Devin
Forum Replies Created
- Posts
Just to reiterate, Prime Time last Thursday week was about one-off housing, not An Taisce. That’s important.
Don’t shoot the messenger.
Edit: ‘I’ve no idea why this post appeared 3 times, I must have pressed something by accident – Devin’ :end edit.
Thanks for the compliment whoever you are, asdasd.
But I do kind of agree with garethace about standards. Sometimes we just bang down something as a quick reaction to what somebody else said in a post, cos we’re in a rush out or something. But I guess it is worth taking the time to write something worth reading.
Yeah , ‘fridges’ is a good word to describe the look of those kiosks at the moment. I’m waiting for them to undergo some kind of transformation….
And why have they been placed directly in front of the wood and glass benches, which were supposed to be for gazing at the view / sun setting in the river etc. ?
Yeah O’Connell Street always looks so stately in old prints.
Thanks Graham for reminding me to take a photo of the earth and foundations of bollards and columns in front of the GPO portico before it’s paved over. That sight won’t be had for long time to come!
Yeah, but remember the park in Parnell Square was the “Pleasure Gardens” of the Rotunda Hospital from the very beginning. There’s a great photo somewhere taken from up in one of the Georgian houses in about 1900 looking at the Pleasure Gardens sweeping down to the rear of the Rotunda, which is a fine facade in itself, with colonnades curving forwards like the front.
There’s a vague objective in the O’C St IAP plan for reclaiming some of that space built on by the hospital in the 20th century.
I kind of feel the same as notjim about the Garden of Remembrance. It’s quaint. I wouldn’t like to lose it completely. Granted the Roman cross plan doesn’t represent our inclusive, right-on 21st cen. society! But what harm? The coloured tiles showing groups of Celtic weaponry in the bottom of the pool are amazingly vibrant.
I also like the blank curving wall at the back – but it’s ruined by the knee-high planted border.
The railings around the garden (which bound a large part of Parnell Sq also) are an interesting take on Georgian/Victorian railings (unlike horrible mild steel mock-traditional railings used on suburban houses and rural trophy houses).
The fact that it’s a peaceful oasis at the moment is just a reflection of the hostile traffic island that is Parnell Square, and the fact that the garden doesn’t relate to the Georgian square. But then IT was built AFTER the Rotunda Hosp had encroached into the square with various buildings.
The O’Connell Street Integrated Area Plan has something about an entrance into a redesigned garden opposite the Hugh Lane Gallery, but I don’t know if that’s been superseded by new plans mentioned by Frank McD. in the paper last week for the square as a centre of cultural institutions …
Planners, if you’re reading, take note of notjim’s suggestion for incorporating the best parts of the garden in an enlarged, redesigned park.
I’m pretty sure those fluted iron bollards at the ends of the GPO potico were the bases of lamp standards, which are seen in some early prints, and some very early photos too. The upper parts were removed a long, long time ago – maybe around 1870.
In that piece by Frank McD last week the DCC planner was saying how wonderful the new Roches Stores building was and that it combines very well with the Spire. And it does. When you stand near the Ilac entrance the conjunction of the Spire and the new Roches facade is very good.
BUT, from further back, the picture isn’t so pretty. The new Roches building has a ‘feature roof’ which projects several feet beyond the Henry St streetline. If you stand at the western end of Mary St, this roof cuts unfortunately into what should be a clean channel view to the Spire. Annoying!
Nobody who has slagged off those buildings beside Millen bridge has said exactly why they think they’re crap, or even what they think might look good there instead. They wern’t designed by DCC in-house, or an east-european architect. It was an Irish architect, George Morris.
No garethace, you do submit interesting posts. Telling somebody to reread your own posts and your tone in that post is what I was referring to.
The original alignment for the pedestrian bridge (Jervis Street/Meeting House Square) would indeed have created much greater connectivity (sorry about the pretentious word), but I’d prefer the Howley Harrington bridge design any day to the Group 91 bridge, which was an architectural conceit (does an “all hail group 91” thing exist on on this site???).
Millenium bridge is also uncomfortably close to ha’penny bridge – the original bridge site would have been that bit further away.
Given that it’s there now, they should at least make the most of the Eustace St/Millenium Walk axis by putting a sign on the blank wall of the Jervis Centre that can be read from across the Liffey, so as to get more people to walk down it.
