GrahamH
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I can see it, from only 3 storeys up in Aungier Street, and its only half built! It’s finish is exquisite from a distance, it’s always reflecting the light at the slightest hint of sunshine and looks stunning.
I suspect the real vandals will not be spray painters/joyriders etc, but rather little kids, scratching the base with coins/rings etc.Passed the Spire this morning, and I have to say I was very disappointed with the condition of the steel. It looked manky dirty with what appeared to be massive water-marks streaking down the sides, even though it was’nt wet. The amount of join lines is also very disappointing, when mentioned previously, I thought it was only referring to the joins of the 20m sections, but actually all of the factory joins are starkly evident, every few metres.
Saying that, from a distance, the glow of the morning light on the steel looked quite spectacular.With regard to Connolly Station, the ‘mess’ I referred to was the building itself. Whilst the Italinate tower is very beautiful, it has long been acknowledged as a very cumbersome, disproportionate, and poorly designed building. It’s Wicklow Granite is also of a poor quality. Anyway, a new vista is now being created with the Spire, which is possibly best, considering the existing one dosn’t work, due to the fall in levels. The Spire aptly steps in at the half-way mark, as the Pillar did.
A couple of points, you may or may not have known.
In the original plans for the Spire, the surrounding pavement/base was to be hollowed out, lined with black Kilkenny marble, and filled with 40 litres of mercury!(under glass of course). It would have been spectacular, only it was considered unsafe, and the current cast bronze base was deemed more appropriate.
The height of the Spire, in relation to sea level, is actually lower than RTE’s mast in Donnybrook, even though its only 100m high, compared with the Spire’s 120m.
It will not be visible at all from Merrion Square, and will not be ‘noticable’ from Rathmines, or Heuston to the west. It will be clearly visible from Mountjoy Square to the north and the East Link Bridge to the west, as well as from Trinity.
A point that I havn’t heard made is that the Spire is going to remove forever, the longest vista in Ireland, and one of the longest in Europe, the Mary Street-Jervis Street-Henry Street-North Earl Street-Talbot Street axis, which is a kilometre in length, incredible for an urban area. Not that it is particularly spectacular or anything, especially considering the mess the Victorians made of it’s focal point, Connolly Station.
Henry Moore, Earl of Drogheda would not be amused.
At the moment, a lot of effort is going into fixing the terrible mistakes made in the 1960s & 70s, such as refacing inappropriate office buildings and developing vacant sites & neglected areas. Public & private transport is the major issue and looks set to be that for another 2 decades as plans are delayed, put back, over-running on cost and some just scrapped.
Yes, the steel studs are used all over the UK, and look very well, esp in contrast with granite paving.
Dosn’t concrete have those nasty seams down the centre, that tend to be filled with tar or somesuch?
I take strong issue with the manner in which the CC are ripping up the antique flags in the city centre at pedestrian crossings, and replacing them with those ridiculous red ‘non slip’ slabs, that extend right back, unneccessarily, to the back of the pavements. They not only clash with the remaining flags, but also destroy the character of the area in which they are laid. The same have been laid in vast quantities at the entrance corners to Stephen’s Green, amongst the refined new granite paving, and they look terrible, esp from the upstairs of the buses. Have they no sense of taste?Although Harcourt Street is a strong contender for the best worst road in Dublin, esp on the bus, have you ever been down Adelaide Road on a bus with a driver determined to make the lights?!! Holy God!!!, I’m missing 4 front teeth from hitting the handle on the seat infront. Well worth the 1.20 though, if you can get a ride like that every time.
I’m not quite as impressed with it’s height as I thought (considering the height of the crane), although i’ve been looking at the pictures and proposals so many times that I suppose I have become immune to amazement about its size. Still going to look great though.
The next piece should be positioned on/between Saturday and Monday.Paul Cunningham’s report on the Nine O’ Clock news was very hum-drum, not even a date for the next pieces, esp considering he was talking to everyone under the sun there yesterday. RTE’s typical neglect of reportage on our built surroundings.
I’m surprised so few of you came out to see it being positioned, I suppose some people have to work! There was a brilliant atmosphere there, with about 200 people watching on (199 being media!) The crane started lifting at 9.15, and it was vertical in about 10mins. It took until 10.10 for it to be in fully in position, when everyone cheered. I could see who I belive was the City Architect and friends, standing on the roof of Ann Summers, whilst cameramen were sitting 5 storeys up on window sills and cornices, clinging for dear life onto their 150,000euro Betacams! Other people were on rooftops, holding onto chimneys. I had to make do with ground level, my trusty SLR and videocamera
As said earlier, the first piece is just taller than the GPO’s pitched roof, and is wrapped in what looks like the worlds largest bin-liner. O’ Connell Street Project Manager Ann Graham was there and told me the next piece won’t be going up for quite a number of days. They are hoping to get 3 pieces up before Christmas and the remainder in the first few days of the New Year.If you cared to read a little more in depth Ciaran, you will find that I used the term ‘poor little paddys’ merely as a response to the suggestion by another contributer that Northern cities are miserable places to live as a result of the British. As for your remark about being pettily competitive, I never mentioned or even suggested anything about being competitive.
