admin
Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Great to see proposals to see this part of the City being recycled; there seemed to be regeneration on all 4 sides with a huge cavity in the centre. I hope it has as many ammenities as the Broadgate Estate in the City of London; which incidently after 20 years will be upscaled. No doubt there will be plenty of discussion as to the quality of design; but from a land use point of view this is most welcome…..
The inclusion in planning legislation of an Bord having to account of Government policy throws up a number of non-planning considerations. I have no doubt they looked at the crater that is construction employment and decided that as it is two miles from Boris’s dog shed that it is the proposal most capable of creating significant construction employment whilst having quite minimal environmental or canabilisation of existing trade impacts. Not a scheme I would champion but in this market if they can make it stack up and fund it then the very best of luck to them.
@gunter wrote:
That is quirky as hell, can we leave the occupants in when it goes up; they seem to have a quite spaced out sense of reality?
Btw, a very good time to plan the future layout of Dublin there is probably a 3-5 year window until funding re-emerges to get ground broken on new schemes unless Captain Jack misses Space Shuttle Liberty and the 3 – 5 year window continues to be a 3 – 5 year period getting no closer to fruition for a protracted period. A strong plan with quality of life and high design standards at its core is the very least that the City requires to compete. I note the OECD became the latest think tank to introduce a quality of life index…. Maybe that schemes like Liam O’Carroll plan to wreck the North docklands with poor quality ‘Back Offices’ was in the longer term a blessing in disguise…
All Luas services have been suspended until 5.30am because the level of snow on sections of the track is causing faults in some trams. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2010/1202/breaking5.html
This is a complete red herring and more evidence of the RPA selecting the easy engineering solution and ignoring all other concerns; the senior management at this agency need to go as this is the last straw of mendacity in another attmept to spin themselves away from yet another unacceptable decision.
I am amazed they just didn’t say their reasons were that they considered it but that supplier of the product deemed it too ‘commercially sensitive to release’
Are you trying to suggest that Luas with overhead wires worked during recent white outs? How many service interuptions, suspensions etc were there?
In contrast TfL managed to operate virtually the entire tube network the majority of which is above ground and all on a third rail system on the ground….
RPA = Ruin Prevailing Architecture
Have they given any credible explanation for non-inclusion of a third rail as per Bordeaux? With a €3bn white elephant in the soon to be completely binned Metro North they can’t exactly raise cost as an issue…….
@StephenC wrote:
The trees are much more problematic and they cant just be chopped. I imagine DCC would baulk at the public reaction. The trees can only come down in the context of a design for the space…and unfortunately that wont happen with the proposed RPA works for Luas BXD (incidentally look closely at the plans – Luas F to Lucan is likely to result in a triangular shunting arrangement slap bang in the centre of College Green so any suggested minimal inpact is likely to be quickly dispelled if both plans go ahead. You can way goodbye to College Green as a civic space).
What can be acted upon is the unnecessary clutter and perhaps getting some new smarter street lighting installed such as the columns found at the GPO. But if you never ask…you never get. Guaranteed no one in the Civic Offices is thinking about this…..
Sadly true Stephen, I disagree on the trees however – I doubt they feature much in the public consciousness given their random positioning, relative youth and poor condition. The public reaction to the removal of the O’Connell Street planes, arguably the most prominent urban trees anywhere in Dublin was relatively muted. Fully agreed that in an ideal world their removal should happen as part of a coherent redesign of the entire space, but that is unfortunately years away with seemingly no realisation or determination in DCC to treat the place as anything other than a home for every type of galvanised pole known to man.
So in the short term; remove the trees, repave the islands, reclaim the vistas.
@GrahamH wrote:
It’s beyond embarrassing.
Indeed it is, all the more frustrating that it could be sorted out in a matter of minutes. Who in DCC has direct authority over this area?
However Luas BXD is not going to go through the centre of College Green, it will only be at its fringes, right up alongside the path around the West Front of Trinity College.
What you refer to as the fringes, I consider to be the core. Trinity’s relationship with College Green is not exactly helped by it’s railings, add to that a tram line, and the result is to introduce a further barrier of sorts between its fine western facade and the city itself. For me, the way both Trinity & the Bank of Ireland interface with the space is key.
