Devin
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Originally posted by lexington
This is the Watergold Office Building in Douglas, Cork city. In my opinion, one of the nicest office buildings in the cityWell I must say that, having skimmed over the Cork threads, I began to feel slightly sorry for you and that maybe An Taisce Cork were being overprotective of the city scale, but I take it all back if this is your idea of a nice building. If the quality of developments you were involved in werent umpteen trillion times better than this, then the objectors to your schemes were well justified.
Omitted to say that the book I mentioned was published in 1952! Many inappropriate changes to the Custom house have, as you say Graham, been rectified since (changes have also been made to the Four Courts since, the main one being the re-instatement of the panelled blocks in the centres of the blocking courses on the front of the wings, an important architectural dressing).
I think it was the direction of the wind on the day of the fire that saved the front bit (visitors centre) of the Custom House.
Passing by last night and the 16 poles on the Grattan Bridge container kiosks were being removed! Are the kiosks next??
And while they’re at it they could remove those two grimy old flagpoles – one at the Wellington Quay corner and one at the Upr Ormond Quay corner – they serve no purpose.
Despite the supposed stricter control of the ACA, there are still some horrible things happening in the O’C St area. As well as Dr. Quirkey’s there’s that new oriental fast food restaurant on Westmoreland Street, ‘Charlie’s’. I thought that would be a no-no at this stage.
The plaza is great though. It is world-class.
There are some good notes on the rebuilding of the Custom House (and the Four Courts) in the back of ‘Dublin 1660-1860’ by Maurice Craig. He goes through the various deviations from the original design.
O’Connell Street:
“The upper end has to be the most depressing part of the inner city..”
“..it would do untold wonders to this end which is akin to a wasteland in parts”
I often think that, while the upper end is really bad now, it shouldn’t be that difficult to transform (when the Carlton redevelopment finally begins!) because it is bookended by better quality environments; Lower O’Connell Street, minus the fast food strip, and Parnell Square with the Gate & Hugh Lane etc. The Architectural Review made reference to the latter in their landmark 1974 study of Dublin:
“The north bank of the Liffey is a flat plain, about a quarter of a mile deep and about a mile long…On this narrow central plain most of the local business of Dublin takes place. At the eastern end, centring on O’Connell Street, are the popular shops; and as a consequence the Georgian fabric has been much built over, pulled down and worn out. It is indeed hard to realise that O’Connell Street itself was originally a very classy pedestrian mall.”
The AR might come back and see what they think today!
“On the higher ground at the back the urban environment gets better”
I presume a reference to the set piece buildings in and around Parnell Square.
“At the extreme east end, in the area around Connolly Station, everything is in shattering decay; but the area between Mountjoy Square and Parnell Square is still closely set with tall, splendid relics of the 1790s, sadly run down, but still retrievable..”
Originally posted by chewy
A new school of traffic design says we should get rid of stop signs and red lights and let cars, bikes and people mingle together. It sounds insane, but it works. [I’ve read through those links and it’s an interesting idea, but I don’t think it’s a runner in Dublin, because motorised traffic is in such heavy dominance; it would just continue to dominate…
Besides, the concept of letting everything mingle together doesn’t adress the issue of air pollution – cars etc. produce air pollution, pedestrians & cyclists don’t..
I agree that the Bus Stop building is great. It’s not listed but it should be.
The problem with 20th century buildings like this is that when they lose their original steel windows it is a huge blow for the overall character of the building. Maybe that’s why it seems ugly now, jlang. The steel windows are gone a long time, early 80s judging by photos I’ve seen.
Sock Shop also have a unit in the building and they have utilised the original features of the building much better than Bus Stop. They use the full height of the original shopfront and have left the facsia unpainted, whereas Bus Stop have inserted a panelled plywood facsia at a lower level and painted everything.
Originally posted by Diaspora
the Stephens Green S.C. gets a large number of compliments mostly from North AmericansIt’s the classic American retail psychology of malls: trapped inside with the goods, you’re more likely to buy.
I didn’t say that an taisce didn’t know about the capel st/mary’s abbey development, just that nobody objected to it.
Personally, I think the character of the King st area was killed off many years ago by the Stephen’s gn centre
Originally posted by kefu
you have to ask who An Taisce think they’re representing.In the O’Connell Street thread, people were (rightly) saying what a monstrosity & cesspit the new building at the corner of Capel st and Mary’s Abbey is.
…Well that’s what happens when nobody has objected to an overscaled development.
You can’t win in an taisce. If people see something they don’t like they say “Why didn’t an taisce stop that?”. Like, why didn’t an t object to the bungalows beside the Liam Mc Cormick church in Burt in Donegal? (because the application wasn’t referred and no one else told an t about it)
Yes the 16 new poles are unbelievable!! Grattan Bridge now looks like a space station. Have you seen the view from Capel St. yet? It’s incredible! – like a blizzard of clutter has hit the bridge!
It’s time for the City Architect to concede his folly.
That’s complete bollocks about An Taisce doing cut and paste appeals. It sounds like an error in the appeal has been exagerrated to the point of a “cut and paste” appeal allegation. Can anybody post the relevant mistake?
An Bord Pleanala are notoriously assiduous and meticulous in their assessments and decisions on appeals (the heritage officer of an t. maintains they are the only planning body in Ireland who properly process planning applications – how else do you explain the 85% approval rate for one-off houses by local authorities countrywide?). If they thought A t were lazily cutting and pasting appeals, we’d be shot out of it.
Though I’m involved in Dublin City An Taisce I didn’t have anything to do with this appeal.
I’d like to see something good on this site. Wejcherts haven’t always been my favourite architects – they did some terrible postmodern rubbish in the 80s and early 90s – but this design could have been good – perhaps 7 storeys was slightly overscaled.
This is a trend lately. In circa 1999 it was acknowledged that the scale of the core of the city centre should be preserved at all cost and that anything over 5 or 6 storeys should only be built outside, in the docklands or wherever. But now almost every scheme in the city centre seems to want to go up to at least 7 storeys. All in all I agree that this scheme was a tough one to call.
I see that that bitter Galway architect is back on his An Taisce-hating hobby horse on Archiseek again. grow up fin.
Yeah, great building. Used to admire it from the library in Kevin Street DIT during my student days. The lamb and flag in the pediment is the symbol of the Moravians.
It was under threat of demolition for many many years as part of the ’70s Inner Tangent road widening scheme. Then later when it was deemed worthy of keeping there was a madcap plan to put the whole building on wheels and move it back. But I think this was ditched when they found out how expensive it would be to do that.
It’s easier to go in and see the inside now that that design company are in it. The tiled toilets downstairs are amazing – a 1900s time capsule. The close-up pic of the tap on the company’s homepage is from there.
Anyone over the age of about 25 who grew up and went to school here will remember that Catholicism had a very severe grip on Ireland up until about the end of the ’80s.
A couple of years ago when I was still in my Catholic hangover I would have said get rid of that sacred heart shrine. But now I think it should be left – it’s a layer of history and quaint – the bad memorys have faded…
In ways Father Ted was the final nail in the coffin for Catholic Ireland. No man of the cloth or bride of Christ could ever be taken seriously after that. Sue I’m surprised that anyone could still hold your views in Ireland in 2004.
Well I think the traffic is still going through there way too fast. It should be made go ultra slow. There doesn’t seem to be any recognition on the part of drivers that the plaza area is now a sensitive, pedestrian-oriented zone. It’s still just a case of ‘piss down O’Connell Street as fast as you can’.
And you’re right, it’s dangerous. They’ll have to do something about that.
