GrahamH
Forum Replies Created
- Posts
😀
Damn you LOB!!! Begone! –>
Very good, Aldborough House it is.
(the gate lodge to the right)
Can’t believe it took that long – gave the date away, quality masonry, late Georgian sashes, an air of tragedy to the place, Earl Stratford or rather his wife very much the Abbington set of the age – what more do you want?!
Yez are losing your touch 😉So it’s coming down already 🙁 😡
It really goes to show the extent to which architectural heritage protection lies in the hands of wholly inexperienced councillors, who, even in spite of the (almost by definition) expert opinions of those proposing additions to the Record, see fit to vote these things down.
Why was the Hotel voted out? The only conceivable reasons are either an objection by the Port, or by the councillors themselves who didn’t want to ‘unduly hinder’ the development of the port.
A truly depressing state of affairs. The hotel looks even more impressive in the above photo 🙁
A typically parochial, dewy eyed piece of journalism too.Louth shares its Conservation Officer with Meath.
Yes, they’re fascinating buildings aren’t they? So unusual – there’s about five of them lining the road.
I’ve relatives who live a rambling Edwardian semi-d in the village (with incredibly rare original bench toilet in the bathroom, as well as surviving outside toilet :)) who told me who built the houses but can’t remember who!
The Railway company obviously built much of the housing in the village so maybe it’s possible these larger ones were the ‘executive’ branch of its property arm, built in tandem with the development of the newly fashionable golf course?Odd sums up Greenore very well Frank – in a way it’d remind you of Royston Vasey in The League of Gentlemen 😀 – a former industrial village isolated and forgotton about, preserved almost as originally built, shielded from the influences of the modern world. You can see just how isolated it is, up there on the north side of the nose of the seahorse:
Yes, secondary glazing certainly can work quite well. A goodexample would be the former ICS building at the junction of Westmoreland and D’Olier Streets.
Inside it has impressive timber frames independent of the main windows that aren’t that visible from outside.
Also they’re not plastic :rolleyes:
Indeed they’re well carved as I remember, with attractive metal catches and little handles, all of which open inwards in casement style. They look so sensitive they might even be original.
I imagine their purpose is as much to do with blocking out the traffic noise as it is for insulation.Luas must avoid O’Connell Street at all costs. The only advantage would be to move the truckloads of buses sitting along the thoroughfare night and day.
Not that there’s that many though, there’s only some here:
…and, okay some here:
…and yes, fair enough, a few more here too:
(and a couple more down there)
O’Connell Street borders on lunacy at peak times – it morphs into the giant 1980s bus terminus that never was, just disguised as a fancy boulevard.
At least things quieten down after dark – makes it marginally easier to get a clean view of the GPO and its new floodlighting:
(Apologies for the poor quality as I had no tripod nor time)
For all the light-fittings’ nasty impact during the day, their effect when operational is undoubtedly very impressive!
The balustrading is also beautifully illuminated.
Clearly LEDs, they cast an intense white light up onto the cornice as well as the upper façade in a very even fashion:
Most impressive, though I’m still not convinced about it being worthwhile considering the fittings’ impact in daylight hours – surely more discreet lamps could have been devised? Also, only this single type of lighting was trialled on the building – no other form of uplighter was tested in situ that could have yielded similar results without such an intrusive impact on the string course.
The lanterns look great too – not at all blue as might be expected by their new glass:
And as Andrew mentioned, the clock does indeed light up : )
Very nice.
A bit late now, but it was repeated on Monday night as usual.
Quite the charmer, he went down very well with the audience.
His planning record was quite vigourously questioned, and on the unauthorised frame of the conference centre he was quite reflective about it all. He retold the story fairly but said little more. He said he’s not in the least concerned about the Spencer Dock National CC, that there’s ample business to go round, and that we could do with 5 or 6 conference centres there’s so much demand. Also the National CC was so long in the pipeline and with so much footdragging that he wasn’t going to wait any longer – which is a fair point from his perspective.His planning difficulties at Weston were painted as being essential, relatively minor or relating to proceedure.
🙂
One name change that has caused too much confusion to be healthy is Pearse Station – the amount of people that call it Pearse Street Station in unbelieveable. It’s a bit pointless as a result, as it has simply been moved from being named after one street to being named after another, rather than a person! (directly).
