GrahamH
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10/6/2007
Just some pics of Number 75 at night.
It doesn’t seem to change colour – maybe it’s a different colour each night?
Also its substantial rear, facing onto the NCH.
And for what its worth, the uncoordinated patchwork quilt of Iveagh House a few plots further down. What a shame – it’s almost there.
Well I think it can be at agreed that the cleaning at least has been a success, insofar as the sculpture is now cleaner than what it was.
Before
After
Apologies I’ve no direct comparisons. The whole shaft is like a bright new pin since cleaning, and looks great in the morning sun. The base finish also looks impressive.
However, as can be seen above, and as Andrew mentioned, there’s a giant manky streak running down the northern side of it that looks appalling – how the heck did that develop?! And these pictures were only taken two days after it was cleaned!
Or is it a permanent stain? What a disaster, after such a mammoth operation.
@Peter FitzPatrick wrote:
Any join or roll lines on such a monumental reflective sculpture are completely unacceptable
Exactly. Whatever about the joins of the three/four major sections (in themselves unacceptable), to have all the factory joins also apparent every couple of metres is just a joke – was it ever actually specified prior to construction if joins would be evident?
And the different base section is still the irritating anomaly it always was – why couldn’t the shot peening just have flowed elegantly from tip to base and into the ground, further establishing the novelty of its freestanding construction, instead of the happy clappy decorative base? It just doesn’t make sense with such a structure: it’s the same type of logic you see people use when they paint the ESB box, gas meter and municipal wiring sprawling across their house facade in the same accent colour as the window frames – it’s just ridiculous.
Even so, it’s still also the stunning monument to nothing it always has been, and from a distance looks as magnificent as ever as a focal point for the north inner city. And credit where it’s due, the base is always kept immaculately by DCC]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v219/Dublin1/Spire5-6-200710.jpg[/IMG]
Is now this.
And lampposts also uprooted.
From a conceptual point of view, an absolute farce, and in the context of the rest of the median on the street it looks terrible, but in the broader scheme the median doesn’t work well anyway. Once the side pavement trees fully mature, I think the street could work successfully with no median trees at all. And lampposts are easily moved…
You can’t think correctly :). It is indeed Government Buildings, Phil – well done.
Sculpted by Albert Power. The centre of government power. And a powerful piece of architecture 😉
I can’t think where yours is, Blisterman. Looks like a little garden pavillion in the south suburbs – allbeit with eh, industrial air conditioning plant…
Courage’s snake took a swipe as it drew near, but she managed to grab him just in time.
And finally completed the 120 metre journey 15 minutes later.
Argggh– who forgot to bring up the feckin power jet?!
It took some delicate manoeuvring from below.
Gently guided by ropes…
…being controlled by two additional hands down on the street.
Stopping for a breather halfway up, Jim kindly offered a welcome helping hand.
Talk about stomach-churning!
Sir Grey was tempted to turn and take a peek, but decided to maintain his dignified stance, in spite of the spilling rain.
Hibernia by contrast couldn’t stop craning that long neck of hers, even with the best seat in the house.
Slowly but surely it began to near the top.
It takes quite a bit of Spike Cleaning Agent™ to wash one of these spires down.
The preliminary inspection got underway at about 11.30am. A special horseshoe unit has been specially built for this operation – it’s brand new.
A few last points were checked, notes exchanged, and it was time to go. It lifted slowly and gracefully up off the ground.
And up…
It paused at various stages to catch its breath, before starting up again.
Getting higher and higher, Fidelity couldn’t bear to watch.
Rising high above the street below.
Past the thoroughfare’s canopy of lamp standards.
Some great views to be had from up there.
Fully agreed – it’s great street to live or work near. Always buzzing, and a great mixture of businesses to draw large and diverse crowds. A charming building stock too, and there’s something of a boom of late in high quality shopfronts – though upper floors are still being neglected and need attention. One of DCC’s sole contributions to the street could be done without however – namely more truckloads of mindless silver repro lampposts…
What a day today! The rain was something else – it never stopped once since last night!
Still, the city can look great in the rain: it really brings out colour and texture. And of course adds great drama in attempting to clean a 120 metre pole 🙂
The crane is enormous, though not quite the same height as that that erected the Spire originally. So that’s why so much of the Upper median was left as dead space!
Quite the presence.
Unfortunately it was only the ground floor facade that permission was applied for – the rest of the building, i,e, the worst part (and majority) will remain exactly the same. Because this development only affects the ground floor, this is the only part of the building to be altered. Eircom still occupy all the upper floors.
