what now for Irish Times D’olier Street buildings?

@a boyle wrote:

The widening of the footpath by one traffic lane (there is one spare lane that doesn’t serve any purpose , and i always get stuck in it! )

Spot on. At present the IT block primarily works as a trianglar roundabout for traffic, dating from thee days that it and O C st were the primary artery. Plenty of opportunity to do something now. Widening paths or putting down new ones would be a good start. And maybe likewise on Westmoreland also? Or whatabout wide medians in the middle of the two streets, planted up with trees?

@StephenC wrote:

Wide medians just dont work…. as was the case with OC St. I would much prefer to see wide treelined pavements at the sides of street so that outdor uses such as cafes or just sitting and watching the world go by (remember this one) are encouraged.

Yes i would agree with wide pavements over a planted median. Hopefully the most is made of the irishtimes site.

28/9/2008

Lovely little video here with audio of the reinstatement of the newly restored Irish Times clock. Beautiful photographs.

http://www.irishtimes.com/indepth/slideshows/irishtimes-clock/

In relation to the enormous restoration and conversion scheme going on in respect of the former offices, I think it spectacularly unambitious that the reinstatement of all the Wide Streets Commission shopfronts – i.e. a meagre three narrow plots in this scheme – wasn’t insisted on by planners. This is the sole large-scale surviving ensemble of the WSC in the city, indeed arguably the last surviving scheme that is even recognisably by the WSC, and uniquely complete with many original shopfronts, and yet the matter of fully restoring the streetscape was extraordinarily customarily glossed over when the case was dealt with. Indeed from what I can read of the final report, the submission by An Taisce about restoring the missing original shopfronts and quoting DCC Shopfront Guidelines doesn’t even appear to have been understood:

“In terms of the proposed shopfronts, the concerns of An Taisce are noted. It would appear however that these concerns are largely met in the proposed development which proposes the refurbishment of the existing shopfronts. Details of signage will be required when end users of the units are identified and details of this aspect should be made the subject of compliance.”

How can the needs of reinstating by met by not reinstating? Either they are or they are not. The existing shopfronts are entirely irrelevant. This scheme proposes extensive glazing for a “higher profile on D’Olier Street” in place of the modern granite and tiled shopfronts. Even on its own merits, there is absolutely nothing in the report that addresses the critical issue of the missing shopfronts independent of the An Taisce submission, a matter which has implications on a city-wide level in terms of understanding the architectural development of Dublin. Quite extraordinary.

15/12/2009

One hardens to the treatment of old buildings in Dublin. In this city, you’re forced to toughen up to the botched jobs, ill-informed alterations and new insertions, and on occasion wholesale demolition that still occurs from time to time, with the capital’s historic building stock.

It is disheartening to this happening with modest streetscape buildings. But when the same begins to afflict the city’s prestige terraces, you realise something is seriously, seriously wrong.

I got a glimmer of what those watching Fitzwilliam Street crumble before their eyes experienced back in the early 1960s on D’Olier Street this morning. The two central 1950s reproduction houses in the centre of the perfectly uniform Wide Streets Commission terrace of yellow brick, the Commission’s best and the city’s best, have just been rebuilt in machine-made RED BRICK.

I really don’t have the energy to express my sickness at this development, that I just knew from day one would be utterly botched. What has just happened in architectural terms is worse than the wholesale demolition of the end of this terrace here and on Westmoreland Street in the 1980s.

The other possibility is that they were wrongly rebuilt in red brick in the 1950s, and a vigorous cleaning has unearthed the error after half a century, in which case why on earth were they not re-pointed in yellow?!

Hmmm. Id be interested to hear everyone’s comments on the now completed Times Building?

Paul, there’s worse than that! Believe me.

Arent the baskets great!

DISASTER ON D’OLIER STREET

The failure of built environment professionals to understand the composition of historic Dublin has allowed a golden opportunity pass though the city’s hands, while compromising its finest Georgian streetscape legacy.

Any visitor to D’Olier Street over the past number of weeks cannot fail to have been struck by the newly refurbished handsome terrace that comprises the thoroughfare’s western flank. In the warm morning light of late summer, the mellow brickwork and regularity of marching ranks of fenestration present an eye-catching spectacle to the passer-by, and to the hoards of crowds waiting for buses in the gloomy shade on the opposite side of the street. The buildings are commanding, strong, stoical, yet gracious – at once the essence of historic Dublin.

Conceived by the Wide Streets Commission in the final years of the 18th century as part of the iconic triangle of newly planned streets in the ceremonial centre of Dublin, linking College Green with what is now O’Connell Bridge, D’Olier Street, as with its sister streets, was remarkably innovative for its time. Laid out on a grand scale, matched by a strict architecture of the regimental classical school, the street was ambitiously lined with shop units to the ground floor with living accommodation in the floors above, faced with rigidly proportioned facades of yellow brick with minimal granite dressings. Eventually completed by the early 1810s, this was a mould-breaking development in Europe, pre-dating the establishment of formal retail streets such as London’s Regent Street, and placed Dublin firmly on the international stage.

