Stack A

so the really irratating thing about the five lamps devlopment is that the only good feature, the curve along the front, isn’t carried by the penthouse.

Nothing only more convenience stores it would seem alright how can the planners give permission for two directly opposite each other where none exist now?

BTW Why is it taking so long for Stack A to open? It looks nearly finished from the outside I can’t undetand it

True. Its been finished for 18 months.

One has now been found i believe. Fitout work starting in a couple of weeks.

The Spar on Camden St is very good and not that expensive either it is featured on their tv ad’s and must have a floor plate of about 1000 sq m. Critically however there is little in it that you can’t get in Dunnes Stores on Georges St.

I hope that Stack A does not have either a Spar/Centra type anchor or even a SuperValue, it would want to be someone new I think that Mortons (Dunville Avenue Ranelagh) would make the perfect anchor or something similar.

@notjim wrote:

This is a scandal, a number of good visitor attraction suggestions were made to the DDDA, Interactive science museums for example have a well-established ability to bring in huge crowds and with Dublin’s shortage of childrens activities, it would have done great. Instead, they were fixed on shopping and dazzled by the idea of Harvey Nicks, the cultural subsidy was wasted and then they couldn’t get tenants, presumably for the want of footfall, now they are going to have a hotel, like that’s exciting, and a few resteraunts and to get footfall up they are going to put the abbey on stilts, ruining one of the finest parts of the docklands areas. Fucking idiots.

could not agree more!!!

Well with that management board the proposal for the IFSCwould surely not have had a sufficient foundation to survive the muddy ground within Georges Dock. I seriuosly doubt that the bunch of government appointed hacks that are likely to replace them will be any better, the Gaiety is exactly how a theatre should be run and the only way to make the Abbey profitable is to have an Abbey productions company who tour for 60% of the year and an Abbey Theatre that hosts the production company for 40% of the year and hold profitable events for the other 60% of the year to keep losses at an acceptable level.

My fear is that after the latest debacle that the Abbey as a source of creative cultural output has been damaged significantly, how this was allowed to happen in its centenary year beggars belief, 4m is very little in real terms if the expenditure was planned, applied for and refused by the department of Sport, Golf Courses and boat houses.

@notjim wrote:

do you mean the gaiety or the gate? the gaiety isn’t really a source of creative cultural output,

I wish I meant the Gate from a cultural point of view by I actually mean a Gaiety style financial model for 224 days a year to fund a home to the Abbey for 141 days a year and a travelling Abbey for the remainder.

The problem with cultural institutions the world over is that they are run by cultural people and not by financial managers, if the Abbey were run like a business it would deliver a free space for the creative output which in turn could be fully financed from ticket sales and corporate support with the government picking up the slack in a bad year or for special events like centenaries etc.

As it stands the Abbey is not maximising income from its current holdings and is not a good case for corporate support because it is run by people who have little understanding of corporate culture. Which makes it very easy for government to refuse funding.

To be honest, the cycle path issue is one of serious umbridge (no pun intended) to myself. The DDDA were given a carte blanche in laying a cycle path from the Point to the new foot bridge and they’ve made a complete balls of it. Between Spencer Dock and the Point they’ve inserted three chicanes along the path with sharp (45 degree) turns on it. Normally I’d simply cycle through the chicane but trucks and camper vans are using them for parking 😡 As you continue up the path it simply dissapears for stretches where the red asphalt is replaced by natural stone. Then it finishes completely with no path back on to the road at the Spencer Dock drawbridge. Starts again after the bridge, stops for the two cafes, starts again, stops for the DDDA offices and doesn’t come back. All the way you have pedestrians obliviously walking along the middle of the track.

I mean, laying a cycle track along side the N11 was just too funny as it rolled up and down the cambers of driveways, in between bus stops and buses and generally all over the shop as if the guy with the asphalt was drunk. But when they have a blank canvess and loads of cash and still make a bollix of it it defies logic/belief. I wrote to the DDDA as it was being layed (I could see the out line of the chicanes early on) and I think my mail was ejected into the soup and floated out to sea !!!

just a pity its empty!

Well the DDDA can’t make up its mind. The museum plan for part of it was dropped and from what I understand Harvey Nicks wanted to set up there but DDDA wouldn’t give them the whole thing so they went to Dundrum instead. Then Hugh O’Regan came in and obviously has since backed out. Stack A was supposed to draw people to the docklands area and make it more vibrant at the weekends. I don’t see how the current plan for arts and crafts type stores will do that. That’s destination retail.