Still, what is proposed looks promising – sharp new expansive glazing and ‘innovative’ diaplays. Indeed this was a strict condition of Planning, that dead frontage was to be avoided at all costs – so good to see they’re on the ball.
De Paor’s office seem to have designed some pretty funky internal partitions and divisions – here’s one of their images.
© de Paor ArchitectsSo you can see little has changed, but the ground floor facia which is currenty crude concrete is going to be tiled in white tiles, as was orginally the case, to match the parapet above – though surely one of the nastiest features of the building?!
The concrete piers are going to be stripped of the dodgy granite cladding, repaired, and the bare finish waxed down – sounds pretty cool. It should contrast nicely with the expansive glazing and crisp internal partitions. The plan view of the partitions is very angular and sharply skewed, so should make for an engaging view from the street. Planning have also made an exception for this non-retail use, given it ties in with government policy to provide a prominent outlet for the promotion of Irish Aid in the centre of Dublin. I think the IAP also suggested a premises for tourists and foreign visitors to trace their ancestry and Ireland’s international connections, so it’s not a million miles away from such an alternative use.
It’s a shame though that the problem facade is not being addressed by the owner: it probably won’t happen till a new office tenant is being sought. It really is a hideous building – not only ugly in detailing, but also loud and all-consuming – contributing nothing to the subtly-grained character of the street.
Is it just me though, or does anyone recall a fairly recent proposal for new upper elevations for this building – lots of glass and sailing pointy-out bits? Must be somewhere else…
Alas no…
You’re persistent Seamus, I’ll give you that! I forgot all about this 😮
It’s still within the canals, as the rule book states 🙂
Clue of the Day: It’s quite a ‘powerful’ piece…
The delightful scene presented to those attending the Urbanism conference in the Castle during the week.
At least the widening works of the Olympia pavement opposite are finally underway.
Beautiful cycle lane. These cyclists have it too good.
Hi Niamh – from the sound of things, you already know that it’s very possible to get timber windows restored or replaced, and possibly cheaper than total replacement, so no need to persuade you there.
The Irish Georgian Society has a list of experienced joiners on their site. It may seem terribly posh and conservation-focused, but these are all ordinary joiners, many of which do standard carpentry as well as more specialised work. I’d imagine most would be versed in the restoration of windows. If you rang the IGS, they may be able to guide you more specifically.
http://www.igs.ie/register/index.html
Sash Windows Ireland seem to be the biggest restorers nationally, though they don’t endear themselves to me with their promotion of PVC use in old buildings.
http://www.sashwindows.ie/restoration.html
Marvin Architectural are another – don’t know as to their quality.
http://www.marvin-architectural.com/owner/home.html
This post by cobalt is very helpful – it lists many.
https://archiseek.com/content/showpost.php?p=40015&postcount=136
There’s also the Yellow Pages – you’d be surprised…
Some quick-witted individual has gone to quite some effort to make a subtle but pertinent point about Robocop 😀
He he – they’re scattered about its ground floor. Not very many, but just enough to make a point 🙂
How apt in the context of DCC’s acquiesce to ‘temporary’ signage across the city, and the visual blight that unites the two.
Across the road is a more elegant composition, in the form of a crisp infill property now nearing completion.
It ties in nicely with the bumbling grain of this part of Dame Street, with nicely proportioned fenestration, elegant colours and a sharp finish. Just a pity about the ugly first floor door and window unit – cumbersome and ill-designed for such a central feature.
Lovely things, they look like they’re carved from timber!
Just on the matter of the c.1903 swan neck posts erected in Dublin city centre, I hadn’t realised until looking very closely that these posts are the same posts as used for the 1892 arc-lamps as shown below – they were simply re-headed with new lamps on top!
Hence their rather cumbersome top-heavy character.
The only ones to survive in the city today are a handful of posts on Harcourt Street, mixed in amongst later early electrics and repros.
So because the arc lamps lined all the principal streets, so too did the replacement swan necks – from Henry Street…
…to Grafton Street…
…to the corner of the Green (with later attachment).
(and ship building with steel windows).
The Grafton Street picture is from around 1940, so the swan necks possibly survived as late as the early 60s. The only slight sticking point in all of this is that there’s a larger version of this post in the Merrion Square park, which possibly hints at a new set being made for the swan necks, but that’s hardly likely. It’s reasonable to assume that the old posts were pragmatically retained and simply re-headed c.1903. If this is the case, then the post on the top of Cork Hill mentioned in the paving thread astonishingly survives from 1892!
