GrahamH

Sheltering behind a mountain is one thing, but thermal proofing?!

Reminds me of the ‘Bumpkin Billionares’ comic sketch where they erect a rain cover over the city of Manchester, supposedly Britain’s wettest city, and tourists start flocking there 🙂

Yes, the delightful Dearey’s is just one – who’s future use is uncertain as a result of a recent sale.

These two late Georgians are other favourites:

Of course the town’s Pro-Cathedral does without saying – modelled on King’s College Chapel, on which there’s a good article in the UK forum at the minute:

The town lacks decent contemporary architecture unfortunately – most built at the minute is happy-clappy stuff, not least the woeful new Louth CC HQ.
Saying that, the new courthouse extension by Brian O’Halloran Associates works very well (low granite walls and ramps etc aside)

Ulster Bank – it is magnificent alright, the chimneys in particular.
It was well designed, so as to be taller than the others and act as a centrepiece for the terrace.

Lexington, has high-rise even been an issue in Cork?
Has the solution (if it can be described as such) to the Dublin battle that’s taken place over the decades, been neatly applied to Cork just as it begins to take off?
That is, allow it in designated areas and otherwise forget it? Not that that’s exactly happening in Dublin – but it is interesting that tall buildings elsewhere in Ireland are causing little to no controversy at all.

Is everyone just fed up at this stage and are just saying ah sure let them at it, or is it an acceptance that tall buildings anywhere can be acceptable as long as they’re clumped together or are used independently as ‘landmarks’? Or is this just a passing fad and will public opinion swing back aagin in 5-10 years I wonder?

On Liberty Hall, does the height include the plant on top of the frilly roof? That’s always been a question, think Andrew Duffy asked it before but no one knew…

Alas not all the banks on College Green are the prettiest in the world…

Dundalk is a beautiful town, easily has one of the finest collections of Georgian-Victorian transitional architecture in Ireland.
The people unfortunately have a bad reputation but their town is magnificent.

Older Dubliners are very self-deprecating – suppose it stems from the fact that Dublin genuinely was falling down around their ears in the 60s, 70s & 80s – particularly those latter two decades.

The negativity is now vented through litter, dirt, on certain types of people, on certain areas of the city etc.
But the place has come on in leaps and bounds and many parts of it are exceptionally beautiful, most parts being very pleasant. It is a different place even to that of 5-7 years ago.

To an outsider I’d say Dublin does have an air of a provincial British city in terms of its built environment; I can see it in the faces of tourists every day, but anyone who knows anything about these two nations will notice just how different Dublin is – on a host of levels, not least its architecture which has a uniquely Irish tinge to it, even if it has its roots in UK design.

To try to see the city from an outsider’s perspective all you have to do is remember what you thought of the place as a child – it always works for me. In terms of the scale of the city, not knowing its history or its geography or its people, and in terms of defining the place through key buildings and the general blur of the streetscapes, a child’s view comes very close to that of a newcomer.
Now unfortunately all I remember is a gritty, scary, smelly dump of a place littered with derelict sites and propped up buildings which doesn’t bode to well for my theory, but that was quite a few years ago…

Sure Dublin’s great 🙂