GrahamH

😀 Yes that just about sums it up.

Wonderful place, however the director did stress that any alterations made would be in the form of additions to the building, and that the original part would conserved pretty much as it is.
A big problem is the lack of flexibility the current space offers – as mentioned, only a tiny fraction of the two million specimen collection is on display. I’d imagine there’s little scope for much rotation with the current state of things.

Lovely building too – much more attractive in its orginal modest form than the bloated National Gallery across the way, though the blind windows at ground level are a shame.

It was cleaned by the OPW last year and looks better still now.

Yes, though by no means complete (the entire central section has yet to be started), the upgrade so far has been little more than a quick mall recladding job, with x amount of apartments tacked on the side.
The non-slip granite flooring in particular looks very cheap and mis-matched, and the Mary Street elevation is also disappointing. Saying that, the refurbished central area combined with much improved Moore and Henry? Malls could be the making of the place, with these two malls in particular being radically changed. Out on Cole’s Lane you can now see the ridiculous one-and-a-half storey height of Moore Mall:

(also this bizarre juxtaposition on Cole’s Lane!)

What is proposed for the Ilac is something not a million miles from what fergalr mentioned there, but more like the Jervis Centre; from The Sunday Business Post four months ago: “The height of the centre will rise by 3.2 metres and two bulkheads in the central part of the mall will be removed. The plan is to create the feel of a full-length street parallel to Henry Street with double height shops all along the passageway.”

http://archives.tcm.ie/businesspost/2005/12/11/story10323.asp

The food-court nature of the Parnell Mall is certainly going to be a challenge…

Back on Henry Street, here’s a very rough idea of what Dunnes are building, composed with the cutting-edge CAD programme Paint.

Can’t say I’d agree Stephen about Henry Street being “monotonous with the endless unified 1917 terrace” – especially with the variety of fine stock directly across the road from it. The 1917 terrace also looks fantastic in the sun with its glowing orange brickwork and crisp limestone features:

If anything it’s the generally blocky, flat and lifeless UK high street shopfronts that need attention along here.

But yes, as a development I too look forward to the finished Dunnes product. It’s been a long time coming when you consider George’s Street, the revamped St. Stephen’s Green Centre ‘Foodhall’, and even flippin North Earl Street! And all the while the chain’s once-flagship store was festering away in the Ilac. It’s going to be the icing on the cake for a now-thriving retail area; All the more reason for the southside to pull its socks up fast.

Just to correct an earlier post, according to the SBP it’s the Moore Mall store that’s to be disposed of and subdivided – you’d wonder for the need of the other large store in that case…

April 2006

So the saga finally comes to an end with yesterday’s announcement:

http://www.irish-architecture.com/news/2006/000094.html

So where is this new auditorium likely to be located in the complex? It’s going to take up a lot of space, and all of the quadrangles have long since been filled in, so it can’t just be slotted into place behind the narrow Earlsfort Terrace block…

The opportunity for a major new facade to the Iveagh Gardens is fantastic though – presumably this will consume in its entirety the substantial, almost derelict service space between the rear of the complex and the Iveagh wall. It seems the new auditorium will have to be placed horizontally along here, parallel to the front block if it’s to minimise consumption of the gardens…

And will the trees and general scrub be cleared away here to reveal views of the gardens? Perhaps for the best given some unsavoury tales of ‘activities’ in this area, but it would a shame to lose the mature winding walk along here all the same, allbeit admittedly in poor condition at this stage.

Anyone know what the interior of the Earlsfort block is like? What will the NCH want with acres and acres of lecture rooms and offices?
I’m in two minds about whether this remnant of the original building phases of the Butler complex should be preserved in the expansion – it’s almost earned a right to be added to the Dublin curiosities list at this stage:

Yes – great stuff there 🙂

Was there a fly past at the end Morlan? We were told at least twice on television that the small contingents of aircraft that kept going by would eventually combine at the end for a full fly past, but it doesn’t seem to have happened!

From a vaguely more architectural perspective, you’d really have to question the use of giant wedding marquees at the GPO, which combined with horribly utilitarian and barricading galvanised metal fencing and supports looked completely inappropriate for such a ceremonial occasion. They looked like something rural parishes cobble together for the Community Games courtesy of the local FF big wig – embarrassing to be honest. And Dublin’s Mayor gliding up to the portico in a silver Megane hatchback?! (:D)

But overall meticulously planned – it was refreshing to hear both Captains Murphy’s and Ryan’s articulate and confident clear English and Irish instead of the usual incompetent bluster of those in Irish public life we’re so accustomed to. The parade also went off without a hitch.

