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@onq wrote:
I was a qualified architect from June 1990 until May 2008 and the school of architecture from which I qualified set the bar.
Are you suggesting you’re stupid with your own money but not other people’s?
Are you being dismissive of someone who was qualified but unregistered because of incompetence on his part, or because that’s the RIAI party line?
But to turm your own question back to you –
Would the public be safer if a private organization got every qualified Architect barred from practising because their qualification wasn’t gained through them?In the case of the disbarred solicitor, there must be evidence he committed some wrong.
In the case of qualified architects no wringdoing is assumed, and the right to call themselves “architect” is supported by an Irish Statute and two EU Directives.ONQ.
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I have no idea how you can claim to be qualified from 1990 on when there was no legal requirement to be qualified until 2008; prior to that point in time you could buy an online degree and claim to be an architect. Your claim to be qualified is based on what exactly?
No-one is barred from practicing under the current regime they simply cannot advertise being qualified to practice as an architect unless they are accredited; this I believe to be correct as it enables risk adverse individuals to be sure of what they are getting.
In terms of my own purchase decision I knew the individual for many years; who was a qualified engineer and had completed 4 of the 5 years of the DIT degree; I knew that he would secure the objectives I required and ultimately it was my cash on the line. Could I advise a client to use a non-accredited architect and defend a negligence claim if it went wrong; I doubt it. Even if the law changed on advertising I still have my doubts as to defensibility of the claim as by advising a client to hire outside the RIAI you are advising to hire someone who you cannot state with any certainty has been monitored by an independent competant body as having to that point in time followed the professional rules of the profession; in so doing you are not in a position to ensure that the practitioner has had the most relevant and up to date and ongoing professional development through CPD training .
I admire the RIAI as beyond personal interpretation of design style of particular buildings I have yet to see work that I would regard as poor work from their membership.
I’d also say that only for the excellent work of the ILS that there would be a lot more disreputable solicitors practicing; as the high standards required to enter the profession screens many who though clearly are not dishonest may not have the skills knowledge or understanding to practice competently and may try to cover their inability in a pressured manner to prevent destruction of personal finances.
You clearly have an axe to grind but may find using the EU directive to your advantage by going to another member state gaining membership there and then forcing the RIAI to recognise your qualification by virtue of a well intentioned but dubious directive a lot more productive than grinding on a discussion forum.
Put simply if you want to call yourself a qualified architect the RIAI sets the bar, if you want to state that you have an architecture degree you are free to do so. As a consumer I have purchased the services of someone with a qualification but who was not accredited; would I do that with someone elses money? No I’d need to know that they had completed the structured training and had ongoing monitoring of their CPD so that I could confirm that I had completed the necessary checks that they were appropriate to do the job to a designated standard. As good as any university is; all any institution can ever do is state that an individual passed or received honours in a course at a particular point in time.
Also the EU commission would if a complaint were made alleging that a valid accreditation were not accepted in another member state investigate; clearly no one has made any valid complaint to date. How you could think the most over zealous politically correct institution on earth would seek to be racist is beyond me.
Would the public be any safer in the case of debarred solicitor if all the solicitor needed was a degree versus a practicing certificate renewed annually? How many universities withdraw degrees unless specific wrongdoing is found during the examination process?
onq
I very much doubt that the RIAI will debate these issues with you in an online forum. I think you miss the point of the EU directive which was to prevent discrimination on the grounds of race; i.e. if a suitably qualified professional crosses from say Spain to Luxembourg and has both the relevant degree and post graduate qualification then they are eligible for membership of the organisation in their chosen new country or to rely on their professional membership to use the title. Clearly the directive was concerned with the movement of free labour and not the regulation of specific professions for all residents of individual member states.
Getting a degree although very worthy is only half the story; in my profession I can say with all certainty that the department administrator with no degree knew a lot more about the workings of the profession than I did for the first few months. The structured training offered by most professions really does provide really valuable developmental skills which ensure that professionals reach and if they attend CPD maintain the necessary skills, knowledge and understanding to deliver a professional service and if necesary defend negligence claims.
