GrahamH
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Ah the colour of the Imperial – a long-held fascination with the people of Dundalk, a North-Eastern version of the Eiffel Tower or Fourth Bridge colouring debates 😀
As far back as I remember when first coming in contact with the hotel, it was a dirty green colour in the late 80s, then I think it was orange and/or pink at a later stage, followed by a distinguished cream which was by far the best recently, only for the current Celtic Tiger obligatory sunny yellow to appear about 2 years ago perhaps (when the PVCs went in).
The side elevation has got a lick of paint in the refurbishment – the front may have too.Also some pics of the Imperial Hotel in all it’s ‘refurbished’ splendour – the grand total of nothing was done to its exterior above ground floor level – despite a whopping €14 million being spent on the scheme.
It still dominates the town as ever with the plant room on top, as well as Park Street itself:
Indeed such was the superficial level of renewal, the 70s aluminums weren’t even replaced in the upper two floors!
(PVC was put in a few years ago on the lower ones)And instead of the impact of the plant room being negated by the local authority, it was made even worse by the addition of an astonishing array of phone antannae in recent times. This is what constitutes planning in Ireland in 2005; a disgraceful state of affairs.
What’s always made me laugh about the Imperial is that unlike in Dublin or other ‘civilised’ places ;), when the Imperial was planned for the very heart of Dundalk’s historic centre, the building’s set-back was put at the front of the building rather than the rear!
It towers to six storeys above the muddling little 19th century buildings on Park St, yet falls away to four storeys to the back – what should be at the front!
Challenging convention seems to be something of a pastime up north 🙂I’d say no for some reason….
…though it maybe postmodern ironic or somesuch in which case we have a masterpiece in the making.
How did the dirvers even get over to the Northbound lanes?!
Stephen I think the aesthetics of Upper O’Connell St are of the utmost importance, and should not be considered lightly as they seem to be in the case of putting the taxi rank back.
You do not place a rank of cars along both sides a central pedestrian space, and especially not in what is suposed to be an ordered and coherent environment.
I don’t think the pedestrian has been highlighted enough – this is a pedestrian space, not one to be used by service providers out of sheer convienience. It is being reinserted for purely historical reasons – it was there before so it has to go back in now – despite the fact that the whole point of this scheme was to turn our backs on the days of Upper O’Cll St being an urban backwater that could have a taxi-rank thrown at it.The median is for pedestrians, to be used as an alternative less hectic route for moving along the street – not as a glorified taxi platform which is what it was, and what it is going to be.
As Thomond Park suggested, the Gate location provides the perfect platform for access to the rest of the city, as does Sackville Place to a lesser degree. Also when one thinks of the acres of echoing space on Middle Abbey Street, and the variety of other side streets, it increasingly becomes more and more ludicrous that what is probably the largest taxi rank in Dublin City Centre be plonked right in the middle of the capital’s principal, ordered, proprtioned thoroughfare as part of an integrated renewing scheme.
Renewing, not rehashing.
Well I was innocently taking a few pics of the Cathedral the other day, only to notice something in the corner of my eye.
Looks like St Patrick’s has a new competitor on the Dundalk skyline 😮
The new ‘The Marshes’ shopping centre to the rear on Ramparts Road :rolleyes:
Castle Howard comes to Dundalk.
…only this is no Vanbrughian theatrical fantasy, but rather that of a large developer consortium – as evidenced by the arrival of the porticos the other day:
(apologies for the poor images – the usual am-I-going-to-be-on-the-news brigade were somewhat off-putting)
…and the insertion of the imitation Pompeian remains:
Can’t wait to see the finished article in November!
Yes the BBC scheme is going to be fantastic upon completion – without doubt the most advanced in the world.
What about likkle old RTÉ and its Montrose campus Graham, or is it too old for what you’e looking for?
Three builsings of significance – the Admin Building, the Television Centre, and the Radio Centre (most recent).The recent STW office building is nothing spectacular – doesn’t live up to the same firm’s original buildings on site, but the interior is nice.
At last your statue is getting some TLC Stephen – I take it from your many previous posts that you kinda like it 🙂
It’s a fine piece alright, a great shame about the fountain not being operational for so long – I don’t even remember it ever working!