On a side note, given that the council have seen fit to remove their own clutter for Obama, any chance those damn London Planes could be, ahem, temporarily removed too !?
Yeah, it would reduce the visual clutter to the place if a third rail was used. People always go on about Bordeaux as an example of high-tech third rail technology but San Francisco’s famous trams also use third rail on its low tech carriages. Perhaps we should send the RPA there to see how they do it. That said, the priority should be to get some form of tram line through that area. Luas BXD is critical to realising the full potential of Luas and make it an option for far more people.
Nice is a good example of both the negative impact cable networks can have on a streetscape and what can be done about it where required.
Cable infrastructure terminating as the tram line enters Place Massena.
What is essentially a wider version of the Luas, passes through Place Massena.
However, I absolutely disagree that Luas should pass through College Green – the whole point of any future pedestrianisation is that College Green would be elevated from the mere conduit it is today to become a key destination within the city, a relaxed pedestrian friendly environment. Despite the scale of Place Massena and the measures taken to minimize the impact of the tram line as it passes through, the space is in my view compromised nonetheless – its central space is not only dead, but dangerous – resulting in pedestrian activity drifting to the fringes. Given the comparatively tight confines of College Green, 40m long trams passing through every 5 minutes with or without their associated cable network will severely detract from the kind of public space we all know College Green can be.
Teak in a Fianna Failed free environment I would have agreed with you 100%
Far too much interference in the planning system by the last government; Bord Pleannala could refuse a certain number of developments if they had started refusing the number that would have been refused in any Scandinavian country you would seen a return to the minister as point of second instance. Rural Planning say no more…….
50 sq m of net internal space if correctly configured is sufficient space for a couple; I take your point on storage but I think the continentals have the right idea on that i.e. make it ancillary and without frills; your skis get battered en piste a little dust won’t damage them. Flats may be cheap now but that will not last beyond the existing inventory clearing and as long as that takes will prevent any change in the product offer available. If you don’t like what is on offer I suggest you buy 2 flats or a large 2/3 bed flat and remodel it or simply change the use of rooms into an office etc. Given that product in the coming decade if built will be a function of build cost as much as anything else I would be surprised if what you are looking for comes to market anytime soon.
Although I am aware of a couple of very well located mews houses that are available off market; if you have sufficient conviction in the Dublin market send me a pm….
Graham
Do you feel that if the internal floor division of schemes were redesigned from say 10 flats on 1 floor to say six with a more generous standard of space that the population would be willing to pay a reasonably equivelent price per square metre? I’m just interested in seeing a demand side analysis as the boom was based on ‘1 bed in area sells for x’ deduct costs add profit = what we can pay for the site, now that land is essentially an afterthought and demand needs to be stimulated do you feel there is a market for quality as opposed to price for large numbers of units? Not talking about 200 sq m 3 beds; take say 50 sq m 1 bed; 85 sq m 2 bed and 110 sq m 3 bed.
Differentiation between new build and redivision of period properties is a good point; the classification pre 63 houses as exempt from planning even though they were in many cases sub-standard flats was to my mind a major mistake on the part of policy makers over the years.
I would hazard a guess that the banks are sitting on a lot of non-performing loans in this niche area. What I bought was an upper floor of a regency stucco terraced house; its tenanted and rents in the area are rising double digits annually so I’m happy to leave it as is collecting the income; question is can the Irish banks afford to do the same with large numbers of pre-conversion properties in D6 / D8 / D7 which if the governemnt got tough on the level of housing benefit would see room rates plummit.
Putting these floors into single units versus 3 seperate bedsits per floor would in all probability see a higher value sold into the market than the 10% – 12% yields these properties are now selling for. When I want the flat to sell I will want a buyer to actually want to live in it so it will become a 1 bed but in a functional rental market it is different until such time as you want to think of it as a capital versus income exercise. When there is no investment market you need to rely on people buying to occupy.
A major opportunity for architects in this area to create value…..
Totally agree on the basement storage cages; steel cage block walls not rendered boiler room spec lights and conduits – cheap as chips but functional for storage if seasonal kit.