If the RIAI impose strict memebership standards then I applaud them; for too long many people used designers using the title ‘architect’ who inflicted illegible constructions on the built environment which once they are are up you are stuck with for a long time.
Providence brings in Baltimore partner
Monday, 26 April 2010 10:23
Exploration company Providence Exploration says it has agreed a farm-out deal to advance its Baltimore heavy oil discovery, off the coast of Ireland.UK independent oil and gas firm Nautical Petroleum will acquire a 40% interest in the licence in return for funding a development feasibility review. Providence retains the balancing 60%.
The deal for the site in the North Celtic Sea Basin is subject to approval from the Government.
Nautical is currently involved in a number of similar heavy oil field developments in the UK North Sea including the Kraken discovery and Mariner, which is operated by Statoil.
As requested – one oil find!!!!!
KB – The general view on Sir Anthony has been he invests when others won’t; he and his brother in law took some hit trying to save Waterford Wedgewood; anything but Crony capitalism or the firm would have been well naked before the downturn hit.A run down of the role that trams play in Zurich would illustrate exactly how useful they can be in the right types of place.
@Tayto wrote:
Yes, you are right. A forum primarily dedicated to architecture should not be misused in order to promote the common perception that southside-based Dubliners do not have the basic intelligence to spell properly.
They really should DO (edit) something about it.
.Do you real think it is such important settlement as to be recognised in spell check?
A very important precedent re properties on the NIAH but overlooked at local level; although clearly from the entire contingent of Cork Archiseekers this building was clearly not overlooked. This is exactly the type of building the country needs to incubate the next generation of retail entrepreneurs; this is clearly a blessing for the owners; get marketing your voids; in the medium term this configuration and fit out will constitute a much more valuable investment with plenty of rental growth.
Its more than 2kms to Darndale; if there are issues of anti-social behaviour then CCTV should be deployed.
Well if Irish Rail built a connection to the airport on the most logical route; we Southsiders may actually have a reason to be able to spell it!
That said I now live North of a different river
@ac1976 wrote:
This is very strange as the last press release on this project from the RPA is September 2008, when it announced the same thing but that the contract to operate ITS was awarded to IBM Ireland.
IBM seem suitably unimpressed and have relocated their high end server manufacture to Singapore. Its not rocket science to get a very basic swipe system; look at Octopus in Hong Kong; it can also be used with over 100 retailers such as McD’s or Seven Eleven for purchases up to about €10. The one feature of their system that I like is that from many locations you can get out of the ticket barrier controlled system if you have run out of credit but not back in; i.e. a grace period of 1 journey
Coincidentally I actually thought today about the Bullock prospect that Providence are working at the moment; my thoughts turned straight to Rambo and the damage he did in 1993 in the last major downturn; once you grant the prospect on soft terms the holder can do some very basic work and sit on it until the market turns the right way as was the case with the Corrib field; truth is we are well beyond peak oil and anyone who grants cheap licenses for all but a very shortly capped development period is commiting political suicide. Not having a go at providence as the backers have a great track record of supporting indigenous businesses that employed thousands of Irish residents over the years but you get one shot at natural resources and then you are hostage to people like Hugo Chavez or worse Iran.
I get the feeling that Nama are concentrating on the larger commercial assets at this point in time for example Parkway in Limerick which has got some juicy agreement for leases i.e. Primani and Tesco which have long stop dates which will expire if not acted upon. No doubt when the more modest loans transfer the ghost estates will be looked at; the one serious silver lining is that Bank of Scotland were the real frontier trail blazers when it came to funding 100 houses in Ballyshannon or other border county locations and they are not in Nama. That said LLOY is in my portfoilio and is making exceptional progress with its UK loan book; topping up my holding in late February was a very good move. The real problem in Irish banking was the entry of HBoS to Ireland and their aggressive grab for market share they made that resulted in 2.50% interest rates; thankfully they have no exited the market and as a result more sustainable margins now prevail which should to make sure that this doesn’t happen again.
@shytalk wrote:
And just in case you come up with one of your smart alecky ripostes…………..bear in mind that this location is a lawless tribal area Hooliganistan and design has to accomodate this.