As the sole surviving Wide Streets Commission terrace in the capital to retain substantial original fabric and design coherence, the former The Irish Times terrace on D’Olier Street is a collection of buildings of not only unique and special importance to Dublin, but is an urban streetscape of European significance. On either of these levels, the terrace demands the highest standards of building conservation, restoration, and design excellence, based principally upon a thorough understanding of the design significance of this terrace. Everything else is secondary. What we have just experienced, however, is a shambles. Ignorance, apathy, poor execution and good old fashioned arrogance are themes that define this project.

By the late 2000s, the former The Irish Times terrace was tired, worn, ill-equipped for modern use and in dire need of restoration. The Irish Times had invested significant funds on the exterior of the terrace in the late 1980s in an attempt to recreate something of the design intention of the WSC, involving the insertion of minimal granite shopfronts where original shopfronts had been lost to create a coherent rhythm along the street, and the removal of façade-mounted signage, plastic fascias and wiring. As part of this project, an expert bricklayer was invited to Dublin from Nottingham to resolve a major fault in the middle of the terrace: a pair of houses that had been rebuilt in red brick in the mid-20th century. An alleged fire that broke out in 1973 has been attributed as the cause of this, however the disastrous fire of 1951 that destroyed much of the printing works to the rear seems more likely. In any event, the houses were rebuilt with a steel frame structure and a glaring red brick façade – red brick probably being perceived as typically ‘Georgian’, in spite of the obvious uniform yellow brick context. The re-colouring of the red brick was remarkably successful; as seen below, after a few years of grime the difference was almost imperceptible.

Stern and forbidding, the unity of the terrace was admirably restored.

In 2006, developers P. Elliott and Company bought the terrace for €29 million. Clearly the principal aim of the project was to maximize site value through the redevelopment of the former printing works to the rear. Remarkably, they achieved this with gusto, with the application for an arrogantly over-scaled seven-storey office block over basement car parking sailing through the planning process without so much as an appeal.

Works underway.

An Taisce’s observation in relation to the penthouse storey over the red brick pair being intrusive and inaccurately represented was dismissed by the case planner as the extra storey not being “visually dominant when viewed from either the Westmoreland Street or D’Olier Street areas”. The weak report concluded, “Overall it is my opinion that by virtue of the scale of the penthouse level and the degree to which it projects above the parapet, its location between two chimney elements and relationship to the overall façade composition and existing roof elements, that this element would not be excessively visually prominent and would not have a negative impact on the character of the D’Olier Street conservation area.”

Indeed. Just what about the rest of the development?

Such spectacularly ill-informed decision making, as was rife during the boom years, has resulted in this outrageous spectacle. To think we have learned nothing a decade on from the Westin.

No matter where you turn, there is no escaping this arrogant, mindlessly inept, chronically un-contextual pile of junk. The most important vista of all below, from O’Connell Street, is jaw-dropping. Do these people – architects HKR and Dublin City Council planners – know anything about what they’re dealing with? How could this possibly happen in 2007 in a sophisticated society? The very icon of 18th century street planning, defaced by plastic penthouses and service plant?

Truly, how has it come to this, two decades after the famous ‘bungalow’ was dumped on top of the apex of the two streets as part of an illegal pastiche re-erection of WSC buildings?

Even basing a fallacious justification for this on an arrogant declaration of a contemporary design statement, it still collapses on its face by virtue of the expressionless, tarted-up, prefabricated biscuit tin spin-off from Hawkins House that has been excreted on top of this masterstroke of urban planning.

Of course, the impact of the above was selectively depicted in the planning application, as overseen by John Spain Associates planning consultants, from the western side of O’Connell Street, where it was naturally concealed. Views from the GPO were depicted with the clipped lime trees in front of the camera. Infantile stuff. But of course it worked wonders.

This is where the project really begins to fall apart.

Standing back from a singular planning application lodged for a development on D’Olier Street, Dublin City Council by any reasonable standard ought to have had, at the very least, a vision for the future of this critically important terrace, notwithstanding the obvious need for a design strategy agreed upon in-house. First identified by the O’Connell Street IAP as far back as 1998 in requiring refurbishment extending to O’Connell Bridge, the significance of the terrace was further highlighted in a second Dublin City Council policy document: its Shop Front Design Guidelines. In this, Howley Harrington Architects went to considerable lengths to again reiterate the design importance of the terrace and showcase the impact of full unification as originally constructed. Not only were all shopfronts shown reinstated, but upper floors were similarly unified through fenestration and removal of various adornments.

The starkly illustrated scene.

Before

After

They emphatically stated: “A proposed restoration scheme is illustrated, showing how impressive this fine urban composition could be if the original detail was to be reinstated. The shaded area on these two drawings highlights the splendid granite surrounds which are such an important feature of the street. When parts of these are removed or distorted, the overall rhythm and composition of the terrace is lost, which reduces its visual and architectural integrity. If reinstated, this cohesive, colonnade-like effect would unify the entire terrace, making it a most impressive and truly significant piece of historic urban design.”

