Frank Taylor
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here’s a document that discusses balancing the paving needs of the blind while conserving the visual environment
from today’s irish times letters.
Friday, July 31, 2009
Paving in city centre
Madam, – Graham Hickey of Dublin Civic Trust is frustrated that Dublin’s College Green has been “butchered†(Home News, July 27th). One of Mr Hickey’s main grievances is that tactile paving has been installed in this area, which he believes is “mobility correctness gone crazyâ€.Imagine for a moment walking around Dublin city centre with no, or very little, sight, relying instead on sound and touch to guide you. Many people with vision impairments use a long cane as a mobility aid. The cane acts as an obstacle detector; with the user sweeping it from side-to-side, two strides in front of them, to get clues about their environment so they can act quickly. The use of different surfaces underfoot conveys important information to people who are blind or vision impaired, who navigate the city in a very different way to sighted people. The feel and sound of a cane swept across the pavement is very different to the feel and sound of a cane touching tactile paving and immediately alerts the person that they are approaching a crossing.
So while tactile paving may be nothing more than a quirk to sighted people, it is a vital safety mechanism for people with sight loss and is just one of many changes to our environment that can mean the difference between travelling safely and independently and having to rely on others for assistance at every turn. – Yours, etc,
ELAINE HOWLEY,
Director of Services,
National Council for the Blind of Ireland,
Whitworth Road,
Drumcondra,
Dublin 9.Fine Gael opposes restoring lawn as a waste of money despite agreeing to it earlier this year.
@Irish Independent wrote:
Anger over ‘waste’ of €230,000 to restore Dail lawn
By Michael Brennan Political Correspondent
Tuesday July 21 2009
THE plan to restore the Dail car park to its former glory as ‘Leinster Lawn’ has been condemned as an “indefensible waste of public money”.The greening project, which is due to take place over the summer, will see the car park at the rear of Leinster House dug up at a cost of €230,000. It will also cost the taxpayer an undisclosed amount to hire extra car parking spaces in other city centre locations.
Fine Gael TD Alan Shatter said the work was “lunacy” at a time of unprecedented national economic crisis. “This is not the time for taxpayer’s money to be allowed to walk out the gates of Leinster House. A stop must be put to this midsummer madness,” he said.
The lawn was turned into a temporary 68-space car park in 1999 while re-development work took place on the new Millennium wing of Leinster House. Under planning permission conditions, it had to be restored after 10 years.
Shocked
Mr Shatter called on Environment Minister John Gormley to support his call for the cancellation of the project and secure a retention order to comply with planning permission.
A spokesman for Mr Gormley said the decision to restore Leinster Lawn was made by the all-party Houses of the Oireachtas Commission, which includes three Fine Gael members.
“He is shocked that a TD of such long standing has such a basic lack of knowledge of how decisions are made in his own name and with his own party’s support,” he said.
Mr Gormley is a supporter of the move because he believes the people of Dublin would prefer a lawn to “an ugly car park”.
“He believes it is long overdue and it is in breach of planning at the moment,” his spokesman said.
The Office of Public Works will hire 29 extra car park spaces in other city centre locations, bringing the total number of spaces available to 254 for TDs, Senators and other staff working in Leinster House.
The Oireachtas Commission made its decision to restore the Leinster Lawn at a meeting earlier this year.
One of its members, Fine Gael Tipperary South TD Tom Hayes, said the commission had no option but to restore the lawn. “We have to abide by the rules and regulations. The Houses of the Oireachtas couldn’t be seen to break the planning regulations when ordinary people have to do it,” he said.
– Michael Brennan Political Correspondent
Today’s bord snip report recommends merging DIT and Blanchardstown and Tallaght IT in a supercampus in Tallaght. It also recommends selling grangegorman. But who would buy it?
Now a rail user lobby group have questioned the vast amount of money which is earmarked for a new tunnel under the city when the old Victorian railway line could be used to service some of the city’s most densely populated areas.
“They are wasting an incredible asset and instead ploughing vast sums of money into a new inter-connector tunnel,” said Derek Wheeler of Rail Users Ireland.
I thought that Platform 11/ Rail Users Ireland was very keen on the interconnector. Must have had a policy change.
Biffo seemed to suggest recently that borrowing would now be increased to invest in NDP projects to take up the slack from a contracting construction sector. I would have thought that the interconnector would be just the sort of project to fast-track. Platform 11 must really believe that the interconnector is now never going to happen. I guess they have some inside knowledge. More’s the pity. If we can build 800KM of motorway I don’t see why we can’t put a 5km railway tunnel across the city centre. Is there not a few votes in it from the commuters along the kildare and maynooth lines?