Spend the last 18 months acquiring a flat; eventually settled on a 47 sq m 2 bed which just about works as 1 double bed and 1 single bed/study. That is really tight but the strategy is prior to disposal to knock the wall between the two bedrooms and invert uses with both bedroooms becoming the living space and current 4.2* 3.8 m living space become a huge bedroom with the galley kitchen converting to an en suite; at 47 sq m it is extremely large for a city centre one bed. I think the point you make on storage is extremely valid but with a sofa bed you can have freinds stay over. Why I rejected most of the c1,000 units I viewed brochures of online was poor configuration or just unrealistic vendor expectations. Corridors………
I think the government need to be very careful; they need to avoid a perception that the Irish state got prefential treatment from other creditors; if the state wants to acquire 2 College Green they should zone it cultural use; it has no future in its current use in the context of emerging markets dicatating energy costs.
Have a valuation done and CPO it; whilst the site would be extremely valuable as a cleared site; thankfully it is not cleared and contains Grattans Parliment; with a cultural use zoning and spot listing that expressly prohibits a conversion to anything of any value such as hotel; it would be entirely possible to prove that such a buillding has a signifiant negative value in financial terms. The time to act is now before values recover; one can never confuse financial and cultural value but when either dips it is always good to take advantage with the long term in mind… For what its worth I wouldn’t spend anything on this building other than a soft strip of bank counters added in recent decades and repaving the carpark in to a pedestrian space
If no action is taken this will end up as a hotel or nightclub and either use will over decades of unauthorised alterations and playing of the grey areas by occupiers see the special little details destroyed.
There is a 3 bed penthouse in the Millenium Tower at Grand Canal above what was may still be known as Ocean Bar of 110 sq m which looks decent. If you had a good budget buying two adjoining flats for a lateral conversion may be a very interesting option…. I don’t however feel that 110 sq m for a 1 bed flat should be typical; City Centres need to be compact; 50 sq m for a 1 bed or 75 sq m for a 2 bed is more than adequate if the configuration is logical.
After 10 years of 600 sq m McMansions for families of 4 – 5 people the term getting a grip on appropriate scale comes to mind.
@wearnicehats wrote:
It’s unfortunately prevalent throughout. I actively refuse to give money to beggars with “irish citizen” on their cardboard or taxi drivers who flaunt the “irish taxi driver” card.
Agreed this is nonsense but I can see the taxi drivers point on the number of taxi licenses issued between 2001 and 2010 as part of the ECB/PD led supply side agenda; the amount of fuel consumed used by empty cabs driving around Dublin must significantly affect the balance of payments almost as much as the SUVs that bankraupt builders used when they used drive from McMansion to McMansion in the Bertie days when the banks were creating the bust with cheerled help from the ECB economists.
@wearnicehats wrote:
The same people bemoan the fact that “our poor wee ones” have to leave the country and go to find work elsewhere
If ever there was a profession that benefits a practitioner getting wide and varied foreign work experience it is built environment; foreign experience should be celebrated…
@wearnicehats wrote:
I bet the poor wee ones are treated better in those countries than the “fuck off back (to) where you came from” attitude their counterparts get here.
[/quote]
Agreed but just look at France, Sarkozy has lost the plot in recent years; economic downturn = restless natives = misplaced racism which puts off high net worth foreigners investing = continuation of downturn…..
I have a feeling that it would have made little difference if they had taken a stand; firstly they would have judicial reviews every day of the week as design quality is ultimately subjective and with the last Government you had a tent enterprise that would have been very happy to have abolished an Bord throwing the credit to Lowry and Healy Rae as a prize to go to the localists that vote for them. The real problem here is not the planning professionals but the quantum of rezonings and absolute ambiguity in development plans as to what actually constitutes design quality. It is fair to say that any organisation that upholds professionally written observations at a rate exceeding 90% can stand over their impartiality in what were very shark infested times where they were in a goldfish bowl. I hope he has a fruitful future in pastures new..
Ghost Estate Ireland is a reminder that unless you insist on professional architects with the relevant experience designing schemes and set minimum design standards in the development plans then once the music stops it is often financially preferable for the bank to cut their losses long after the developer is wiped out. Shit only sells in a fear driven market…..