It could be spectacularly lit from below too – lots of opportunity there in the base.Another blow to the character of Westmoreland St, though I must admit to liking the replacement too – though it goes rather flat and cluttered above the cornice line of the third floor; it’s much more distinguished below that. A facade that should age well – whatever about the less ‘clean’ job on the College St side…
What I’ve never got about this scheme though is why Treasury wanted to demolish these three facades – was it just to create a unified entrance block in the centre?!
Gah – out with you! –>
🙂
Very striking images there Morlan – you captured the first 3-arm one just at the right time with that shaft of sunlight creeping in! What a fine collection of lamps they have.
If only we had ones like them, or these, in Dublin:
oh wait…
Ever since that rendering of the Alto Vetro was first posted months ago, no matter what way it is viewed I have found it equally as poor as the other one: it looks like a Benidorm apartment block – with net curtains.
Does anyone have a better image that proves just how wonderful it really is?!
Then again, it’s the buses that are the worst culprits in Dublin City bar the trucks on the quays for generating noise and intimidating people.
It is these supposedly untouchable public service vehicles that make so much of the capital unpleasant for pedestrians – not private cars.I’d have O’Connell St packed full of cars any day over the comparitively meagre amount of buses there presently – same with Westmoreland Street.
That’s unbelieveable!
On D’Olier St!
In 2005!
On a Wide Streets Commisssion streetscape!?!The audacity of the owner or tenant, and the cheek of the PVC company who one can be guaranteed knew exactly what they were at! 😡
On closer inspection you can see why they did it – the lower sash on the right was as good as detached from the frame:
Pity the image couldn’t be better – was taken on a banjaxed 1m camera.
Yes the image was taken on the 1st or 2nd (probably 2nd) of February 2005 – if you need anything else I’ll be happy to oblige.This is a practice that still seems to be commonplace – the insertion of PVCs into the uppermost floors of Georgians where they supposedly won’t be seen – there’s even quite a few on Merrion Square that seem comparitively recent!
It’s the loss of original fabric that gets me – you’d think original stock in the city centre would be immune from this sort of thing in this day and age 😡
😀
Yikes! Drool or what! 🙂
Beautiful images, particularly the second one – what lovely detailing.
Those lamps are interesting outside Govt Buildings there in that they are but a set of many such lamps around the world’s capitals that have been specifically designed for public spaces, or to tie in with municipal/government buildings.
Right across Europe and seemingly South America you see them a lot – or in the US the lamps outside the Capitol spring to mind.
Or the Mall & Palace in London, or outside the Parliament Building in Vienna etc etc.Unfortunately a practice that never developed in Ireland 🙁
It was where it always is – on the bathroom radiator shelf 😮 😀
Fully agreed – I love schemes like this on elaborate buildings that give it a totally new lease of life after dark – in many ways reflecting the architect’s intention to create something fantastical.
It’s a treatment I generally do not like to see applied to sober classical set-pieces, but Victorian and Edwardian architecture was just made for this sort of ‘highlighting’ lighting scheme, with all of their nooks, crannies and high-relief features.You really hate that practice don’t you Niall 🙂
Was very impressed at the quality signage around the southwest of the country – Cork CC seem to be replacing all of the county’s stock by degrees and much of it looks brand new, so didn’t come across any ill-directed signs.
Now if only they are maintained in such clean and upright positions…There’s also a lot to be said for the ‘traditional’ striped poles: they make a heck of a difference in visibility terms – very effective. Shame there’s so many brand new bare-finished poles about too though – not only to they look unprofessional and crude, there’s safety implications to consider. And they’re on the major roads, not back lanes.
It must be a lot cheaper to discard the ‘stripes’, as contrary to what you might think, all modern striped posts are not painted but rather are fitted with a shroud of plastic tubes that make up the black and white, or black and yellow. Must be quite pricey in comparison to basic poles.
Thanks for that information Bill – makes sense!
Lovely stuff there. Excuse the ignorance, but did Gaudi design the furniture of his streets too?!
It looks fabulous.I don’t get what the mesh is for either on those Barcelona posts, or on the 1892 Dublin ones below – it hardly protects them from anything does it?
During the BBC Proms, aside from the irritating practice that it was, the video footage played over some of the pieces showed London in the 1890s with almost exactly the same posts as those above.
You see them in archive footage from all over Europe from the time.I like them – goodnes knows why…
Nice few merchant Georgians about the area too, pity about their semi-derelict condition in some cases.
