GrahamH
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All of the GPO bollards have been listed for well over 10 years now – walking by the other day it is easy to see how the CC may be viewing them as an obstruction in the context of the new paving and plaza.
I’ll give them till the end of June when this phase is offically finished – and if they’re not back by then it’ll be time to follow it up.Anyway here’s the first of many pics from yesterday, Thursday the 29th – the big lights.
Some of the plants along the Boardwalk are looking decidedly exotic – pretty pricey too. The planters are a bit too over-powering for the boardwalk, as if they’re concealing the fact that there’s not enough seating along the bare walls.
The fact that they so brutally impinge on the streetscape I think makes it irrelevant as to how they complement the streetscape from a height point of view.
It would have improved the overall scheme to have the buildings the same height – if the street was lost. at least the resulting building could have been that bit better. It would have worked better for the street too, as the lower block almost looks like a seperate building when seen from further up the street.Of course – they shouldn’t refuse an opportunity like this, the more the better – but it is common sense to keep things simple and to the point.
One of ATs biggest problems is dealing with issues that require explanation and in-depth debate.
Clearly Q & A is anything but an adequate forum, or Prime Time, but at least an effort could have been made to be clear and concise and as comprehensive as possible, instead of being sucked into the time wasting ‘responding period’ which is exactly what all the other panelists want – nit-picking over crumbs. Rather, members should simply set ATs agenda and ingore the more petty of allegations made by others.It is farcical that the same situations can be predicted every time, and yet nothing changes in ATs approach. The fact that any of the AT members here can clearly argue articulately and comprehensively, but are restricted to the internet, whilst the big guns make a mess of it in front of 250,000 viewers is even more ludicrous.
Considering how frustrating it is for me to watch such games, I can only imagine what it’s like for AT members – they must be mortified.Pretty soon, the 70s floodlights on the buildings have been covered over with black plastic in anticipation of the big switch on – or switch off.
That’s good to hear about Centra and that terrace – I never noticed that planning notice – was the decision to grant permission for Super Valu made before or after this supposed ban on any other convenience stores?
There are a lot of the median lights alright – they’re the same as the ones in that park off Gardiner St – they’re in the IAP too.
I’ll have pics later.28/4/2004
The lamps are being connected now to the aforementioned massive poles. These will be used to blast the plaza with light, as there are no street lamps here for obvious reasons.
There’s similar poles in pics in the IAP I think.It’s a pity they have to stand outside the GPO, but at least they’re centred on it, which unfortunately is not the case for Clerys, where one pokes right up to one side of its facade – there’s little that can be done about it though as it has to be at the corner of the plaza. It’s not going to look any better when all 6 or so lamps are attached.
There is no provision to date for the floodlighting of the GPO either.I’ll try and get pics tomorrow.
What are very impressive, what were pretty much touted from the start, are the French styled lamposts for the carriageways, which have pedestrian lamps at a lower level to the rear to light the pavements. Their glass-domed heads look great, not least because they’re new and shiny, lets hope they stay like that!
Presumably smaller similar heads will be used for the median pedestrian lighting.Passing today, it was interesting to note that the steel grip-studs at all the new pedestrian crossings are laid and drilled by eye, a man was there with a massive drill making the holes, while another guy came along after, squirted cement or similar into the hole and pushed in the studs!
Things are coming on really great overall.
THAT’S IT – I’m going there tomorrow – kept meaning to go for 2 decades now so tomorrow it is – oh no, maybe Thursday, that’d be better. Oooooh I’m all excited now – get to see the cascade or what ever it’s called outside of a photo!
Ah Blessington Basin – what a gem – stumbled across that too a few years back. And Blessington St is great – one of the few middle-class Georgian streets in the city.
A fantastic area of the city, almost forgotton.What a disaster, the second I saw the rest of the panel – oh dear, it was going to be a rough ride.
Ian is undoubtedly a highly experienced and intellegent man, but clearly incapable of engaging successfully in populist discussion.
Time and time again, AT fails to put across arguements people can relate to, whilst every other panelist on every programme walks over them with populist ‘in-touch-with-the-common-guy’ nonsense.
It doesn’t serve AT, but more importantly it doesn’t serve their arguements or rural Ireland.
Every, every, single time it ends up in the same old rut – with the exception of the last Prime Time – why can’t they learn?
It’s such as a shame to see.
They must engage in debate the same way as everyone else: bullet points, bullet points, bullet points – and defend vigourously.Poor old architecture and built environment – as I recall, the only aspect remotely related to them I did in 13 years of schooling was ‘What my street looked like in 1900’ in Footprints history book – which incidently was a field.
Ah I still remember that pic of a street where everyone had to pick out remenants of ‘the olden days’ – I was very chuffed at noticing the bootscraper…
Ah you gotta love the snootiness – although in Ireland we’re hardly ones to talk on the public transport front!
Think Brian sums it up there Diaspora with regard to the ‘new confusion’ created by tossing Trim into the works.
Whereas yes, the programme’s remit was to highlight improper development, resource extraction is a different ball-game, and should be treated as such.
The prog opened on light industrial, closed on heavy industrial, featured a service/infrastructural issue in the form of Shannon’s sewage, and then had the appropriateness of a hotel development thrown in the middle.
It was blatently incongruous in the context of the rest of the prog’s content.