Need any more be said – it couldn’t be put any better.

In spite of this, however, and the substantial public funds paid for such expert advice, architects, planning consultants, public planners and conservation office staff all chose to ignore it and plough ahead with whatever was flung over the planning desk. It simply beggars belief.

Indeed, not only was the principal, critical theme of unification blatantly ignored, this development went out of its way to reverse the consolidating works carried out by The Irish Times. The gobsmacking ignorance involved in removing an expertly applied mortar or colourwash would seem like a joke were it not now standing there for all to see. What makes this all the more galling is that the 20th century brickwork, unbelievably, is a fact a façade retention. Not only was the chance not taken to re-colour the red brick facades after cleaning, the unique opportunity to right an horrendous wrong and rebuild the facades in yellow brick was not grasped either!

Astoundingly, these people went out of their way to retain one of the most degrading elements of any historic streetscape in Dublin.

Likewise, the cumbersome detailing of the 20th century granite surrounds with heightened sills was not even remedied.

Where on earth were the Conservation Office on all of this? Goodness only knows, as the planner’s report states that the Conservation Office expressed no concerns over the development aside from the impact of suspended walkways at the back of the building! Was the historic assessment highlighting the red brick facades even read? Was the especial importance of the terrace and its shopfronts even recognised? Were the photomontages of the office development even looked at? And what conservation professional monitored these works? And, incidentally, where were the Department of Environment on this – one of the few applications affecting historic buildings of prime importance in the State, to whom this application was directly referred. Why was there no objection from there? In effect, what is being exposed is a gaping hole in structures of conservation input and expertise, unlike where in Britain an application of this stature would be almost single-handedly guided to the stringent requirements of English Heritage. Here, it’s a complete free-for-all.

The same absence of standards can be seen with the shopfronts, where unification was not enforced. As previously noted on this thread, the observation lodged by An Taisce urging the restoration the missing original shopfronts and quoting the DCC Shop Front Design Guidelines doesn’t even appear to have been understood by the case planner:

“In terms of the proposed shopfronts, the concerns of An Taisce are noted. It would appear however that these concerns are largely met in the proposed development which proposes the refurbishment of the existing shopfronts. Details of signage will be required when end users of the units are identified and details of this aspect should be made the subject of compliance.”

How can the needs of reinstating by met by not reinstating? Either they are or they are not. The existing shopfronts are entirely irrelevant. As a result, only part of one solitary shopfront was pieced back together – the rest remained as is. Seen below, the minimal granite surrounds installed by The Irish Times, though handsome in their own way, fail to do justice to the terrace as a whole.

These were all left untouched.

The works required to bring these back to their original format is actually much less that first impressions suggest, as the magnificent original panelled granite frieze survives above. All that is required is the insertion of minimally carved pilasters and doorcases to the lower levels. The lack of vision displayed with this project would make one weep.

However, observing the standard of reinstatement of the solitary shopfront at No. 9, it is a matter of some relief that the reconstruction of the missing shopfronts did not form part of this project. The quality of works is shockingly bad. For this standard of workmanship to be employed on a laneway of a provincial town would be bad enough, but on the most important Georgian commercial terrace in Dublin, with original carving serving as an informing template flanking each side, is entirely unacceptable.

Firstly, the granite chosen, unlike that sourced by The Irish Times, in no way matches the rust-toned Kiliney or Golden Hill granite employed in the original shopfronts as seen below.

It is virtually white.

Repairs and reinstatement of missing details on original fabric has also been sorely lacking, This is the standard of repair work undertaken across the board.

Mortar specification for even the most basic task of joint filling is clearly inappropriate. Compare the refinement of the original with the new.

Entire mouldings have been crudely built up using a dense, grey plastic repair mortar instead of splicing in new stone. It has also been liberally smeared over wherever a gap was encountered.

This ugliness stands in stark contrast to the works executed by The Irish Times c. 1990. Compatible granite carefully spliced into place.

Unlike the current project.

Arguably decay of this kind is part of the integrity of the historic fabric. But a simple form such as the above does warrant careful splicing. More elaborate carvings should be left alone.

The iconic corner capitals are in a good state of repair.

All stonework appears to have been sensitively cleaned. Before and after.

Again, excuse the hanging baskets. Somebody please save these people from themselves.

The focal point of the new development is the remodelled central shopfront of the 20th century houses, which retains the older granite insert as a striking proscenium arch. One may stand at ideological loggerheads over the failure to reinsert the original shopfronts, but on its own merit, HKR have done a fine job here in concept, if not quite in execution. The new entrance and flanking window fronts a large reception hall, reading to the street as a confident, yet reticent, crisp insert in the mellow granite surround. Really quite beautiful.

The tinted glazing is sultry and elegant.