@Devin wrote:
Which is why it’s rather interesting that she despised such an over-designed and tailored new-build house, executed from scratch to the last detail, while then going on to design numerous highly engineered houses of architectural pretension herself. Perhaps it was just the stodgy textbook mock-Tudor regurgitation she disliked – and what person wouldn’t be sad at the loss of their childhood home, especially such an unassuming characterful pile.
Above all else it was her thinking on what home should be that shone through in this programme (clearly made for an international audience too) – certainly a softer, more palatable approach than le Cor. Oddly we got little information about her own apartment in Paris – it seems to have been a standard rambling affair. Does one require a breather from the excesses of early modernism?
Agreed about the transforming table, wearnicehats – what a piece 🙂
This is obscene! It’s truly unbelieveable! 😮
Whatever about one-off instances (even the above taken on a singular basis), it truly beggars belief that an infrastructural scheme that affects so many historic areas doesn’t even have guidelines, let alone a plan or framework for dealing with these historically precious places. It’s like ploughing Luas through a Georgian street without drawing up an EIS, let alone conditions of construction.
What is the exact status of this ‘listing’ of pavements, because the Record doesn’t include them, while the Development Plan doesn’t expressly mention protection either (as in PS status). So is the only recourse left open to complainants after the local authority to contact the Minister and force the enaction of the Plan?
You have to love it:
“In recognition of the importance of these features and the pressure placed on them from road and paving works, Dublin City Council will seek to preserve, repair and retain in situ historic streetscape and paving features of heritage value which are set out in Appendices 8, 9, and 10.”
Precisely Walker. And this pavement is also one of the worst examples in the city of the practice. Not only is it unsightly to look at, it’s also very uncomfortable in any leather-soled shoe – now I know why the princess whinged so much about that pea. You can feel every clumsy ridge in the pavement as you walk over them. And the bollards are absolutely ridiculous – they serve no function whatsoever. Indeed DCC shot themselves in the foot there, because countless taxis pull up at the side door to allow visitors and delegates into City Hall – one would wonder how many near misses with car doors they’ve had.
To add fuel to the fire, last Sunday a bunch of yellow jackets were grouped around a hole they dug in the centre of this very roadway pictured below, apparently changing a drain in the centre. They then ‘finished’ up the job with enormous splodge of tarmac, well over a metre square, dumped smack bang in the middle of the cobbled roadway, right in front of the main entrance to the Castle, City Hall and the Newcomen Bank. And it’s still there a week later.
Even if these surfaces are ‘temporary’, there’s still absolutely no excuse for the original surface not to be immediately reinstated.Incidentally the photo posted by Devin there shows one of the most charming sitings of a lamppost in the entire city – this swan neck one on the corner from c.1903.
@Devin wrote:
I love how it stands so precariously on top of the hill at the very edge of the pavement, especially as you approach from below, and how it so effectively lights the corner too. By its very appearance it is suggestive of developing there organically, simply replacing post after post on the same site. And if we even needed photogrphic evidence, here is the corner around 1900 with its arc-lamp predecessor, installed on all the main streets of Dublin in 1892 🙂
So this almost certainly makes it the oldest surviving post of all the main commercial streets in the entire city! It never fails to astound how a truck hasn’t ploughed into it somewhere along the line. Bizarrely it’s now more at risk from DCC than it is from a runaway vehicle.
Of course it’s very easy to be negative about things, and obviously we can’t expect major regenerative works prior to Luas, but really there is almost no redeeming features whatever to Westmoreland Street of a modern character – it clings desperately to its historic features as a sole aspect of appeal in what has otherwise become a municipal rubbish tip in the centre of the capital. In many ways it’s now worse than O’Connell Street was, because that at least was a destination of sorts, that could be blocked out of the mind, avoided, or dismissed as a planning disaster. But dismal Westmoreland Street lacks that identity, assuming the character of the wider city instead, and as such badly reflects it in its appalling condition. One can almost sense the incredulity of tourists as they enter from the College Green end – what an anticlimax after the gracious mellowed setting of the Lords portico, to walk into such a disaster zone – greeted first incidentally, with this.
Even the retail unit of Bank of Ireland on the corner has been allowed degenerate.
It’s difficult to believe that this was once one of the finest and most innovative streets anywhere in Europe at the turn of 1800, along with its D’Olier Street counterpart. It is also difficult to understand how the most impressive piece of street planning in the Georgian city was mauled by the 1980’s mansard roof addition and destruction of WSC facades. The reinstatement of this composition ought to be encouraged as a one-off correction of a major scar on the city.
But there is simply no excuse for the condition that Westmoreland Street has degenerated into of late – the parts over which DCC has control. Luas is no justification whatever for what has been allowed happen on this thoroughfare: it’s irrelevant. The parallel with Government’s brushing off of planning and transportation disasters with our ‘unparalleled, unprecedented success’ is uncanny. Blame it on the Luas! Indeed.