As Graham, pointed out, this statue is a tiny blight compared to the acres of illegal tacky signage, the forest of polls and the multitude of industrial bins. Of course, the taxi rank should be on Cathal Brugha street.
In favour of the statue:
✔ It makes a mockery of religion.
✔ It’s so shite that it’s cool.
✔ It’s a memorial to our horrible past, locked up nicely in an airtight box that the locals will presumably manage to destroy in a few weeks.
✔It’s not that big compared to the other statues on the street. So you can eyeball JC and consider His mighty works (and the peccadilloes of His earthly officials).I didn’t see this story in any Irish newspapers but it seems that the wax dummies have been stolen.
Ravers take Teletubbies
http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2007350323,00.htmlIn th event that ABP rejects your appeal, you could go to the High Court and seek a judicial review of ABP’s decision- if you believe they did not follow their own procedures correctly.
You’d need to get some financial backing first.
@Keen wrote:
Does anyone have an update on this? Very little coverage on this. I passed by the site last Saturday but did not get a chance to see what they were actually doing. Just a bit interested. Also i didn’t see any 50 foot Elvis poster??
There is a large deep hole north of the Point Depot, covering the development site. The 50-foot Elvis poster is mounted on six stacked 40-ft containers.
Ah, come off it: There is no comparison between the old and the new. The original building was a hideous windowless threatening grey box. It sat on that corner like the abandoned abortion of a nuclear power station. I felt some relief when it went. The same feeling I had when DIck Roche lost his job.
The new structure is insipid and unremarkable. In its favour it is certainly ‘of its time’ which should please those of you concerned that the historical record of the city is not contaminated by deceptive pastiche. At least it has windows.
I’m surprised that nobody has yet said this was a lost opportunity to make this building sixty floors higher and thus propel Ireland into the fighter-jet/stealth-submarine age.
@publicrealm wrote:
I presume the quote from ‘Wank, Adams, Slavin’ is a typo?
It’s a real company, complete with god-awful architect’s web site
http://www.go2wasa.com/
triumph of form over functionThere was a debate on the M3 on RTE the other night, including Frank McDonald and Noel Dempsey, that you can view here:
http://www.rte.ie/news/qanda/
It pretty much followed the path of this thread- a mishmash of a number of arguments.the value of the particular archaeology of Lismullin
whether building commuter motorways is a good idea
whether a reroute is feasible
whether the public consultation process is a worthless sham
whether the project is an inefficient vehicle to transfer cash from the state to politicaly well connected individualsThe discussions are confusing because most people include a variety of the above separate questions in their views of the m3.
Just comparing the board conditions to your wish list:
@PVC King wrote:
The type of measures you might like to see put into place could be:
Incentivising public transport use for customers by either charging for car-parking or giving a small discount for not using the parking facilitiesBoard says IKEA must charge for parking.
Offering home delivery services on all ranges to encourage people to use public transport
Board says just that IKEA must offer a home delivery service but no mention of cost or range of goods.
Contributing to the capital costs of metro or luas should metro abandoned or mutated in July
Board requires an unspecified contribution to Metro North costs.
Paying a toll on each car that enters their car-park towards the capital costs of the M50 upgrade say €]Board has limited number of cars entering carpark per day to around 1600.
Ensuring that their online presence and home delivery service dovetail to encourage remote purchases
Board has required that parking charges fund an e-commerce service but does not specifiy delivery charges or range of goods.
Also, IKEA must provide a shuttle bus to Ballymun on a 20 min fequency.
I am disappointed that one condition requires IKEA to provide a minimum number of car parking spaces rather than a maximum. There seems to be concern that local estates would otherwise be used as overflow parking but this could be dealt with using clamping and residents’ permits. Also something tells me that local residents would have their own approach to dealing with unwanted cars.
Also I am disappointed that home delivery is not required to be free and thus cross-subsidised by drivers. The required e-commerce service condition reads:
@ABP wrote:Within one year of the proposed development commencing trading, an e-commerce/home shopping service (which includes home delivery), shall be introduced
This condition could be satisfied by an e-commerce service offering a range of 10 products with 50 euro delivery charge.
Overall though it’s not a bad deal and it’s clear that the planners are starting to think more about sustainability.
I doubt the M3 route can be moved at this stage. At least not without huge costs. Presumably contracts have been signed based on the current route.
The road will surely be a huge success so long as success is defined by
* the road having plenty of traffic queuing to get on and get off every morning and evening
* the enrichment of the local connected landowners through CPO, tract housing and retail parks
* the growth of Navan from a small provincial town into a small provincial town surrounded by the serried ranks of tens of thousands of suburban housing unitsMetro North will have a stop at O’Connell Bridge, so this is where you would alight for Temple Bar. Temple Bar-Stephens Green is around 800m but we are talking about a 400m maximum walk.