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Are you for real? This is not Kilbarrick it is the fulcrum between two brand new almost exclusively private housing schemes that were far from cheap thus leveraging the true meaning of the word exclusive; i.e. keeping the Hooligans you refer to out by virtue of entry cost. This post reminds me of those idiots in Beechwood Ave D6 who claimed Luas would lead to their homes being burgled regularly.
Not a QS so I have no idea on cost but it looks better than what Network Rail would do anywhere other than an important railhead such as St Pancras or Paddington which I can’t wait to see finished later this year.
Not saying it has to be Adamstown where any intersect would occur with suburban rail but clearly in light of more prudent government finances over the coming decade there is no way that the proposed Luas routing will be built for the following reasons.
1. The Route runs more or less parallel to the Red Line and Kildare line from the M50 in.
2. The City Centre section is mostly on street which has proven in the past both expensive and difficult to keep within budget.
3. The wisdom of extending Dart into the Metro West alignment as part of an intergrated network offering Dart fservices to Tallaght and Liffey Valley will be acknowledged as the best value option as finances improve; it will also ensure critical mass for the interconnector which could run trains at frequencies of 2mins.I like most am totally in favour of a town of 42,000 people getting the best service possible however clearly that involves connection to suburban rail where journey times once electrified will be much shorter (roughly 1min per stop faster than diesel) and frequencies much higher due to the absence of the need to compete with cars for road space.
Would a Luas from Adamstown serving Lucan not be best?
That way you get to Adamstown from Lucan in say 10-12 mins with a journey time St Green in little more once the interconnector is built. I am a great fan of the Luas Red line but regard it as two lines in terms of usage patterns 1. from Connolly to Fatima/Davitt Rd and another from Red Cow to Tallaght which mostly serves local demand. If you were logical about the red line you would have built it to Davitt Rod and a seperate line which would have connected Talafornia with the Kildare rail line; instead of the descent of the Naas Road and back to road space
Trams will always be most efficient for the last couple of kilometres as part of a multi-modal model; they are not designed for 8-12kms journeys on roads.
It was paid for by Ballymore and Gannon Homes so one would imagine it included all accessways from the developments as well; add to that operational constraints of having to do much of the work out of hours and it would not be likely tobear relation to building elsewhere. I’d be interested to see the variation in Spons table of costs for rail stations versus say sports pavillions
I do not dispute that it would make a great museum; it is after all the original parlimentary experience the Country had. My concern for this building is one that I share with the GPO; there is a large banking hall that is ideal for a museum but what do you do with the warren of offices and vaults that makes up the rest of the building excluding the College Street facing entrance hall which is by a distance my favourate entrance hall in Dublin. I think it is an issue that could benefit from some operational research when the public finance or IFI funding positions merit it. i.e. potentially have BoI grant a long license to either the state or a charitable foundation for designated parts of the building; my guess is that they would be loathe to as the building is one of the rare examples of a building of European heritage importance that has commercial consent; which makes this particular worth a significant sum which they are unlikely to want to see evaporate in the absence of full value being paid; from an operational position I have no doubt that the rental value of the banking hall and offices would not come close to the annual maintenance and additional heating/cooling costs that come with such grand proportions and age. We need another era of Farmleigh style government finances to get triffling matters such as money out of the way!!!
The venue clearly is not large enough for important national events such as a Bill O visit or a once in a generation decent soccer team return but has its uses for more niche events. The BoI has always been very good at supporting the arts in providing the interior of the space etc. Also to say that BoI is nationalised is somewhat untrue; the National Pensions Reserve Fund was in a position to buy preference shares yielding a mammoth dividend at a very low price; these if held will when the bank raises capital through disposals and a rights issue be worth considerably more than was paid for them. The UK Government is now in profit on RBS and Lloyds but Northern Rock like INBS and Anglo are unfortunately case studies that every finance student will be examined on hopefully for generations to come as an important lesson well learned.
All that can be expected of BoI is that they enter the 21st century on City Centre car-parking i.e. close the one at their College Green branch and turn the space into a public venue for suitable events and continue to manage the building in the sensitive manner that they have to date other than the rushed wheelchair access application which had as much forward thinking planning as the Anglo balance sheet.
