exene1

@notjim wrote:

“Oriental enclave”. For the love of all that’s holy what kind of report uses a word, “Oriential”, that is regarded as the symbol of a patronizing and exoticizing attitude to Asians to suggest making an “enclave” to “showcase Asian architecture and design and serve as a restaurant and shopping emporium”!

Haha, it’s a UK / American differentiation isn’t it? In the UK the Pakistani 711 attack suspects were of “Asian” origin. But in America “Asian” mafia dons were controversially moved up the liver transplant list in the hope of info on fellow Japanese mafiosi.

‘Oriental enclave’ recommended for Dublin

OLIVIA KELLY

DERELICTION AND urban blight which have dogged one of Dublin’s historic inner city areas could be reversed if an oriental quarter were developed on Parnell Street according to a report by the Dublin Civic Trust.

The report recommends restoration of the traditional 18th and 19th century facades, the removal of garish shopfronts and signage, new paving, lighting and trees on Parnell Street East and the creation of an off-street “oriental enclave” or village of restaurants and shops.

Commissioned by the Dublin City Business Association and Carroll’s Gifts and Souvenirs, the report criticises the “disfigurement” of the street through demolition and low-quality additions, and accuses Dublin City Council of failing to enforce planning regulations and follow through on several planned regeneration schemes for the area. Parnell Street East, running from O’Connell Street to Gardiner Street has 13 listed buildings many of which had been allowed to decline with the loss of historic joinery, windows and masonry and the addition of inappropriate elements such as PVC windows, garish paintwork, and plastic and illuminated signage. In some cases buildings lay vacant and semi-derelict but in other cases the original frontages were just hidden by modern additions and could be restored relatively easily.

Commercial activity on the street had increased over the last decade due to the influx of “ethnic businesses” attracted by low rents, but the report says “this belies the serious and long-standing problems of a lack of investment and continued degradation of its historic building stock”.

While the new-found vibrancy of the street was welcome it had become a “transient immigrant district” with a high turnover and diminishing diversity of businesses. The turnover of users was causing degradation of the fabric of buildings with short-term tenants having little interest in undertaking capital improvements.

It was also clear, the report said, that some businesses change the use or undertake developments of a building without recourse to the planning system. The lack of planning enforcement on the street was evident in the number of historic buildings falling into dereliction. Two of the most important Georgian houses on the Street, numbers 76 and 78, were in a particularly poor condition, the report says.

“Further decay is inevitable if efforts are not made by Dublin City Council to identify the owners and seek remedial works.”

The city council had also failed to maintain the public realm of the street which was “dismal when one considers its location off the premier thoroughfare of a European capital.” Lighting and street furniture was “ugly and utilitarian”, and pavements were poorly maintained and “pockmarked” with tarmac patches.

The report envisages investment by the council in the public realm and enforcement of planning legislation, while business and property owners would restore shopfronts and buildings with traditional designs and complementary new buildings.

It also plans for the creation of a new “oriental enclave” in a block bounded by North Cumberland Street, Marlborough Street and Cathal Brugha Street. The “Village” could showcase Asian architecture and design and serve as a restaurant and shopping emporium “without unduly impacting on the sensitive surrounding streets and historic area”.

Colm Carroll, a property owner on Parnell Street said the business and property owners had agreed to invest in the street and while talks with the council are at an early stage, it had “given support to our aspirations”.

Oriental food quarter branding would attract people, but the historic nature of the buildings would be respected he said.

Suggestions made by former lord mayor Gerry Breen that a Chinese Arch should be erected at the entrance of the street were “unlikely to be a runner”, Mr Carroll said.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2011/1013/1224305705635.html

The city is being ruined by (a) people with no colour taste or coordination and (b) people making unauthorised alterations to buildings.

Here is Frank Ryan pub, Queen Street, a protected structure. It could be a classic Dublin pubfront, up there with the Stag’s Head, Cassidy’s etc. It has all the ingredients – good quality carved timber pubfront, historic brick upper elevation with pretty quoins & parapet – but it’s been in the shits for years with a taseless colour scheme, clutter all over the place, painted brickwork and replacement windows.

And now, the pubfront has just incurred another tasteless paint job in purple & lilac which clashes violently with the green above.

Worse is unauthorised alterations to the protected pubfront: In the original on the left, the piers seamlessly support the consoles at each end of the fascia and thus visually hold the whole elevation over the shopfront. The consoles have just been replaced with projecting boxes (right) inspired by those godawful ‘reproduction traditional’ shopfronts all over the country, and the visual logic is lost.

GET SOME COLOUR ADVICE FRANK RYAN AND GET CONSERVATION ADVICE BEFORE CHANGING PARTS ON A HISTORIC PUBFRONT (AND APPLY FOR PERMISSION).

Hot hot hot! . Seems like so long ago, haha

It’s a pity Margaret Heffernan and Starbucks couldn’t get their shit together when Starbucks wanted to open a cafe in the unit at the corner of South Great George’s Street and Stephen Street. The building is not contributing anything to the street activity-wise and Starbucks would have done a good job on it. Global chain issues aside Starbucks are a star when it comes to design, colour and signage …. not like the pile of shite we routinely get for “design” in Dublin city centre @_@

MARGARET LEAVES STARBUCKS STEAMING

There is always room for one more coffee shop in the busy South Great George’s Street area which now has no end of eateries and footfall as a result.

But Starbucks has found it impossible to crack, after dealings with the formidable Dunnes Stores boss Margaret Heffernan came to naught. Doctor Heffernan couldn’t wait to sign over one of the five shops under her new HQ to the American coffee giant, and even schlepped across to the US to admire their operation. The deal was moving along nicely and the contract was with the lawyers, but lo and behold Margaret changed her mind when Starbucks said they wanted to take an upper floor as well as the small shopfront at street ….

© Irish Times, August 8, 2008

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/property/2008/0828/1219680141613.html