Ussher Library

The Ussher Library, I amn’t sure which Ussher though, it is either the bishop and important church scholar who worked out how old the Earth is by adding up the ages in the bible (Creation was on October 23, 4004BC) and gave his books to the library, or his uncle, also James Ussher who helped found the library.

I agree, very impressive but, (there’s always a but) there’s a ridiculouss waste of space between it and Nassau St. – in the manner of that other waste of space between lovely Luce hall and Pearse St.

Actually I now have a theory about why Luce Hall is at a funny angle, was it build that way because of the thankfully abandoned road widening? maybe it is aligned to the notional route of the widened road. apparently this explains the two-buildings-colliding effect of Aras an Phiasaigh, the building opposite the garda station. the original building was aligned to the new road route and when the road widening was abandoned a new bit was added to correct this. Of course that doesn’t explain the new library, but the reason here may be that planners like there to be trees along nassau street.

Looks more likely that Luce hall was built
to match the orientation of the buildings directly south of it which in turn follow the East west orientation of the squares in Trinity
http://www.tcd.ie/Maps/tcd_campus.html

LOB is correct, although by the time you get from the main square down to Luce hall it doesnt really matter what angle it is to the quads

More photographs – interior and exterior….
http://www.irish-architecture.com/buildings_ireland/dublin/southcity/trinity/ussher_library.html

Sisters of mystery and portents of doom: high modern architecture in Dublin, and its commercial nemesis.

You wait around for years for a significant new piece of contemporary architecture in the heart of Dublin, and then suddenly two, both competition winners, arrive at once. Trinity College’s James Ussher Library now nods along Nassau Street to the National Gallery’s Millennium Wing on Clare Street. Both are unapologetically modern, each is nonetheless very different, yet both tease and challenge the observer.
http://www.hughpearman.com/articles3/dublin.html

Back studying in TCD for the past three weeks – had first hand experience of the new library. Beautiful precipice of an atrium. I know that atriums have become a must-have in any granite-clad new building but this one is different – it offers views from the shelving area, across the atrium, across the study desks and out to the college park and the pavillion bar. More luxurious than the Berkely – those rather plush scarlet carpet tiles and the small south American rainforest used in the shelving, it is nevertheless austere enough to function as a serious place of study and provide some link to the Berkely. (Note also the use of black ribbed wood for all doors, albeit not exactly identical to those in the Berkely – which give a good sense of continuity)
My one gripe – and it really grates with me is that the toilets of the new library bear no relation whatsoever, apart from a couple of odd angles, to the design of the building above and around them. I know this sounds a bit ridiculous, but it really lets the building down. Jonathon Glancey recently praised a Daniel Liebeskind building in the North of England (apologies for forgetting its name) for having sympathetically cubist toilets – even the toilets in the Berkely are echoic of its interior.
The moral of this rambling reply:
Pay attention to every detail and don’t let any one area detract from the overall building

Who designed the toilets? McCullough Mulvin or KMD?

No idea,

not on for apportioning blame – maybe the provost and his wife went down to B&Q.

My main point is that excellent architecture needs to be rigorous and no detail can afford to be overlooked without detracting from the overall quality

That’s a point I agree on – that the quality of the building must carry through every level of detail. I’ve always been curious about how some practices seem to do a lot of work using executive architects – I wonder how they can take the attitude that their design input goes so far into the level of detail and no further.

On the other hand Bucholz McEvoy and BDP seem to have had a very rigorous approach to the Fingal Co offices.

The down side of rigour for a designer is the sheer amount of tedium required to deal with every detail.

good article just up on the DOMUS website
http://www.edidomus.it/Domus/latest/singola_news.cfm?CodNews=12608&Tipo=1

[This message has been edited by fergus (edited 24 May 2002).]

Would that be a “good article” in the sense of “wholly uncritical”?

yea you’re right but there are some nice pics. accompaning the article

Does anybody else find the schizophrenic nature of this building disturbing – refined elevation to the campus – sheer inaccesible almost anti urban skewed walls onto Nassau St???.

It seems to be a really decent piece of work but characterless in that it rejects the existing urban context of the street and makes no effort to present a public ‘face’ to either the axis formed by Sth Frederick St or the strip of Nassau St onto which it faces??????

[This message has been edited by James (edited 27 May 2002).]

It’s Trinity dahling,
It was probably part of the design brief to ignore the street!
Seriously though, Trinity regard having a secure campus as being important and so want to minimise the number of gates to their 46 acres.
Personally, I really like the ‘scizophrenic’ nature of the building – the view down sth. Frederick Street is wonderful – bulky but not overbearing.
Similarly the elegant, reserved aspect that faces over college park looks wonderful from the pavillion bar – dare I suggest that it looks like the Future Systems media centre at Lord’s cricket ground? Anybody with me on this one?

I have not yet seen it in the flesh, I admit but according to the photographs published in Irish Architect, the Ussher Library looks wonderful. Resonant of ABK but with it’s own integrity and power.

What’s the verdict?

They have completed the areas on the raised podium between the Ussher and the Berekely now. You can walk around the back of the Ussher to the area between it and the college railings where visitors will be usshered in 😉

http://www.ireland.com/property/top/2003/0403/top2.htm

With the official opening tomorrow, now would be a good time to go see the Ussher. There has (quite literally) been an army of maintainance people crawling all over it this week, hanging paintings, painting walls, power-washing the Berkely etc. The Ussher looks really, really good at the moment & with the weather like it is the views of college park are super.

Does anybody else find the schizophrenic nature of this building disturbing – refined elevation to the campus – sheer inaccesible almost anti urban skewed walls onto Nassau St???.

Trinity – Insular – Never!!!

I note the generally approving tone of the comments on this thread about the Ussher library. It is certainly a very nice building to look at from the outside and there is a great view across the cricket pitch from inside.

But…

I’ve been doing some work in that library for the past few days and I find it a dreadful place in which to work. This is because of the atrium, which has generally received a lot of praise. The problem is this. The books are all on one side of the atrium, while the desks are on the other side. To get from one side to the other, on each floor, you have to walk across this “gangway” (I’m not an architect) which is pretty wide, maybe 3 metres wide. However, you cannot help noticing on one side the enormous drop down to the bottom of the building. And I’m only working on Level 1, which is (I think) actually the fourth level from the bottom. (the type of “gangway” I’m talking about is shown pretty clearly on a couple of the interior photos linked earlier in the thread)

You are of course protected from falling into this chasm by some perspex (probably about a metre high) but even having to look at it still scares me to death every time I walk down this “gangway”. I don’t have a great head for heights, but I can still go to places like Dun Aengus and appreciate its magnificence, as long as I don’t go right up to the edge. And I used to work on the eighth floor of a building over in London.

Now I don’t expect that we’d ever move much beyond the bungalow office block if we had to constantly try to accomodate the needs of people who don’t have a great head for heights. But the problem with this building is that, either going between the door (on each level) and the desks, or between the books and the desks, (i.e. doing pretty well any of the things that require movement in a library) you can’t avoid seeing this canyon right beside you.

Just perhaps something that you architects might bear in mind.

If I could just add this:

For some strange reason, I’d feel an awful lot happier if they had put perspex (or whatever it is) all the way up to the ceiling along the gangway, i.e., only at the ends of the atrium rather than along the sides of it as well – there’s no need for anyone to go to the sides if they don’t want to.