I accept that I have created the impression of the Brits being perfect, of course they are far from it, and that a lot of the architecture they left is not unique, albeit impressive. What I really meant to say is that there appears to be little vision over here, great foresight, or a desire to aspire to asthetically pleasing civic spaces, despite some exceptions, and not just in comparison with the UK but with most European countries. Things are changing, although very slowly.Yeah, the road ripper-uppers are a problem, and so in other places, services are placed underneath pavements instead (although pedestrians are then affected), something that can’t be done in a lot of Dublin due it’s ‘antique pavements’, which is good. Although in most other countries they are told in no uncertain terms where to get off. Most immediate city & town centres are rarely, if at all, dug up though, so there is little excuse for the City Council.
Brilliant photo fjp, the Spike rising out of the Georgian city, reaching for the skies. Oh, I feel a tear coming on, if you will excuse me….
Oh come on, poor little paddys still suffering at the mercy of the Brits in Derry & Belfast? I ‘m obviously referring to our built surroundings. Can you imagine the physical state of our cities, towns & villages had the English not assumed control. Can you just imagine… Do you honestly think that the Irish would have been capable of building in their own unique style, or indeed built at all, sure we could’nt even do it in the 20th century!
Its just they look unfinished, like motorway lamposts. As long as they are painted/coated in a matt, even finish, I’ve no objections. Theres a nasty habit in this country of not finishing street furniture & pavements etc to a high standard, and these being the very elements we all see at close range.
The pylons are restrained and elegant, structurally, and should work well.In reality, we (or rather the powers that be) are utterly incapable of operating a nation or state. Its as simple as that. The only time anything was done properly in this country was under British control.
Not meaning to bore the arse of you, but when the Home Rule Bill was finally drafted in London in the 1880s, the main reason it was rejected was because a majority of MPs belived that the Irish were simply incapable of self-governance, and dissapointingly they have been proved utterly correct.
And it is manifest most evidently in our built surroundings.Whatever about the rest of the country, I can never ever see Dublin being fixed, ever, with regard to architecture, transport, planning regulations, street furniture, housing, historic appriciation, litter, rezoning, street lighting/floodlighting, the Liffey, the Quays, Stephen’s Green, North Inner City…….. and fundamental civic pride.
I love this city, I’ve been studyng it’s development for years, I know virtually every building, lamppost and structure in the city centre, when they were built, why and by whom. Which is why I’m so constantly disgusted, so dissillusioned, so sick of hoping, so tired of waiting, so ready to give up on this place we call a city. I’m not quite there yet, but purely through nievity.
In relation to the Spire, I know its a bit late at this stage, but in the whole debate surrounding the structure at the beginning, not once was the major question of the complete lack of need for any structure or focal point in O’ Connell Street raised. The idea that the street has had an empty void at its centre for the past four decades, after the removal of Nelson’s Pillar, is ludicrous. The whole effect of the street relies in its continuity, its streamlined, ‘stretching into the distance’ effect.
Nelson’s Pillar was a ghastly stout Doric pillar, perched on top of an unadorned chunky granite block, the size of a semi-d, (this coming from a person renouned for favouring all things classical). But as always, the rose- tinted spectical wearing sentimentalists won over (albeit 40 years later), and insisted upon a new monument. We should have grasped the opportunity to redevelop the street in a manner that accentuates its impressive, unbroken length and continuity, & ditched any plans for a monument. Saying that, if any structure was to go into O’Connell Street, the Spire is by far the one I would chose, it being the most elegant, refined, and dignified modern structure I have ever seen, a wonderful manifestation of classicisim, modernisim and fundamental good taste. A triumph of modern architecture.The Nine O’ Clock News on Friday said the building begins this week and should be finished by next Friday (20th).
It was very unsucessful. I’ve never come across anything more tacky than the use of gaudy green light to illuminate the arches and piers, and orange light for the balustrades. O’ Connell Bridge has been destroyed with cabling, connection boxes, brackets and clips. Are we supposed to see the cut stone features but not notice the crap tacked onto bridge? Look at the state of it the next time you pass. All of the city’s bridges should be lit in pure brilliant white light from the quay walls, and the balustrades lit with those discrete white strip lights, instead of the current orange. Dublin & the Liffey is very compact & intimate, with many bridges. Imagine how spectacular it could be at night, esp enhanced with lanterns at regular intervals the whole way along the quaysides, from the Custom House to James’s Gate, like along the Thames in London.
About those underground toilets behind
O’ Connell Monument, is that what those weird black ventilation yokes are for, sticking up onto the central median? They look like two big black mushrooms, for want of a better example. How exactly were they accessed?No way should the ads remain, all ads are naff regardless of their scale or whereabouts, The painting of the bridge alone, in a light grey/ white colour, or the same off-white as the
Ha’ penny bridge would make for a major improvement and lessen its impact substantially. Its illumination at nightime would make for a dramatic feature, in what is a very dark and dingy area after 5 o’ clock, around Tara Street Station. However white light is needed, none of that crappy orange light that destroys every other building after dark, and illumination of the whole structure is needed with large beams of light, no miserable little uplighters lined along its base, half of which will be blown before the electrician gets off his ladder.