Walking speeds are a critical factor for urban design. Pedestrian crossings are calibrated on walking speeds of 400m in 5 minutes – a speed that 70% of Americans can manage. In a study of Americans over 65, 85% of them could walk 400m in 7 minutes 20s
http://www.usroads.com/journals/p/rej/9710/re971001.htmI’m sure we could both walk 400m in a lot less than 5 minutes, Rory!
I wish I were a senator. It’s one of the few jobs you could do drunk.
senate 16 may, 2001
Mr Norris
..While I am at it I permit myself the aside that one of the things we should look at as early as possible is the location of the stations. Though it is a minutely parochial point, I hope there is one at the northern end of O’Connell Street, partly for the James Joyce Centre. Imagine how marvellous it would be to get off a plane at Dublin Airport and get right into the centre of the city, not just to the southside. The southside will probably be favoured in this as in all other matters. Somebody from America who has booked into the Gresham, a very fine hotel, wants to be able to get into an underground at the airport and come out almost opposite its door. I even have a name for the Minister, the James Joyce station. They do it in Paris on the metro where they have the Victor Hugo and others.Mrs. O’Rourke: What about the Bertie Ahern station?
Mr. Ryan: The Senator should show a bit of erudition. He pronounced Hugo incorrectly.
Mr. Norris: The Minister should not worry, it is just Senator Ryan’s inferiority complex rising to the surface again. Next thing, he will be telling her about how Fianna Fáil has changed since his day.
Mr. Ryan: My inferiority complex is well known. Everybody knows about it. It was well advertised—
Mr. Norris: It is well known. It would be a wonderful idea to honour someone on the north side of Dublin and close to the Joyce centre. It is only an accident that it is also close to my house…
Stephen’s Green to O’Connell Bridge is 800m. So the maximum walk to a station if you find yourself between these stops is 400m or 5 minutes. nobody minds a 5 minute walk (length of Grafton Street). Adding extra stops increases journey times overall and increases build costs.
O’Connell Bridge to Mater hospital is 1400m and needs an intermediate stop at Parnell Square. This is under negotiation at the moment. Parnell Street is a hub of multicultural activity and very densely built up with the potential for a lot more building on the East side. Also David Norris will be lobbying for a stop near his house.
haha – sorry Morlan, they should have hired you.
Do you ever suspect that these buildings are designed in Excel by colouring in the cells?@darkman wrote:
I think this tower will look good, I point to the millenium tower again.
Do you think the millenium tower looks good?Here’s a photo Morlan posted:
It looks like any apartment building on the Costa Del Sol, but without the balconies. Zoe Developments, no?The context of that building is lovely: water right up to the edge on two sides, gets the evening sun, a sunny marina below. Due to the location, not that many people are affected by the shadow casting. I wouldn’t mind if they had gone double the height there: 50 storeys. I guess the height was determined by that mill building across the road.
Remember (and this is something people here seem to forget) not every high rise can be the most stunning of buildings.
Why not? If you want to spend millions cramming a huge amount of floorspace into a tiny plot, should you not have to provide amazing design quality in return?
I think it will be far more interesting then the renders suggest.
It’s rare for a building to turn out looking better than its renders. If you of a case where this has happened, I’d like to see it.
@darkman wrote:
I cant understand really the lack of enthusiasm or indeed comment on what will be Irelands first skyscraper in a Dublin context. Is it that its Northside of the Liffey? Is it the design? Is it the developer? Why the lack of ‘excitement’ that this building will actually smash the 100m mark. It will finally put the nail in the coffin of Belfast, for example, having a taller building (and Cork too). This is a big deal for Dublin and id have expected far more enthusiasm for it. Since its actually going to happen! Is it not tall enough – 35 floors? What is it thats making this project attract less attention then the U2 tower? This project is incredibly significant for our city in my view.
Tall alone is not impressive. Every 2 bit city around the world has them, desperately trying to portray themselves as advanced.
Now, the turning torso in Sweden, that’s impressive. And the Gherkin and the Grande Arche and the Torre Agbar in Barcelona. But this is just a regular office block – only its residential and it has a cage on the roof and it’s a little higher on one side than the other. So what?
I’d be impressed if they built something that spanned the river.
What do you think of these buildings in Glasgow, Darkman?
Do you find them exciting? Would they make you impressed with Glasgow? Would they be even better if they were another 10 floors higher?
When I see this proposal for Point Village, I am no more moved than I am by seeing these buildings in Glasgow a couple of weeks ago. They make me feel nothing.