It’s a shame in a way as an equal amount of people now don’t appear to have the faintest idea as to the name of Westland Row.Enough! Enough! 🙁
Yes that Aungier St building is particularly horrible – pass it regularly mourning the loss of early divided plate windows: relatively rare in commercial buildings.
The Athy ones are even worse as the thing about small towns and villages is that the damage is so much more apparent; PVC has an appalling impact on such intimate streets and small unassuming buildings that rely almost entirely on their fenestration for architectural coherence.Some more muck in Dundalk.
Before on Park Street:
…and after next door:
A lovely little Dundalk Georgian ravaged by plastic:
And a few meteres up the road, a typical picture in many Irish towns – render stripped, iron rainwater goods replaced with plastic, PVC windows of course, synthetic slates on the roof, and twee country kitchen protective steel window guards, again probably in place of iron originals:
And this type of thing is by no means confined to small domestic structures – some of Dublin’s most prestigious heritage buildings are affected by nasty plastic secondary glazing, including Trinity’s West Front and the Royal College of Surgeons below:
This is mostly true, though exactly how architects have a role in this considering many developers don’t even employ them in the first place I’m not quite sure. Then again, as we are seeing, housing developments are increasingly being marketed as ‘architect designed’, as if something to be trumpeted from the rooftops, in spite of the units often being more or less the same as any other humdrum fare going up about the place – just this time round some prestige plum brick is being used with a matching a cobble-lock driveway.
Generally speaking though, housing with an architect involved immediately sees an improvement in proportions especially, and materials used – though this could be as much down to the influence of type of developer who is willing to use architects in the first place as it is the architects themselves.
Still, what a house, a dwelling place, should look like is still very much perceived though traditional glasses by the public in general – this above all hasn’t changed in the slightest. It’s still the pitched roofed, multi-chimneyed model that dominates the public mindset, and is going to continue to be built as long as there is demand for it. Considering a home is one of a person’s most basic needs, naturally they’re going to go for the most comforting, familiar, reassuring model possible, so I’m not sure how this is going to change.It’s ridiculous the way apartment living is still held with such contempt amongst large swathes of the population in 2006. Any time you pass a development of them going up with other people you hear the usual ‘more bloody apartments’ and affected sighs. In the media in general in Ireland apartment living is equally ridiculed – referred to as apartment ‘blocks’ with all the loading the term infers, or talked about in a manner suggesting the destruction of our towns and cities, and how it’s a disgrace that such ugly modrin buildings are allowed to be built in my shopping district that I now have to look at for an hour on Saturday before driving home to my sprawling suburb, the birthplace and be all and end all of what a dwelling place should be.
Even on the train recently talking to someone as pulling into Connolly Station we were looking at the gradually rising 5/6 storey apartments going up in Spencer Dock and alongside the Northern Line, and it was suggested that ‘Dublin is going to the dogs with the density of things nowadays, people being shovelled in cheek by jowl’ etc! 😮
Also recently on the train (you’d have been in heaven PDLL) I frantically gasped for help, clawing at the windows pinned in against the wall as three people at the table started chatting about building or their newly finished one-off houses, positively glowing roigsht about the sites and their septic tanks and fitted kitchens. One man also had a friend who’s just completed a mansion of a place, a MANSION of a place in case you didn’t hear, outside Drogheda. Apparently you can see it from the second bridge on the motorway – modern Ireland personified.
Anyway, aside from the most unusual yellow and black glossy kitchen units that must have cost a fortune, he’s alas having his fair share of problems too as the neighbouring farmer, for whatever bizarre reason, decided to leave his cattle roaming freely across his land, only they all decided they didn’t want grass any more and wandered over to this new spectacle on the landscape and proceeded to strip all the leaves from his new hedging surrounding the site :D. Most of it had to be replaced 😀 😀 😀
Oneself had to suppress the sniggers with a cough or three.
These urbanites and their fancy notions – I don’t know…Wow – that is impressive Phil! With those dormers it had to be early 20C, but was impossible to think where!
The IÉ building seems so obvious now too 😮 – the dome is such a charming landmark in the area, as is the building as a whole.
The most challenging yet Morlan 🙂Though this is still outstanding – it’s not the Gate either I’m afraid Stephen.
It dates from about 15 years later…
Is E on the corner of College Green and Trinity Street?
B is of course the Provost’s House.
Is F the former Richmond Hospital/Dublin Metropolitan Courts? Doesn’t seem to be any of the Iveagh Buildings…
oooh the RDS is a good guess.
