GrahamH
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They are the originals, ‘originals’ referring to approx 1860/70, I’m talking about the smaller ones, around the pavement that encircles the Green, rather than the 70’s ones replacing the tall, silver posts once positioned across the road on the other pavement surrounding the Green.
Also, on top of those granite bollards, the metal tips have been replaced with new metal tips, but this time with hooks/hoops attached. Does this mean the OPW are going to chain off the pavement from the road? How are you supposed to get from your car onto the pavement?There’s quite an impressive Victorian sewage tunnell beneath Westmorland Street that’s walkable through, although not as impressive as Bazelgette’s in London, it’s big by Irish standards.
The bizarre thing about the Ilac Centre is that, the ghastly concrete wall which forms the building at first floor level is, well, just that, a concrete wall. I have seen an aerial view of the building, and the majority of it is just one storey in height. The upper part is just a wall which forms a hollow enclosure over the roof, there isn’t even any purpose to it!
There’s no reason why Dublin cannot reach for the skies in the Docklands, or at the western side of the city, but it is essential that a low rise character is maintained in the immediate city centre, there is more than ample space in the Docklands to cater for the city’s housing crisis. As for office space, sure theres acres of empty offices all around the city at the moment.
The O’CLL Street development team are being very ambiguous and inconsistant on this. They keep saying that the existing trees are too big for the street and are obliterating the buildings, and yet they are proposing that equally tall trees (although slenderer) be planted even closer to the buildings at the edge of the footpaths! Smaller clipped lime trees are to be placed down the centre. Still, I do think that the existing trees are far too overwhelming, indeed a good many were only planted in the 60’s and 80’s, what I do not agree with is the breaking up of the street with a central plaza. The overall effect of O’ Cll Street, relies nearly entirely upon it’s fantastic continuity, as does any similar boulevard.
Why was the tower & terminating spires removed? Looking at Arnotts the other day, if you stand back from it, you can see stunning original large display windows, with cut stone dressings that are obliterated with that nasty 60’s canopy at ground floor ceiling level. Also that offensive vertical 70’s
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sign does the building no favours.Arnotts was assembled over the 19th century with a collection of standard Georgian buildings (no’s 11-15 Henry Street), then called Cannock, White & Co, with John Arnott as part owner, and took over the store in 1865. A massive fire in 1894 destroyed all the buildings, and the present day structure was built in 1896, making it now the oldest & now largest dept store in Ireland.
Exactly, the tarmac is awful and covered in chewing gum. The balustrading is filthy dirty, as are the traffic/pedestrian light-posts. Some decent granite paving, street furniture and the restored lamp standards would make the world of difference to the bridge, and make an impressive statement at the entrance to
O’ Connell Street.There’s quite an impressive Victorian stone sewage tunnell beneath Westmoreland Street, not as large as Bazelgette’s in London, but still walkable through, approx 4 feet wide and 10 feet high.
As far as I can remember, the Virgin Megastore is being completely overhauled, with a large new ground floor store/department store, and a lot of apartments going overhead.
I was up in Liberty Hall last week as well, the city really hasn’t changed much at all, still as like bombed out Beruit as ever. Dull, drab concrete monstrosties dominating the skyline, the cherry on the cake of course being Hawkins House,like a beacon, standing for everything Stalinist. Whatever about it’s appearance from street level, from above it is truly ghastly.
Anne Graham says the delays to the spire are a result of the strike in the steel factory in France, and earlier on due to the lack of an EIS & the High Court etc.
I agree about exterior of the building, and about the new terminal, which is bland and lifeless, the egregious silver panelling being pawned off as being ‘modern’ or ‘contemporary’, rather than it just being the cheapest option. But also from a practical point of view, it fails miserably. There isn’t a single seat in the entire terminal where one can wait for arrivals, or while queueing for a train, other than taking up a table in the cafe. The toilet facilities are utterly impractical, badly designed, and inadequate to cater for up to 700 people alighting from the Enterprise service at peak times. And as for the platform in the 1840’s terminal, most people simply cannot walk upon it in wet conditions, as smooth glossy tiles were laid down in the ‘improvements’, that are lethal when wet. It is truly bizzare (and could only happen in Ireland) that a platform, a structure specifically designed and in existence for people to walk safely along the tracks, can do anything but allow people along them safely, in wet conditions. Most people have to walk upon the roadway that runs alongside the platform.
Apparently, even though the Spike has passed the design stages and is nearing completion, the City Council/engineers are still trying to figure out how to put the thing up!
When’s the Hawkins House facelift going to get under way, Ireland’s greatest attempt at Stalinist architecture? I note that there are no plans, suffice to say, to chop the top three storeys off the building, which impose themselves in the most ghastly way imaginable onto Burgh Quay, directly over it’s finest 18th century building. Why can’t the Department do the decent thing and level the building, and relocate to the vast tracts of vacant office space elsewhere in the city? The building is standing on some prime real estate that could release some much needed funds for the Dept of Health.
