Devin
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Paul said “Devin, do you want to out yourself as one of an taisce or will i?”
What’s this about “outing” as an an taisce member? I thought that only applies in the backarse of leitrim or kerry . I would just as easily say Im a member of the ASTI.
The point ive been trying to make is that I think the architect bods should cut an taisce some slack. There is only really an t., the RIAI and the IPI trying (and fighting a losing battle) to get some policy change to deal with the chronic levels of one off housing. After that, the whole country either doesnt care or wants bungalows.
Still spewing out sarcasm and resent towards and taisce I see, Fin.
Not withstanding the fact that an taisce should be more supportive of modern architecture, an architects discussion forum is not particularly the best place to be having a go at the organisation. After all, the institute representing professional architects feels more or less the same as an taisce about one off housing (the issue that has earned it all the controversy). But an taisce is the only one Really sticking its neck out on the issue and so is incurring the venomous hatred of gombeen clientilist county councillors and estate agents up and down the country (and by proxy their constituents and customers). But that’s understanable. We are a post-colonial nation in its infancy.’Put a beggar on horseback’ and he builds a dormer- windowed Georgian bungalow on an elevated site in the raw Irish landscape.
As for you Fin why dont you go to the next Irish Rural Dwellers Association meeting (preferably chaired by michael healy rae). You would make lots of friends there and be able to share hate stories about an t.
Fin, you are harbouring major resent against An Taisca. Every one of your posts contains sarcasm and hatred against it. Why dont you tell us what happened? What plan of yours was sucessfully objected to by by An T? Was it a one-off house? ( & you seem to be one of the few people in your profession who are pro- bungalow blitz – if you are professionally qualified, that is)
What I meant was the architectural balance between monument (the courthouse) and small scale grain (teeling house & adjoining 2 storey terraces). The Dublin Quays are a good example of this, where the spectacular 4 courts and custom house sit amongst the low key Georgian grain. Ok, the setting of the custom house has been engulfed by a lot of crap over time, but you can still get the effect around the 4 courts.
I think the proposed building for sligo is a cracker – were it that that every development site in ireland was subject to this level of architectural input. Just dont know if its right for beside the courthouse. But hey, this thread has been over all that already.
With regard to my original question, the extension to Dun Laoghaire town hall might be an example of what I’m talking about.
Just looking at the images again, the proposed building assumes the same status as the monument (courthouse) rather than deferring. Has this been done sucessfully anywhere else?
What?, are you talking about the dozen or so group 91 buildings in temple bar, coz the rest of it is a disaster. The treatment of the historic buildings and overall character of the area was neanderthal, and this for me negates its chance of being a “landscape of subtle variations”. I’m talking about crudely detailed sash windows, cement ‘snail pointing’ to brick facades, facade retention, badly relaid stone setts and general massive loss of former light industrial and artist studio charachter, which made it interesting in the first place.
It’s only vibrant because of the excess of pubs.
The modern buildings may be interesting to people like “us”, and group 91 and their peers. Architects who design uncompromising modern buildings would like to think that the public secretly or unconciously like their buildings, but they don’t. The public want plastic georgian windows and flower baskets.
The HKR building for Cork Street seems clumsy.
Much better is a building planned for what I think is the opposite corner (corner of Ardee St and Coombe bypass) by Lafferty Design. Can anyone get images of this?
Don’t agree with you What? about the quality of Quatier Bloom or about brick. The shapes and massing of the buildings are good. It is the quays. A Gehry wouldn’t do it for me here.
There is an interesting new Dublin view, from the ‘square’ of the development out to the quays, across Millenium Bridge and up Eustace Street to the ’50s building on the George’s st. cnr.There’s nothing wrong with brick per se, just the way its used. Brainless red brick and PVC Zoey facades gave brick a bad name in the 90’s.
You cite Temple Bar as an example of quality or innovation. The whole of the award winning Temple Bar West End is in brick.
Incidentally, three years after its completion the streets and pavements in Temple Bar West End have been left in an unfinished state, with bumpy tarmac surfaces and a mish mash of broken temporary pavements, whereas the Quartier Bloom development has been completed with integral, high quality warm-coloured stone paving in the new street, that – unlike the wretched Chinese white granite everywhere else in the city – reflects the tone of the historic Dublin paving.
(And, no, I had absolutely nothing to do with this development)
Speaking of the shite Father Mathew statue end of the street, what about the ‘Taxi Driver’s Shrine’ restored (in 2001 says the plaque) with a PVC window!!
I think the new buildings in that quartier bloom development are fine. What should they have been like??
As for the retained facade, the applicant chose to retain it. In fact I think an earlier application approved its demolition. It was worth retaining because of the nice granite piers and the value of old grain on the Quays.
It should never have got to the point of facade retention anyway. It was a pair of circa 1800 buildings, amalgamated in the mid 19th century. It survived – badly maintained – until the 1990s, when Dublin Corporation served a Dangerous Buildings Notice reqiring the roof to be removed, and that was that.
Interesting images GH. The buildings at the corner of Henry St are older than I’d thought.
A few more of the 2 bay 5 storey Georgians on Lr. O’C St may survive at 49 (Champion Sports) behind a Victorian facing and 50 (MacDonalds) – may have some original brick surviving. But you’d need to get inside and see the detailing etc. to be sure.
Two definite Georgians survived next door to this (where Schuh is now) until the 1970s. There’s a good picture of them in that new book on the Harcourt St rail line.
So much for Lr. O’Connell Street being completely levelled in 1916.
Fin: Since when do you have to be a member of An Taisce to think the countryside is being wrecked by white bungalows?
Fin said: “[An Taisce] went, they savaged all around them and then left the natives of the country in a worse state” ?
This is Jackie Healy Rae stuff.
Whose side are the architectural community on anyway?
The whole of rural Ireland villifiy An Taisce because they (rural Ireland) want to build dormer-windowed Georgian bungalows all over the landscape and An Taisce manage to prevent about one in 200 of these being built.
The first one in on O’Connell Street is Georgian too, with a fifth storey and a fancy gable added in the late nineteenth century. The brickwork to the lower part of the facade is original, but dyed that strange colour.
It is often said that 42 upr O’Connell Street is the last Georgian house on O’C St., but this block of buildings on the Bachelors Walk cnr are late-Georgian.
A number of buildings at the Henry St./Upr O’C St. cnr are also Georgian or immediately post-Georgian.