It would have served Trim and the case for regulation of extraction much better to have had Trim featured in a prog devoted to regular devlopment, of which there are hundreds of dubious cases, and a subject to which people can relate to – whilst concentrating Monday’s prog exclusively on the extractive and infrastructural industries.It is clear from the many other Prime Time Investigates that the primary concern after accuracy and truth is to create as much hype as possible, albeit understated, to generate enough fodder for Morning Ireland the next morning, as well as all the other usual suspects, and the papers, all of which very nicely fulfills RTE’s PSB remit, consolidating the arguement for the licence fee – even if it sometimes means highlighting issues of questionable relevancy that undermine the consistency and primary issue of some of these programmes.
It’s a nice idea to compensate local residents, but then again if a prison or similar is built next to your home you’ll be told where to get off.
But certainly strict regulation of processes and operational hours goes without saying – as does the regeneration of quarries when exhausted.I agree Trim Castle shouldn’t have been lumped in with the more industrial elements of development, but the programme in general was short of cases to cite – esp evident towards the end, when local residents were allowed to blab on for days to fill the full hour.
It is very difficult to make such an investigative programme, it takes a heck of a lot of time, so one can hardly blame them for popping Trim in too to fill it out a bit.A programme dealing with the true impact of one-off housing would be facinating – highlighting a myriad of S140s, and families who didn’t comply with rulings. It would be hilarious to pick on Mary and Joe Bloggs who’s septic tank is doing this, and Jane and Joe Soap who built this rubbish etc etc.
Could never be done though – poor old RTE would be slaughtered by the regions, and die a slow painful death.Cullen and Parlon would have a field day.
Once they fill out they’ll look really good.
See what you mean about the lights hitting the statues, looks great, as does the way various usually unnoticed chimneys suddenly blaze up with light.
The GPO bollards have yet to be reinstated and the area looks decidedly finished – hmmmmmmmm
Triple aspect apartments- must feel like floating in mid air!
CG images such as that posted are incredibly vague, they’re always so contrasted and full of shadow – it’s impossible to make out the profile and detail of the proposed buildingLiberty Hall could look fantastic if re-clad.
Pretty much every bollard, lampost and railing in the city has been re-painted over the past couple of months – suffice to say carried out right in the middle of the Presidency – some CC official probably first heard there was some do happening in Dublin Castle in mid-Febuary.
The silver columned-lamposts look especially good now, even if some little fecker purposely came along 3 days later on Dawson St and scribbled blue ink on virtualy every post on the street.
And last summer, when all of Grafton St’s were repainted, someone deliberately came along straight away and put floppy disk stickers on most of the lamposts and bollards, resulting in the usual sticky residues.Someone always says this every year but the city’s looking great now with the leaves appearing on all the trees – the difference it makes is always great to see.
Bord Failte’s requirements for Roche’s one were for a 2000-seat auditorium and a 2000-seat banqueting hall.
John O’Donoghue now says we could have one by 2007 – where have we heard that before? All focus should be placed on a National CC, the need for such shouldn’t be diluted with rubbish like this.Mansfield and Abe Jacobs of South Dublin CC were on on Pat Kenny yesterday – apparently Mansfield went ahead with the building because as the CC hadn’t notified An Taisce, in theory there was one-one else except himself who could object in the appeal period, and so thought he was as good as over the hurdle of planning.
He wasn’t.When it was put to Jacobs that An Bord Pleanala had ruled that ‘it would be inappropriate and impractical’ to control the concurrent use of the existing centre and the one being built – i.e. that the Board didn’t trust either the CC or Mansfield to comply with such a condition, Jacobs initally rejected the inferece, but when pressed on the issue changed the subject.
He also pointed out that the centre wasn’t entirely car-dependent – citing the Tallaght Luas line being ‘just a mile away’!
A handy stroll indeed for 6000 delegates.Saw the picture too in the Indo – like the Palace of Versailles on Prozac.
I was there last night – fantastic!
Just goes to show how great the Spire will look lit.
This type of light show should be made permenent – esp at the Christmas period when it’s dark from 5 o’clock.
Also the plaza was being pressure-washed at 11pm – which was good to see.
David – I saw that string course of yellow brick you referred to before along the line of the bridge at Dundalk Station – so went up behind the wall to have a look the other day – it appears just to be a (bizarre) decorative feature, with no structural significance.
You probably know the bridge beside it was replaced in 2000 or so, but was rebuilt on exactly the same footprint, so the string course appears to be just made up of some leftover bricks that were popped in to mark ground level as seen from the track.Took a really nice walk around the deserted 1840s station too, it’s quite big with ghostly windswept platforms etc – must take some pics and post. The station’s a quite rare example of plain early Victorian architecture – It was used by Bus Eireann as offices in the early 90s but I think only one or two of the rooms are in use now, with most of the building derilict with broken sashes etc – such a shame.
Nothing in the slightest surprising about it.
Also of note not included in the documentary are the amount of illegally built houses in the country – there was a report on Six One a couple of weeks ago about a man and his family who built their house regardless of not securing permission. The LA have served a demolition order on them but the report was nonetheless blatently sympathetic to the family.
Cue father saying ‘I had to provide for my family’ and shots of mother and baby ‘I’ve a newborn child, and they want to knock our home’ – weep weep. How could the system be so cruel?!!?Apparently there’s tens and tens of similar cases around the country. Heaven forbid that RTE should be seen to be anti-rural or anti- the common man. It’s only big bold faceless developers that are bad in this country…
Otherwise an excellent production.
