GrahamH

Certainly agreed on the percentage of traffic comprising buses on College Green. While tentatively supportive of this so-called ‘bus gate’, as has been rehearsed at length on this site, it is without question buses that generate the hostile – bordering on dangerous – environment on College Green, with long expanses of clear roadway leading up to its numerous pedestrian crossings creating a harsh conflict between traffic and pedestrians. Presumably this bus gate will at the very least see the same amount, if not more, buses using College Green?

To honest, I’d sooner have double the amount of private cars passing through if it meant a complete eradication of buses from this space. They comprise a loud, ignorant, intimidating presence which compromises the showpiece room of the city – equivalent to allowing kiddies with muddy feet run riot about the front parlour. Out! –>

But of course it does1 A vacant unit versus a teaming coffee shop offers little in the way of dispute as to which is better. A discount shop also would not be allowed open on Dawson Street (one hopes). This matter simply relates to signage et al. Of course the lettering above the entrance is fine – that is all there should be. All the other tack, including the cheapo fascia inserts in the windows, the circular sign, and the rubbish around the entrance require removal.

Naturally it is good to see new life on the street in these times, but certainly not at the expense of good design or good planning standards.

@rumpelstiltskin wrote:

And Costa coffee is revolting.

Meh, mild and anodyne yes, but hardly revolting.

Much more encouraging is The Trinity Barber’s recent makeover over on Trinity Street. An excellent exercise in polished restraint, the works involved the replacement of an expansive facia and an all-singing coat of canary yellow paint on their Art Nouveau shopfront with an altogether more stylish affair.

The diminutive smart steel lettering without any form of lighting paraphernalia is effortlessly cool.

I’m not entirely sure what’s going on there between the fascia and the cornice – a former alteration of some kind.

Beautiful job.

The Trinity Barber is one of three unified shopfronts on a late 19th century building which could benefit from similar treatment.

(incidentally, the barber upstairs has stunning views down St. Andrew Street and South William Street towards Powerscourt Townhouse).

More of this please.

(if anyone’s in there soon, tell them to take the plastic wrapping off the new light shades!)

Removal of Dáil car park opposed by some members of commission

MARK HENNESSY, Political Correspondent

THE TEMPORARY car park in Leinster House, which covered a historic lawn when it was created nearly a decade ago, is to be removed this summer, the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission decided this week.

However, the decision to restore Leinster Lawn was not easily made, according to sources, and a number of members of the commission opposed the motion proposed by Fianna Fáil TD Michael Mulcahy.

Leinster House has 293 parking spaces which are used by members of the Oireachtas, some Oireachtas officials and some journalists. It will have 225 once the work is completed.

The Office of Public Works is prepared to offer 29 replacement spaces at other government institutions, but a spokesman last night said: “We will not be buying new stock.”

Minister of State at the OPW Martin Mansergh urged the members of the commission – which is responsible for running Leinster House – to agree to the change, which is unpopular with many in the buildings.

Leinster House, he said, could not seek to retain a development that should have disappeared years ago as part of the planning conditions that were given when a major extension called LH2000 was built.

Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey wrote a strongly worded letter to the commission, supporting the removal of the parking places and arguing that politicians had to give a lead on public transport.

The restoration of the lawn will be done by the OPW at a cost of approximately €200,000 – a far cry from the €500,000 figure that was pencilled in for the work in earlier plans.

That earlier figure was based on the assumed use of contractors to do the job. Using OPW staff will be more economical, Mr Mansergh told the commission.

Leinster Lawn, which faces Merrion Square in front of the Houses of the Oireachtas, was replaced by a car park in July 1998 as a temporary measure during the construction of LH200.

The planning permission for the work at the time required the lawn be reinstated after the building work was done, but this did not happen because the OPW deferred the work on the grounds that an underground car park was to be built.

The decision on Wednesday means that the car park, which would have cost €25 million and would have been open to the public, has now been deferred indefinitely because of the cutbacks.

© The Irish Times

You can tell it was written by a political correspondent!

So we’re none the wiser as to how these spaces are going to be replaced. Where are 225 spaces going to be ‘once the work is complete’? By my estimation, the Kildare Street courtyard/garage forecourt has 70-80 spaces. Accounting for the 29 spaces being offered elsewhere, what of the 120-odd shortfall?