Only a few properties have seperate access.
Even where stores move away from cheap reproduction and pastiche, they still make use of harsh expansive glazing, exposing all their cheap internal fit-outs to the street.
And as for the worst offender of all, the Londis on the corner of O’Connell Bridge, one of the most prominent buildings in the country, is allowed get away with the most unbelievably inappropriate window displays and store presentation.
It is scandalous that the image of the city and country at large is permitted to be tarnished with such crass promotion – for as long as can be remembered this corner has been like this. Now I’m not a prude by any means, but it’s nothing short of embarrassing to see these ranks of alcohol stacked to collapsing point as the window display of the most prominent store in the country, right beside O’Connell Bridge. As usual, DCC have full control over this if they saw fit to intervene.
And this Londis also breaks nearly every rule in the SAPC book:
“The signage relating to any commercial ground floor use should be contained within the fascia board of the shopfront.”
“Lettering or logos should not be affixed directly to the glazing of any shop or business windows.”
“All sign displays inside the shop should be kept back a minimum distance of 300 mm. from the glazing.”
“Goods or advertisement structures should not be displayed on the public footpath or at the entrance to the shop.”
“Projecting signs will not generally be permitted as a profusion of such signs in a confined area can lead to visual clutter in the streetscape.”
“Not more than one projecting sign should be displayed on a building”
“Signs should depict a pictorial feature or symbol illustrating the trade or business being undertaken and should be as transparent as possible.”
I mean, what is the point? What is the point? And the flowery language regarding strict monitoring and planning enforcement would just make you laugh – it’d actually quite an entertaining read were it not so embarrassing. And of course the same can be applied to most premises the entire length of Westmoreland and O’Connell streets. Guinness have also just opened a tacky store on Westmoreland Street in the past few weeks, having applied for permisson for another typically crude shopfront – they were refused permission, but heck they threw it up anyway. What does this say about how retailers now view DCC? It’s no wonder they hold them in such low esteem – they need only look outside their front door.
And then we have the ICS building across the road (the design in itself a blatent breach of regulations in the mid-1980s) – when is anything going to happen with this?
The down-at-heel environment must surely be one of the contributing factors to the lack of progress with this property.
More hideous frontages further down – all patently illegal on a host of planning levels.
The delightful Queen Anne building also mauled by a myriad of uses and their attendant signage.
What the heck are DCC up to?! And the longer all of this is left, the more there is to clean up when improvement works eventually start in 2038, at which point they’ll then start going on about “oh well it takes time for the public domain works to have a knock-on effect on properties”. And we can see how that enlightened policy is taking off on O’Connell Street…
Thankfully this crossing is largely made impossible during morning and much of the afternoon and evening, when Westmoreland Street transforms itself into one of the city’s unofficial bus depots.
It makes for a very hostile experience with such narrow pavements and a monumental wall of buses lining the thoroughfare. Being clamped in in shadow on the busy narrow western pavement is not a pleasant experience.
It’s just unreal at times.
And of course many of these buses are serving the hundreds of additional people that are further congesting the pavement while waiting at their stops.
Meanwhile the trusty rank of London planes are, as ever, concealing some of the finest buildings on the street.
As for the farce of high summer…
While the rest of the windswept thoroughfare (when the buses eventually pull off) is left cold, barren and unforgiving.
Without question, the most shocking indictment of DCC’s attitude towards Westmoreland Street is the fact that the entire length of the thoroughfare is illuminated with the grand total of three single sodium floodlights. A fourth one is redundant, concealed behind the trees. The street is to all intents and purpose shrouded in darkness after nightfall. There is barely a scrap of public lighting on the thoroughfare, with the majority of the 1970’s floodlights completely out of action. In fact, if none were operating at all, there’s little doubt they’d be left as such regardless. The majority of the street now relies on the pools of light provided by its convenience stores – it’s no wonder they’re increasingly resorting to this crude practice across the city.
And as for the properties themselves – well, where to begin. The notion that this street has been an Architectural Conservation Area for five years now is simply laughable.
Tawdry, tacky signage, shopfronts and retail/service uses predominate the whole way down the street, many of which certainly post-date 2002.
Everywhere you look it’s Tackorama Central, with most of the offenders hosted on fine protected structures.
Look at the state of some of the last surviving Wide Streets Commission buildings.
And as long as these ground floor uses predominate, there’s no way the upper elevations are ever going to be restored to their original condition. Equally, because they don’t relate to the upper floors as they once did as residences, there’s no street access to the upper floors either.
