Smithfield – decision

Scheme go ahead minus tall tower and one storey across the board.

In what way? that the height was removed or that the scheme goes ahead?

I think its a shame that the tower isnt going to be built, as we need to start higher density developments.

Who were the architects?

[This message has been edited by Paul Clerkin (edited 01 May 2001).]

Well the locals are still up in arms about it. I do believe taht they want the site to remain derelict.

Nice acceptable loss so – 23 apartments.

I’ve said it time and time again, amidst a building boom, Dublin instead, is getting a colection of visually boring buildings…all low rise, all ZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz! What a missed opportunity……….and what a crap mediocre city it is amounting too …..all designed by accountants and people who left school at the age of seven or don’t have a spark of ingenuity. ….Oh dear, no renaissance for us then. Lord save us…from the dopes!

Regarding Po’s point yesterday on the sacrificial tower
this quote is in today’s Irish Times

Mr Jerry Ryan, of architects Horan Keogan Ryan, said his clients were “very pleased with the result” because it would still allow them to build some 600,000 sq ft (55,741 sq m) of space on the two-acre site.

speaks volumes

Looking at the image reproduced it would have made a good focal point……and it’s not that big either. We really are elf like here….in mind……..’Lilliputlians’

[This message has been edited by GregF (edited 03 May 2001).]

Im off again…………………………. but I can’t help commenting on the air of ignorance and pessimism that fills everyone regarding new developments in Dublin/Ireland. Anything of an ‘unusuality’ gets the thumbs down ….full stop. Not only was the Smithfield scheme scaled down and losing it’s only outstanding feature (ie the tower) but Calatrava’s bridge down the docks is in jeopardy now because of some stupid ignorant locals complaining spurred on by the stupid ignorant vote catching councillors/politicians. It looks now as if everything that will be planned will be scaled down…. ending up like run of the mill shit. Are Irish people so thick. It is a stiffling air of pessimism and ignorance and Dublin city the capital city of Ireland will lose out in the end. So amidst a building boom as I have said already we will develop a rather insignificant mediocre city on a par with secondary cities found in the rest of the world and we have only our stupid ignorant Irish selves to blame.
(Please give us a job regarding such I could do a damn lot better). I only hope too that a wave of architectural students with flair and a great understanding is on the way up……otherwise we are lost.
We now supposedly identify with a mythological past (in part) who produced the likes of ‘Newgrange’ or the newly found colonial past who produced the likes of Georgiana and Victoriana and all it’s trappings (at least such a people built), but we are so stupid and scared today to put a mark on the landscape representing our generation. An Taisce can kiss my arse ….what a futile stick in the mud organisation ….you don’t count when it really matters……..Food for thought? Reply if you can.

Cork, will shortly face a similar dilemma being experienced in Dublin at present i.e. that of the need for taller buildings/high densities v’s local’s, An Taisce’s fears and so on. Some people here are quick off the mark, and probably have protest posters printed already. For example, Urban Initiatives are engaged in A Building Heights study for Cork City and are creating a strategy for the city’s docklands, the only significant city centre site which remains undeveloped. Cork, due to its land shortage needs higher buildings..fact. However, I hope it can learn from the mistakes in Dublin..but I doubt it. I read an article by Jo Kerrigan last week (in the Examiner)who was trying to rally locals into protest…about projects that are only at a conceptual stage presently, the Green Party recently recommended that no new buildings in the city should be over THREE storeys! This is the situation architects and planners have to face, a society so pathetically opposed to anything innovative, that we have the most mundane cityscapes in Europe. Did people protest and complain when other tall buildings were constructed in the city eg. St. Finbarr’s Cathedral, Shandon etc. They were courageous, unusual, TALL, higher than surrounding buildings etc. Today, they are treasured. Are we more conservative now than we were 100 years ago? Local authority planning departments and Bord Pleanala should be encouraging height and adding floors to proposed schemes, not the opposite. Anyway, Cork’s situation will be interesting in the next few years, and could shape the city’s morphology for a long time afterwards. Also, I do believe that in Dublin, An Taisce is letting the city, and its people down, and so called ‘planners’ in that body should think about what they are really doing to a city with so much potential. People are right to be angry about it. Perhaps we should petition An Taisce to call for a reduction in height of old churches cathedrals etc. because they impede our views of the suburbs.