The current arrangement on Leinster Lawn comprises approximately 70 spaces between the railings and the Cenotaph, and a further 50 or so on each side flanking the National Gallery and the Natural History Mueseum – totalling 170 spaces on the site of the Duke of Leinster’s pleasure gardens. One can only deduce from the proposed reduction from 293 spaces in the whole complex to 225, that only the central Cenotaph-to-railings section of the Lawn is to be removed along with those at the railings end of the National Gallery flank.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the Kildare Street frontage was reconfigured to take some of the displaced spaces. A parking reshuffle you might say – true to form, an image exercise which achieves nothing.

Haha I knew I’d trigger notjim off; mentioning modern bronze and a popular figure in the same sentence is like pushing the Play button. I’d tend to agree insofar as I’m not a big fan of bronze used in this way – I find it has much greater effect when used to exquisite perfection like marble, or alteratively greatly texturised in an abstract manner, as for example with Larkin or the Famine figures. The in-betweeny trend of present is rarely emotive; the all-consuming blackness tends to soak up the light and thus the contrast of lower relief elements, while the mottled finish proves unsatisfying.

Certainly the stance and the character of McCormack is extremely well captured though, and the qualities of bronze emerge to great effect with higher relief parts such as the hands and the broad expanses of plain undulating surfaces to the rear.

Its simplicity appeals to most of us at some level – a people’s statue for a singer of the people? (are these ‘people’ the same people that Vincent Browne so relishes attacking the Worker’s Party over their use of the term ‘working people’?)

26/3/2009

A new statue of the world-renowned Irish tenor Count John McCormack was recently unveiled (2008) in the Iveagh Gardens. Created by sculptor Elizabeth O’Kane, the memorial was commissioned by the John McCormack Appreciation Trust.

A bronze statue mounted on a granite plinth, the sculpture is snugly located in a peaceful enclave adjacent to the Earlsfort Terrace entrance to the gardens. Its presentation is elegantly understated.

O’Kane’s style is clearly apparent: “Her work follows the realist tradition and is representational in content, with an overriding calmness throughout. She sculpts people, animals and birds and her sculptures are elegant and tactile. Elizabeth is especially interested in portraiture, anatomy and movement, and in capturing the sitter’s personality and expression.”

Beautiful detailing.

I was about to say well spotted cobalt, but in fairness you could hardly miss it! (or the earlier top ones for that matter)

(excuse phone camera)

Definitely the worst plastic sash I’ve ever come across, and one of the worst PVC windows generally.

Great to hear the original still survives. Good work all round. Westland Row has an excellent array of historic window types.

KeepAnEyeOnBob, they are indeed PVC sashes you are seeing everywhere. They’ve been around for many years now, developed by the PVC industry to target those who still had qualms about replacing traditional sash windows, or for persuading owners that these new windows were an approved ‘heritage solution’ for use in historic buildings. They’re generally ignorantly detailed, crass against historic materials, the joints weather very badly, and of course above all result in the loss of original fabric. They are of course illegal in Protected Structures.

Futhermore, these windows must surely have a lower lifespan than conventional PVC windows, as they use spring-loaded and pre-tensioned sliding mechanisims instead of simple pulleys and strings. These systems simply haven’t been around long enough to prove how long they last, but as with most consumer products which endure heavy use, they surely cannot be that durable or be easily replaced. Certainly large spring-loaded double-glazed timber windows I have come across have proved an absolute disaster, lasting only 6-7 years in comfortable operation before failing en masse.

As for arched or ‘segment-headed’ windows, these are commonplace in Victorian buildings and a tribute to the skills of seasoned craftsmen. It is extremely rare that you will ever encounter an arched opening in these buildings containing a square-headed window. Thus, in 99% of such cases observed, you can be guaranteed that it’s a botched replacement job.

I’d broadly agree with you on that alonso, though to tweak it slightly, it’s equally likely that inexperienced graduates (in both professions) are given these files, which are then signed off by those at a more senior level. In that case, I don’t know if you can blame such inexperience over the system that allows these people to be involved at that level of decision-making. Either way it results in a mess!

I was particularly annoyed at this development, as this building is the most beautiful example of the modernist neo-Georgian style in the city centre. Furthermore, it’s almost the sole survivor of a whole grouping of similar elegant buildings which were whacked next door to form Sun Alliance House, and had been tastefully refurbished only a short while ago. Suffice to say, it is not a Protected Structure either :rolleyes:

(the top-up loomed over an interviewee’s head on the news tonight, for added insult!)

It’s not worthy of a photograph. Such a breathtaking breaching of planning codes as to leave one, if hardly surprised, then nonetheless dumbfounded. Has this unofficial approval as it’s part of the Carlton development?