Parnell Square redevelopment
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The Hugh Lane Gallery refurb is almost complete. The glass extension is finished and the crew are just giving teh former National Ballroom a spruce up. The sign was removed and the wood and metal painted but personally I think the brickwork needs some cleaning especially the top which is covered in moss.
Also the Rotunda Hospital announced a development plan for the hospital very much in line with what the overall plan calls for. There’s a long completion time but it is good to see a cohesive strategy taking shape.
Who owns the “Mhuire” now? Was it given back to the state? I think the idea of a luxery hotel is a bit fanciful for that site, although I remember from my schooldays that there is a fairly large upper and lower enclosed yard behind the school and that may help it’s value.
The garden of Rememberance was always a great place to sit outside, it was a nice suntrap and well protected from the wind and the prying eyes of the teachers!
Isn’t the redevelopment of Parnell Sq. a little premature given that we are now in the Transport21 ‘era’ and the Luas route to Broadstone may well go right up O’Connell Street onto Parnell Sq., Granby Row, Western Way and into Broadstone Station to acess the old MGWR alignment that will take the tram on to Liffey Junction (and maybe Finglas post T21)? Should the city council not hold off on this until the Luas route is decided or in place? The Luas link up is likely to be route ‘A’ at this stage and that will make a continuation up O’Connell Street quite possible.
Good news ! Is there a website about the Parnell Square redevelopment ? I thought I came across it once. It had PDF’s etc. Maybe that was the war rememberence thing.
I think most of the streets around O Connell street need a make over TBH. Its a good start though.
http://dispatch.mapflow.com/lav20a-i…ap_4380848.jpg doesnt work btw
I hope the 1916 Memorial Garden will get a decent makeover…..whats there at the moment is seriously lacking. More features and characteristics of such memorials should be included to make it more of a defining monument for the city…ie if grand archway leading into the garden was added would be a start. The recent memorial gardens that were opened in Washington USA to the war dead of WWII is not bad. It has an air of grandeur and solemnity which is needed in such cases.
how much of that framework has actually being implemented ? I think something like the above would be great for the entire area.
Greg that looks like the backdrop to the Eucharistic congress
Just a couple of things from up on the Square.
The replica Georgian on the west side, probably the first ‘genuine’ attempt at such a building in 10 years in the capital, is finally in an advanced stage of construction. Granite sills are in place, and most of the Flemish bond brick is in place, a rare sight nowadays:
A large apartment block is being built to the rear…
Overall the right decision I think given the wider context of the impressive mid-18th century stepped streetscape here.Unfortunately the rest of the square most certainly is not a hive of activity – still some appalling scenes of dereliction a stone’s throw from the city’s main street:
…not dissimilar to the condition of many other the houses on the Gardniner Estate, as if the Celtic Tiger had never even happened.
Look at the difference with the restored house next door:
Passing the Hugh Lane/Charlemont House before Christmas I couldn’t believe my eyes at the new extension to the building – it is juxtaposing gone completely insane:
The setting of the house, and indeed the building itself has been destroyed by this astonishingly arrogant intrusion. The glazed wall is the epitome of ‘contrastisim’ in all its vulgarity and smug self-confidence: the practice of using ‘daring’ materials in the generation of a juxtaposition of styles to excuse the insertion of pretty much anything into a special, usually historic environment.
The architects Gilroy McMahon say the glazed extension is “the only opportunity we had to advertise what’s going on in here”. Indeed.
I am sick of the ‘cutting edge’ excuse being used in the permitting of historic environments to be invaded on, and this is the practice at its very very worst. Indeed it has little to do with the Georgian environment – of much greater concern is the complete upsetting of the architectural composition of the house and flanking terraces, both in their own right and in the wider context of their uniqueness in the city.
