Devin

I don’t mind it much too much. It’s in a much less prominent position than the Hickey’s scheme. It’s set well back from the Liffey.

An accidental plus is that it will help hide the phenomenally ugly rear of a 1990s Zoe scheme on Montpelier Hill.

I see the Members of the Travelling Community have finally been moved on from Britain Quay and concrete girders have been placed all about to stop them coming back.

Amusing to see the Board resort to name-calling – that’s usually left to objectors!

The unfortunate scheme:

@Morlan wrote:

Yes, it should be a fantastic view from Harbourmaster Place with the tower terminating the street 1.3km away. It will be one of the longest linear streets in Ireland.

And more good news – work seems to have begun on Luas. The route is sectioned off all the way from Connolly down to the Point.
Pics below show Upper Mayor Street and Lower Mayor Street.

@Morlan wrote:

There’s an awful lot of visual masturbation going on with the U2 tower. Every time you see any image of it, be it model or montage, it looks different. I mean, what is that (above)? It doesn’t even look like a building. Everyone knows the finished building would look nothing like that ….

@Mick wrote:

Critics brand Docklands development a farce as design untwists (by Colin Coyle, The Sunday Times, August 5, 2007)

To guard against conflicts of interest, the judging panel had been provided with numbers corresponding to projects, with entrants’ names withheld to ensure anonymity. But when the winner was picked, no number corresponding to its entry could be found. The organisers considered posting an image of their first choice on a website to track down its creators, but were advised this could result in a legal challenge.

Was this intrigue ever solved? Was the architect of the winning design ever identified? How come in all this time since 2003 an image has never surfaced of the winning design? Will it ever be seen? It’s all so strange ……

The sacred heart statue shouldn’t be embellished. It’s fine just as it is – a piece of retro kitsch catholic iconography, a quaint relic of holy Ireland on the main street of a secular and cosmopolitan city.

No to the noughties-ification of the sacred heart statue!!

lostexpectation,

It’s the scale of the fascia mainly. The ground floors of the Westmoreland Street buildings are quite high – more like one & a half storeys (the reason afaik being that they originally had a mezzanine level inside). The original shopfronts were broken up to reflect this. But nowadays some of the poorer shopfronts on the street, like the Guinness one & a Spar opposite, take advantage of this one-&-a-half-storey height and slap on a huge fascia.

But I know what you mean about the Guinness lettering. It’s classic.

The sooner we get to the end of this page the better! There are so many images on it now that it even hops around for several minutes with broadband!

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@GrahamH wrote:

The late Victorian plate replaced with mock-Georgian sashes, and a hideous boxy plywood concoction tacked onto the ground floor.

This is a big problem &#8211]http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/131/deanstterraceqb5.jpg[/IMG]

Circa 2003 photo of No. 4 Dean Street (on the left), one of a group of three unlisted late Georgians opposite St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and the last one with original sash windows remaining.

During a recent refurbishment, the remains of an older shopfront was uncovered.

But sadly neither the old shopfront nor sashes with old glass were repaired and here is the finished job, with new, badly-detailed ‘traditional’ shopfront and sash windows, both in gic brown 🙁

Just as an example of the inconsistency of the Dublin Record of Protected Structures, there is another group of 3 houses – occupied by our friend Spar – adjacent to the Dean Street ones on Patrick Street (on the left, above), probably dating to the same time (the yellowey brickwork is due to a recent over-zealous cleaning). These groups of houses would’ve been built in the early 19th century to improve the setting of the cathedral.

But the Patrick Street ones are Protected Structures yet the Dean Street ones are not!

Good for showing all the beer cans in the Londis window, Grah – a disgrace!
But while I abhor the current dire state of Westmoreland Street, I don’t believe there’s any point in seeking improvements ‘til the whole Luas situation kicks in … the City Council would be wasting their time chasing after improvements in this area at the moment (except for unauth. devts.).

As bad as the Londis cans are, some people may remember that, up until about 10 years ago, there was an Abrakebabra occupying that corner. Things could only improve ……

This was the proposed Guiness shopfront Gra mentioned (1st picture below), refused in Feb this year because:

1. The proposed development, by reason of its design, material and prominent location, would be seriously injurious to the character and amenities of this sensitive streetscape, which is a designated Architectural Conservation Area and would conflict with the policies and objectives set out in the Dublin City Development Plan, 2005-2011, and the O’ Connell Street Architectural Conservation Area, in respect of shopfront design. Accordingly the proposed development would adversely affect the Architectural Conservation Area of O’ Connell Street and would thus be contrary to the proper planning and sustainable development of the area.
(Ref. 6480/06)

As soon as it was refused, they stuck up an equally bad version (2nd picture below), and it remains there now … What does it say about the city when an ugly shopfront emblazoned with ‘Guinness’ – almost a byword for Dublin – can be illegally stuck up right in the centre?

(A complaint to Planning Enforcement was made at the time.)