One of the most significant yet simple changes made as part of the O’Connell Street IAP works really came to light during the proceedings – the simple pulling of the west pavement out beyond the columns of the GPO. No longer curtailed by the kerbline, the pillars now all stand on their own feet, landing confidently down on the ground as seperate architectural elements rather than being bundled together as a single unit as the roadway almost forced them to do in the past.
The other improvement that’s not really evident on the street but is very apparent in television aerial views is the tightly knit cobbled surface of the Plaza roadways which is different to the wide paving slabs of the median and side footpaths. The setts are wonderfully evocative of the 1916 era cobblestones that lined the street up till around 1920-30 – they looked great. A pity though the central marquee couldn’t have been moved back to the western roadway of the Plaza instead of straddling the median. The sense of a ceremonial space, the whole purpose of the design, was completely absent 🙁

Some of the Trinity windows below. The majority of the West Front’s old panes, certainly in the non-restored windows, seem to be an early form of cylinder glass, with that typical wrinkled and warped texture like the skin that forms on hot milk:

The only pane of 1750s crown glass above is that in the very top right corner with the very apparent swirls.

The crown glass featured in ‘The Legacy of Light’ seems to be the exception rather than the rule right across the entire 1750s Parliament Square complex incl the West Front. Many non-restored windows also appear to feature quite an amount of modern glass too, though it’s difficult to say how much such was the light at the time. This un-restored W F window seems to feature nearly all modern glass, with only two single panes of cylinder in opposing corners:

Otherwise though, un-restored windows with lots of modern glass do not seem to be that common.

This restored window on the W F features entirely modern glass which is very wavy in appearance, with the exception of a single surviving cylinder pane in the lower sash.

All of the other few windows that have been restored here so far also seem to feature lots of this strange glass. I don’t know if it was here before the restoration. Here’s another example, though this time a lot more cylinder:

Moving inside to the Front Square and the northern block, and again a mixture of cylinder and modern wavy stuff in this restored window:

Pretty much all of these windows in the northern wing feature exactly the same mixture of modern wavy and old cyclinder. No evidence of crown at all. Many of the upper windows in the northern block also feature 1830s horns which might explain the early cylinder in the older sashes below such as that pictured.

So all in all, a difficult one to call without examining all the glass exceptionally closely. There appears to be a difference between very flat modern glass in some windows and more wavy modern glass in others as pictured. If this difference could be confirmed, and the wavy glass distinguished as being only in restored sashes, then there could well be something fishy going on. Either way that wavy modern stuff isn’t very attractive – gives the impression of bendy plastic sheeting. Still, it does seem all of this was there before the restoration, and in the windows I looked at I didn’t come across any really dodgy stuff like that you pictured Devin.

Admittedly crown can look like plastic too in certain light – here’s some lovely stuff surviving high up in the side elevation of the Chapel. Note the blatently modern pane in the top left and the cylinder pane in the bottom left:

Also some stunning cylinder above the central doorway of the northern block:

Thanks for the pic Echium – yes almost without a doubt they are later frames, evidenced as much by the little hoopy hooks as by the fairly decorative horns, the former of which also tended to be later additions (though am not sure what they were used for, maybe suspending the sashes when decorating?).
Your horns are quite restrained all the same, typical of 1850s and early 1860s windows, crossing the line between the basic 1830s/40s style and later post-1860 building boom where they become very rounded and bulky.

To give you an idea of the basic nature of 1820s to 1850s horns, here’s one of the 1844 windows at Connolly Station:

Yes they do feature hoops too, but I imagine them to be later additions, or even the first of their kind, especially considering the Connolly windows are something of an imported style.

So to attempt to sum up your house :), it looks like what were originally Georgian sashes were replaced in the early/mid-1860s with sheet glass windows, going by a) the sheet glass, b) the relatively elaborate horns, and c) the hoops on the underside of the sashes which are so characteristic of post-1850 windows.
However it is just conceivable that the frames you have are still the original Georgian ones – it was very common to cut out the old gridded panes from the main frame and simply insert a clean single sheet of glass rather than going to the expense of fitting entirely new windows. Have a good scan of the sash frames and see if there’s any evidence of filled-in holes! The horns are just about basic enough to maybe scrape it into 1838, though I wouldn’t bank on it!
It’s also possible that the windows may date from much later, maybe even the 1920s when a host of horn styles were in fashion, but I doubt that was the case here: most people jumped at the chance to change out-dated 1830s/40s Georgian grids as soon as it became affordable, especially in scenic areas like Dun Laoghaire.

Are there any other examples of older windows on your street, or modern replacements that give a clue as to what was there before? As for what to do now, a tricky one. It’s very possible Georgian sashes were removed in order to install the aluminiums in the basement – but obviously also possible that Victorian sheets were taken out. If you can find out for certain about the 1838 windows, then personally I’d go with Georgian grid replacements. If you can contact the previous owners, even better!