondering what would emerge from under the hoardings…“Tiocfaidh Ar SPAR!” It’s all about shelf determination
Originally posted by chewy
A new school of traffic design says we should get rid of stop signs and red lights and let cars, bikes and people mingle together. It sounds insane, but it works. [I’ve read through those links and it’s an interesting idea, but I don’t think it’s a runner in Dublin, because motorised traffic is in such heavy dominance; it would just continue to dominate…
Besides, the concept of letting everything mingle together doesn’t adress the issue of air pollution – cars etc. produce air pollution, pedestrians & cyclists don’t..
Talking about new building facades unveiled as in DR. Quirkey’s ….anyone see the the former Virgin Megastore aka McBirneys which has just been unveiled too near O’Connell Bridge.
The Joyce House up on Usher Island looks good but it is minus it’s fanlight.
Also I was at Croker on Sunday and noticed that the new HIll 16 fits rather awkward up against the Cusack Stand. There is a gap between the two. Kinda looks shit really if it is to be left like this.
Deep down I always knew the CC would follow through in the end 🙂 (and with only a couple of days left till the end of the 6 month period!)
They look really good now, it would be terrible to loose them, they’re nice for weary tourists to sit on too (God knows there’s nowhere else :D), and they warm up quite nicely in the sun – apparently…And from the sublime to the ridiculous – Dr Quirkey’s new shopfront.
From a distance it looks fine, pretty good actually, as it ‘supports’ the upper floors very well, and the colouring largely matches the stone dressings of the building.
It’s only when you get up close, and observe the silliness of it all, and the underscaled plaster detail, such as pilasters, and heads of all things, that it all falls apart. There’s a kinda Grecian thing going on too which is quite scary really when combined with the new purple railings – on a cheap and inappropriate granite base – that are more suited to Cadbury World than O’ Connell Street.Overall, I think it’s an improvement on the old dour marble. The shopfront itself looks fine from a distance, it looks simple and elegant – but this should be the case up closetoo, with clean lines and some simple detail, matching the upper floors.
What’s most interesting about this is that wasn’t this building earmarked for part of the Carlton scheme? Is this confirmation that it isn’t or that any development isn’t expected for another 5 years?!Also have the first of many before and after pics here. I was going to save them till the street was finished, but sure we’ll all be dead and buried by then, so here’s just two of the plaza.
The shots are taken from the exact same postion – behind Larkin cause he’s the only thing I knew would be still there 2 years later! – and using the same lens angle etc.
Sorry about the trees getting in the way, didn’t know they’d be there at the time of the first pic (oh and of course the sun always shines on O’ Cll St now!)This one is has better exposure, and the contrast between the two pics is more pronounced.
So from shabby heritage – to cool, calm and contemporary:
It really is a magnificent job to date – well done to everyone involved in the City Council; whatever about the initial delay, the excecution of the job has been fast and well managed with pedestrains and traffic. And the attention to detail has been excellent, from the precision paving, to the steel studs, to those lovely bins (there was a guy there yesterday crouched on the ground taking pics of them, he even had a cloth to polish them with!)
Just one problem with the finished works that I hoped wouldn’t happen – one of the clipped limes looks decidedly dead outside Clerys – all of it’s leaves have fallen off. If it can’t be treated hopefully there are ‘spares’ that it and other damaged trees in the future can be replaced with.SAP have been preparing the limes specifically for O’Connell street, saw a pic of the site a while back, appeared to be about 60 in stock …
The tree looks as if it suffered from the very warm weather we had a while back….a case of underwatering!
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