Another entrance to the Jervis Centre where Millen Walk comes out would be daft given that there’s one at the nearby corner. And Dixon’s would have to lose some floorspace – so unless that was agreed in their lease……
StephenC, with reference to Capel Street, DCC would have us believe that the “bland and boring box” on the corner of Mary’s Abbey and “another planned for opposite” ARE the “judicious urban planning” that will make it a great thoroughfare again!!
I’ve tried to point out this before about those new buildings beside millen bridge, they’re quayfront GRAIN, and they work well as grain, whereas the fake Georgians at the corner of Jervis Street dont work as grain cos theyre fake and the finish is bad. Nor do the fakes on Bachelors Walk (designed in-house by the council).
Fin said: “on prime time last night a big discussion on an taisce”
Get your act together Fin!! Thursday’s Prime Time was a special on one-off housing, featuring a report, followed by a studio discussion with a panel of six people, one of whom was from An Taisce.
Yes, the usual bungalow defenders (O’Cuiv, Caulfield) didnt come off very well this time. They tried the usual tactics against An Taisce, attacking “its” policies, but Frank Corcoran just calmly and clearly reiterated that An T. simply apply Government policy (contained in the National Spatial Strategy) and that – he was trying to get this in but Miriam O’Callaghan kept talking over him – Government policy is in turn based on European environmental legislation that Ireland has signed up to.
Rachael Kenny (former IPI president) is now a senior planner in Meath County Council so she probably wasn’t the best person to be there for obvious reasons (you can be sure she was told what she can and can’t say).
Emer O’Siochru (somebody described as a hippy) is a well-respected architect who’s been working in the area of built heritage for many years.
As for that guy from ‘Council for the West’ (another IRDA by the sound of things), what can you say? There’s no problem with what’s happening to the countryside as far as these people are concerned, and the already lax rules on the plonking of large pattern-book bungalows everywhere should be completely relaxed.
I wonder if he saw the piece in the Irish Independent on the 2nd of Janary titled ‘Top composer decries new plans to allow one-off houses’?
It said:
‘Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, who has a home in this country, has criticised government plans which will allow thousands of one-off houses to be built in the countryside.
The composer of Cats and Phantom of the Opera told the Irish Independent that Ireland’s landscape was already marred by some of the most “hideous and inappropriate housing anywhere in the world” and that he was “gobsmacked” that regulations would be changed to allow thousands of one-off houses to be built.
Mr Llyod Webber said he realised there were few things more infuriating than “some outsider pontificating about the affairs of another country. But I plead a huge affection for Ireland and it grieves me to see such a special landscape besmirched by houses that have absolutely no sympathy for local vernacular architecture whatsoever”, he said yesterday……’
I said: “…There’s two tram stops about 50 metres apart on Luas Line A! One immediately to each side of Church Street.”
JJ replied: “Ahem, Thats one platform in each direction :rolleyes: The Jervis stop is split for this reason…”
Ahem, you’re wrong JJ :rolleyes: :rolleyes:. The stops I was talking about are at Chancery Street, just east of Church Street, and Hammond Lane (which is the Smithfield stop), just west of Church Street. The platforms at both stops are directly opposite one another.
I was exaggerating when I said 50 metres, but these two stops are VERY close.
Tram stops every 500 metres? There’s two tram stops about 50 metres apart on Luas Line A! One immediately to each side of Church Street.
I think McCullough Mulvin are overrated. The new Trinity library got glowing reviews, but the view of it from Frederick Street is awful! Just a lump!
Wern’t those Boardwalk cafes individually run in the beginning? – Now they’re all run by the one company. Blasted homogenisation!
Not to be critical, the cafes are great in the summer.
Just looking at a picture of The Corinthian again in ‘Lost Dublin’ -: it wouldn’t have been in the same league as the Theatre Royal, but it was a nice enough 20th cen. front all the same.
Remember the Laughter Lounge before about 1995 when it was the Screen cinema? It was just an unpainted blank concrete wall; an incredible 2 fingers to the city centre.
Haven’t seen the plans for new replacement building.
Yeah, I think that arched building was the Corinthian Cinema, an art deco classic. It would be listed and jealously guarded were it still around today.
Unbelievable losses (and awful replacements) were the order of the day back then (’60s or ’70s).
Have you noticed that most of the new orbital route signs dont fit the mounting poles which were left over from the original scheme. There’s a bit of metal pole sticking down from underneath the sign. It looks sloppy.
Many of those 600 new signs are badly placed as well; outside historic landmarks etc. And they add to an existing problem of signage clutter in the city centre.
Do the DDDA intend to move to new offices or are they just going to stay where they are? That building is an awful blot on the north campshire.