But no 😀
Last clue then, that’s going to give it away: there’s an air of Greek tragedy to this place…
Also just thinking – 1919 is the date the CC have (incorrectly) published for the reduction of all the O’Connell Bridge lanterns due to ‘safety concerns’. Maybe this is where the date came from to lend the story some credibility.
What’s very irritating is the manner in which the median is lazily being used as a materials store in spite of being as good as finished for many many months, while pedestrians are forced to walk through mountains of muck and rough surfaces either side. At one stage on the western side it was like being in the countryside, with office workers in heels tottering about in farmyard conditions – and all the while the median finished but occupied by crates and reels of piping, and not even that much of it.
Even to open part of it would’ve been something, but the whole upper median up to Cathal Brugha St has been fenced off for months on end with materials randomly scattered the whole way along which could have been centralised.But at least it’s all finally coming to an end now. The McDowell corner is just nearing completion (with mosaic intact :)), while pretty much everywhere else is done. Just street furnishings to be put in, including those ubiquitous urban renewal median lampposts. The amount of clutter they generate around Parnell Monument is very disappointing – pics soon. The new trees marching along the side pavements look great, while the side lampposts are also going in.
Funny all the same 😀
A clever, if rather bizarre prank. Can’t claim to have noticed the plaque itself, but certainly know the gap that it fills – a nasty rectangular hole with an even deeper smaller hole set into it as I recall. Been there for a while, often stuffed with crisp packets and the like. It always looked rather strange being just right of centre on the parapet, and of course it being there in the first place :rolleyes:
It ought to be removed though – you can’t have such a leg-pulling plaque in such a prominent location. It also makes a mockery of commemorative structures erected with genuine intentions, even with the good spirit it seems to have been made in – I like the ‘erected by the HSTI’ part 🙂
The amount of attention this was receiving yesterday on the bridge was remarkable, all seemingly on the back of a single news report the night before at the bottom of this page:
http://www.rte.ie/news/2006/0508/9news.htmlNow if the CC would lavish the same professional resources on the simple matter of the missing baluster we might actually get somewhere. The same goes for filling the nasty hole the plaque is neatly tidying up.
Lovely windows KerryBog2 – esp being a big fan of that continental casement format :). What makes them of course is the feature that is also mentioned on their site: the all-important sight-lines of the functioning parts being maintained with the rest of the frame, so there’s no bulky or otherwise different opening parts evident. Makes the world of difference.
Also shallow casements like these generally don’t alter the appearance of a building when opened like top-hinged windows do, as the angle created is hidden at the top and bottom of the open window maintaining the straight lines of the surrounding facade, whilst top-hinged ones crudely break them by their angles blatently protruding from the wall.You’d still know yours are alu-clad, but not in a bad way though :). Nice use of tan paint there on the skirting – adds something different to what is usually a rather predictable yellow.
Nope, nope and nope.
To give a clue, if the owners/occupiers of this/these building/s were around today, the Citywest complex would be one of their favourite haunts.
Also they’d live in Abbington in Malahide.Thanks for the link KerryBog2 – they appear a very professional company.
So are these the windows in your new(ish) house you mentioned before? A pity about the rather obvious double-glazing strips, they are of course regulation now anyway, but overall I agree they look very well. Would it be possible to get a picture of the all-important aluminium to the exterior?
(glad to see you’re not a pearl candle-bulber :))Agreed not all modern windows look flat, nor did I say this was the case. Rather it is the standard aluminium and PVC replacement frames that look like bland inserts – they contribute little to the appearance of buildings. The same can be said even of steel windows too, only in their case the multitude of glazing bars often employed generated their own decorative effect that helped overcome this.
But modern timber and alu-clad timber windows are generally highly flexible and can be adapted to many building forms and architectural contexts in a way that conventional market-driven muck cannot.Thank you Devin for your as-ever refined contribution re the horn. You can be quite a pane sometimes, pulleying people’s legs – everything just has to hinge on smut when you’re around, yet everyone else can keep it at bay, so just shutter it would you. You’ll be getting a box the next time, and feel the full weight of it let me tell you. Keep your acts of fenestration to yourself in future.
@Paul Clerkin wrote:
is F the carmelite church on Aungier Street?
Well spotted – kind of obscure.
As is poor old Plunkett on Kildare Place (B):
F should be fairly easy – some high quality masonry going on there…
