BTH
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@Graham Hickey wrote:
it is hideous how it looms over the little Wide Streets Commission buildings like a dirty old man:
LOL at this most vivid personification of an inanimate object!!
Or maybe I’m just getting a bit mad in the head being up at 2:51am trying to finish a project!!
Apologies for the Bus Station pic – it was actually used to illustrate the proposal a couple of years ago in the City Tribune or one of the local papers – I just noticed last week that the image is actually of a recently completed development in the Liosban Industrial Estate…
And as for where I get my pictures, why, I take them myself – except for the images that I find on Google! Is there a problem with that??Sort of off the subject but in Galway both Tesco and Superquinn have been trying desperately to get a site in the city somewhere, but every development proposed has ended up with Dunnes Stores… They must have a lot of money behind them! As it stands Galway has 3 Dunnes supermarkets (I forgot the Dunnes at Terryland!) and one useless Tesco – a former quinnsworth in the abysmal Glaway Shopping Centre. The city is very poorly served for grocery shopping and it’s a pity that even newer developments are going to be more of the same…
In that second picture of Hawkins House (courtesy of http://www.fantasyjackpalance.com btw) you can just see the An Post building sticking out the left hand side. As has been said already it’s equally offensive and should be removed as part of any redevelopment of the Hawkins House site.
I have to say I find the renovation of the old Irish Press building in the foreground pretty nasty as well when viewed from the other side of the river.
This stretch of the South Quays is a bit of a disaster, basically because of whats behind the quay frontage. The most offensive building in that picture is actually the apartment scheme in the lower right hand corner – take a look at it from Eden Quay and see how it looms over the actual quay buildings in a way that doesn’t really happen anywhere else along the river. It’s also unbelievably crap – obviously “designed” with no regard for the fact that the rear elevation would be plainly obvious from many vantage points – therefore random window sizes, cheap clip on balconies and plastic waste pipes abound…Centre Point in London is a completely different story to Hawkins House – It’s actually a reasonably elegant piece of architecture for one thing even if it is a little frilly in places. It’s also well sited at a major London hub and has stayed pretty fresh looking down the years – nice white concrete…
Compared to the pile of cheap, nasty, and unhealthy (as in sick building syndrome) crap that is Hawkins house it’s a masterpiece…
It’s a fairly standard mix rebel_city – unfortunately Dunnes Stores have done their usual trick of outbidding every other major retailer for the anchor store – A M&S or Debenhams here would have really improved things. Theres an impressive HMV, a huge Next and all the usual suspects…
Dunnes are unbelievable, I don’t know how they can sustain so many multiple stores in towns and cities around the country. For example in Galway there are two major ones in the city centre, another big one at westside shopping centre and they are to be the anchor tenants in two more big developments on the east and west sides of the city, having outbid Tescos and Superquinn for both leases. They arerumoured to be the anchor in the new Oranmore town centre development as well…
I know it’s an indigenous company and all and that the standard of their shops is always rising but a bit more variety in the market would be nice!It’s extremely difficult to get a sense for the real size of cities when different definitions of boundaries and geographical limits are taken into consideration. However the comparison of Glasgow and Dublin is quite telling:
Dublin City, an area of 115square km has a population of 495,000 according to the 2002 census
Glasgow City, an area of 175square km has a population of 629,000 according to the 2001 census.
More interesting however is that the “Greater Glasgow Settlement Area” (as defined in the 2001 census) with an area of 368square km (or an approx radius of 11km from the centre of Glasgow) has a total population of 1,168,270 (2001 Census)
Greater Dublin, an area widely considered to include all of counties Dublin, Meath, Kildare and Wicklow has a total area of 6971square km and a total population of 1,535,446 (2002 Census) It’s a ridiculously huge expanse to be considering as being part of Dublin’s metropolitain area.
More realistically, County Dublin, including Dublin City, Fingal, South Co. Dublin And DunLaogaire Rathdown has a total area of 912square km and a population of 1,122,040 (2002 Census)Therefore Greater Glasgow would appear have a similar population to Co. Dublin accommodated in approximately 40% of the geographical area. In my book this makes Glasgow a “bigger” city in that it is more densely populated.
Also within a geographical area roughly similar to that of the 6971square km of Greater Dublin a group of districts immediately surrounding Glasgow (East Ayrshire, East Dunbartonshire, East Renfrewshire, City Of Glasgow, Inverclyde, North Ayrshire, North Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire, South Ayrshire, South Lanarkshire, West Dunbartonshire) with a total area of 6715square km has a total population of 2,096,685. Therefore “Greater Dublin” would appear to have approx. 73% of the population of Greater Glasgow and immediate environs.