It beggars belief what has been permitted up there – sure why don’t we glaze in the courtyards of the Four Courts while we’re at it, or how about some nice shimmering plates of infill to rid us of those nasty drafty gaps in the colonnade of the Bank of Ireland? We won’t even notice them – sure they’re all modern like, our brains will just blank them out :rolleyes:
GUBU 😡
Yes that extension is too much. It should in no way have come out flush with the house’s facade. That’s really quite shocking … the impact on the integrity of the house is huge …
I don’t recall this going through planning. Was it a Part X application?Ah yeah….thats the way things work. I thought it looked a bit crass myself. Im not sure if repeating it on the other side might mitigate the obtrusiveness of the original?
Next door the former National Ballroom got a paint job but not much else. I’m looking forward to seeing the whole gallery completed. Its been renamed to the Dublin City Gallery: The Hugh Lane. I quiet liked the sound of Municipal Art Gallery myself!
Moving up to Parnell Street…a hive of activity these days. DCC have a notice up to demolish the three council blocks on Lwr Dominick Street and the corner element on Parnell St. A new mixed use development is going up. Anyone have any idea whats being proposed.
Also that eyesore beside Jurys is being developed – 8 storeys.
And! Mary Harney and Co are set to move to Chapel House (part of the Penneys redevelopment) soon thus vacating poor auld Hawkins House.
The biggest problem with it is that it should have been stepped back. Gilroy McMahon have tried to replicate what they did at Collins Barracks but it doesn’t work. Really spoils the house.
I like it , it simple not too showy. Very nicely done ! I particulary approve of it being flush with the main building. Top marks !
Gilroy McMahon are losing their touch
I don’t think it’s necessarily their fault – there’s only so many ways you can handle a bit of fancy glazing. It is the demands of their client that must be called into question, and the decision taken by planners, i.e. it is the very concept of filling in one side of the house that matters rather than how it is executed.
Obviously glazing is going to be adopted over solid elements as a given in such circumstances, so the architect is largely just left with the choice of what glazing to use – of marginal importance in the broader context of deciding to fill in the gap in the first place. The transparency of the finished structure to the top is very appealing, and the glazing has a certain finesse, but that’s not the point.
Also, the raw exposure of structural elements like the stairs and the internal walls is horribly crass for such a decorous set-piece. Such brutal ‘honesty’ is usually confined to interiors of historic complexes and generally works exceedingly well, but here it’s many more times invasive out of doors where there’s nothing else for it to interact with, and also you’ve no choice but to look at it.
Agreed Collins Barracks works very well, but here it should not have been permitted. Yes there was a small nasty extension here bofore the glazing that was less than pleasant, but it had nowhere near the impact that this structure does. And it was set back.I hear what you are saying but suspect that Gilroy McMahon have probably turned down work in the past that they may have considered would risk their once flawless reputation.
Charlemont House was my favourite Georgian house on the northside….they’ve ruined the facade. This bloody country…
It’s a great extension.By being in line with the main building it highlights it wonderfully. Honestly Mr. Hickey how can you want glazing on the one hand , and complain that you can see through it ?
The glazing is a simple as possible. You can see that it is even held up from inside the structure.
If the extension was set back it would draw your attention to it. Instead as it is it focuses all eyes on the main building. It being so simple and different from the original work I can apreciate the old by itself , the new extension , and the two together.
It was a very very good idea to extend the gallery. It has saved a fine georgian building.
I would like to see the gallery extend to the left building in the future.Indeed It could be argued that the Hugh Lane should take over most of that side of the square .
TOP MARKS !!!
The Hugh Lane is a great little gallery too with some fine works mainly from the impressionist era. It is a great liitle treasure to have on the north side of the city here. Fair play to Hugh Lane, who tragically drowned when the Luisitania was sank by the Germans. He bequeathed many paintings to the gallery in Dublin and theres wrangling going on to this day over more paintings still held by London. Francis Bacon’s studio the latest major aquisition. There’s Monets, Manets, Renoirs and Courbets to see as well as modern Irish painters. Check out the impasto of Mancini paintings.
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