I got all this information through wikipedia and I have to say I’m quite surprised at the result of the calculations. I always thought that Dublin was a considerably bigger place than Glasgow but the facts tell a different story. Of course bigger doesn’t mean better by any means! Dublin at the moment seems to have a lot more going for it than Glasgow from an economic point of view plus the population is set to rise dramatically in the next 20 years or so whereas Glasgow’s growth is relatively static.
Really wish they’d gone for more elegant planters on the boardwalk – those ones are just so bloody clumsy!
The first image there may look nice superficially and it’s clear that some effort went into getting proportions and detailing right… But then they go and let themselves down with cheapo PVC windows with glazing bars behind the glass… Plus not sure what the style has to do with an Irish provincial town – it really does look like a town hall or courthouse in some U.S. backwater…
Picture 2 really does speak for itself!!Hmm, I think you may be right J. Seerski – In the first image the building at the end of the vista should actually be the monstrous new Prince Of Wales Hotel:
http://www.theprinceofwales.ie/#
In the 4th image the vista ends with Ballymahon Rd and I can’t remember seeing any such noble Georgians along there (the road between the railway station and the town). May be wrong though…Some of the timber/aluminium composites are fantastic – Dansk in particular make extremely elegant profiles in both timber and alu-clad. Rationel windows are terrible – both the alu-clad and plain timber versions – with very poor weathering and detailing. Somehow they have managed to become the most well known and popular timber window providers though…
Thanks alpha – I have to say the Sony K750i camera phone was a great investment – it takes lovely pictures and I always have it with me…
Here is the redevelopment of the Atlanta Hotel by Roddy mannion & Associates. Owing to the incredibly poor quality of the construction and detailing I can only assume (hope) that the architect was dropped by the developer after the planning permission was granted.
View from Claddagh
View From WolfeTone Bridge (Quay St)
And the award for “Most Tokenistic Use Of Copper Cladding” goes to…There was real potential on this site for a high quality landmark building addressing the river, the Claddagh Basin and the approach from Salthill. I don’t think that this meets that challenge. The detailing is unbelievable – There’s a dark grey felt roof folding over onto black PVC vertical cladding which meets the white aluminium windows, theres the copper clad lift shaft topped off with a black PVC fascia and gutter, theres countless poorly resolved junctions of render/cladding/timber and to top it all off the token timber cladding on one elevation swops from vertical joints to horizontal from one bay to another… Nasty…
I know these photos show the building under construction and it’s a bit of a mess of scaffolding etc, but I’m really worried about the end result from what can be seen emerging underneath.
Here is the Bailey Point building in Salthill by Douglas Wallace (designed many many years ago I believe!). It should have opened about 3 years ago but has been beset by problems from the start. It will eventually accommodate a multi screen cinema in the basement, bar, restaurant, nightclub and lots and lots of apartments. I’d say the view from those penthouses is pretty amazing!
As promised heres a few of Galway’s recent developments…
First is one that’s been completed for a while now – Fairgreen House by OKM Architects, Galway. Habitat’s shop is great but the rest of the building isn’t so easy on the eye! What you don’t see here are the other two facades, one of which is plain rendered and the other a bizarre tartan grid of red and black terracotta tiles… The Site in the foreground is to be redeveloped into a new coach station, offices and some sort of High – tech business centre according to the approved plans.
Its by OKM also. And diagonally across the road from Fairgreen House is yet another OKM development in a similar glassy, curvey style…
Again apologies for the tiny tiny pictures!
Is it just me or is it really worrying that a whole quarter of Galway is being developed in this way – One architect, one overriding style that could be categorized as being blandly commercial at best. Maybe it’ll look great when all the buildings are finished but it’s not looking great at the moment!
Mad, isn’t it! You’d never in a million years expect those interiors in that building… Can’t wait for a nosey around though!
Western Red Cedar, European Larch, Iroko, Oak – Teak to a lesser extent – these are the timbers that can and should be left untreated externally. They may look a bit tatty after a couple of years but given a couple more they get the intended silvery grey weathered effect which I think looks fantastic – especially when combined with brick or stone. Varnishing or staining any of these is a huge mistake as it is the varnish that weathers badly and needs constant maintenance – not the timber.
The Ranelagh School, The Timber Building and the Civic Offices in Tullamore are all great examples of well detailed untreated timber. I fully expect that in 5 years time the Glucksman will look just as well.
