GrahamH
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Yes – an excellent website, incredibly comprehensive.
Quite funny at times when the site features modernised terraces of housing to see archispeak applied to what are frankly heaps of junk as a result of of what has been done to them.Wonderful how the term ‘charm’ manages to cover even the most vile creations 🙂
Hi dodger,
Many of the old favourites cropping up there 🙂
Though some I’d question – notably the inclusion of Connolly Station as one of the worthy contributions. Certainly it’s an improvement on the dingy shed that used to masquerade as an international railway station, but the idea that what has replaced it has been one of the best contributions to the capital in the past decade is ever so slightly way off the scale…:). If that’s the best we can come up with… 😮
Do you proposed lifting the Pro-Cathedral, portico and all with Herself clinging on for dear life on top to O’Connell St, or a new building? Certainly an interesting concept…
And as for applying the demolition ball to Grafton St, s sur surely you don’t mean our much loved ship-on-the-corner??! No not the Mississippi steamer across the way, but the corner newsagents??
Hmmm
Alek, everyone here is all too well away of these types of antics. Both the safety and aesthetic implications.
Just one of many threads from over the years:
🙂
Are the glazing bars on the likes of Wynns even attached to the glass towards the centre of the window?
And are bars usually placed on the inside too, or just the external elevation?So is it just up to the opinions of the building inspector signing off works or planner inspecting planning permissions for both new and existing buildings – i.e. their interpretations of the guidelines?
It’s up to them to decide if they’ll allow something or not as there is little laid down in stone in regulations?If they could inch just that bit further across the river…
The Suffolk St building seems to be at an advanced stage judging by the few elements evident under the scaffolding.What is it with landmark ex-BoI premises? In Dundalk, exactly the same thing has happened: a bookies has moved into what is probably the third most prominent building in the town, a large Regency pile of a place. Strange coincidence.
Hopefully someone will move into the BoI on O’Cll St soon – it looks a sorry sight closed up as it is. The upper windows could do with a small bit of work too, as could the ground floor.Your work server/networky thing may be set to block them.
They are quite scandalous after all…Other than that :confused:
Sorry, just to clarify, the glass used by the OPW was specifically chosen to look as authentic as possible, but is unlikely that it was laser treated – I’ve no idea as to where that concept came from 😮
However it is possible that they used an in-between ‘period style’ glass that features waves, but no imperfections (such as bubbles) as described in the link below.
Either method used, one may be sure that it was pretty pricey – on this site alone there’s nothing genuine below £100 sterling per square metre, or £55 psm for ‘period style’ 😮A few bits and pieces here.
I hope I’ve hit the nail on the head this time regarding the NIB sandstone. It would appear to be Giffnock Sandstone, quarried near Glasgow.
Here’s a description of it below from this stone website:
“Fresh surfaces of Giffnock are buff coloured with specks of darker grains visible. On exposure [weathering] iron minerals in the surface layers oxidise and form a hardened layer that is rust brown in colour.”
So it is quite literally rust on its surface :). I’m assuming it is this stone as the weathered colour above matches the NIB perfectly – but crucially, Bryce designed Ormiston House outside Belfast using just that material!
More than likely to be it – certainly ain’t Irish anyway.
Think the sandstone you refer to J. Seerski on Grafton St is too bright to be the same, and the properties of the stone literally rusting out in patches are completely different to anything else in the city. That’s what makes it so special 🙂On the monument restorations, agreed about them not needing to be cleaned on aesthetic grounds – they’re all fine, perhaps with the exception of W S O’Brien who’s just manky. But the primary aim of the project is to conserve them for the future, as highlighted by the first of the information panels to go up on the hoardings today – indeed they don’t even mention them needing to be cleaned – rather the emphasis is on conservation and protection.
The signs look very well – elegantly produced tall and narrow panels, 2–3 metres in height. They feature two pictures of the relevant monument on top and 3 parts of text underneath – one highlighting facts and figures, the second describing the monument, its features and history, and the last informing as to what the project is about and that it’s being carried out by the CC in conjunction with the OPW – this is standard on all boards. Contact details are also printed at the bottom.
Of course the second I saw them, all I wanted to do was scan for errors 😮 . And sure enough we are told that the plinth of O’Connell Monument is of granite :rolleyes:. Just knew they’d make that mistake, just knew it!
Parnell’s one is also up – all details correct, though you can’t actually read it because it faces directly onto the road – so only those with telephoto-enabled eyeballs, or those adventurous enough to risk getting clipped by a bus by going up close are able to read in comfort.
Fr Matthew is disappearing under scaffolding now.
Also the old BoI next to Clery’s is up for letting, with Lisney I think – the PP bookies plans in the mud so?
As for accessing the cupolas – what?!! :confused:
(though that would be fantastic)Yes there was at least one baronial tower on O’Cll St in its most forgotton about terrace – the 19th century mixumgatherum of Upper O’Cll St East. Here’s one barely visible on the corner with Cathedral St. Have a better pic somewhere that may also show a second – I’ll have a look round.
Yes – the OPW used it in the restoration of the glasshouses in the Botanic Gardens. It is laser treated, generating wavy patterns. Presumably you can get it to mimic a variety of effects, from crown to cylinder, to early 20th century artifacts.
Presumably it is also very expensive 🙂There’s a few companies that still make glass using the old, or at least similar methods to produce the same results. You should be able to find some internet sites with more.
As humourously as you treat the issue, agreed that such practices are deadly serious. Especially any works involving bus lanes, bus stops and their patrons; they ought to be treated with the utmost care.
I agree that Wellington Quay seems to have faded from the collective memory – there was a discernable change in practice amongst bus drivers’ habits alone post-incident, but they’re revving up and swerving in and out of bus stops as quickly as ever now.I was on Suffolk St this morning – the works described do seem to have been related to the ESB providing power to the old BoI across the road – digging a channel across. The large hole in the pavement at the bus stop has be appallingly filled in with that loose tar chipping material – lightly compacted down. Much of it is loose, with a raised circular ring of it left around a litter bin, itself dumped back down lopsided.
A large granite kerbstone is missing where the channel moved across the road, which has also been filled in with tar – essentially the material runs out from the pavment, into the kerb hole, and spills out loosly onto the road. There are chippings everywhere that haven’t even been swept up yet – yet the place deserted of workers.
It is a disgraceful finish. And 1000s of bus users step directly down onto it.
Even if it is temporary, why should it be?! Why wasn’t the original surface and kerbstone immediately reinserted?Yes it would appear to be the former, as it is in the vein of much built in Edinburgh in the 19th century.
The link here shows the NIB’s similar colouring to the former Linen Bank:
http://www.edinburgh247.com/photos/royal-bank-of-scotland.jpg
It’s much more brown/orangey than the pinky red Dumfries sandstone used all over Ireland in the 1880s+ (below)
Wonder what the brown NIB one is called, and where it’s from in Scotland.
I can think of it existing elsewhere in Dublin but just can’t place it – it’s so distinctive and unusual that it really makes buildings clad in it stand out from the crowd in Ireland.So the NIB’s also interesting in that all of what we see seems to have originated from outside the country, from the architect, to the sculptor, to the materials used, to the funding, to the owner of the building. Even the architecture itself doesn’t compare with similar Dublin buildings of the age.
It really is an identi-kit building, simply a British design transferred to one of the colonies 🙂Also it seems that the design of the NIB was something of a one-off for Bryce, as he largely reserved classicism just for the interiors of his buildings, while executing busy baroque or Renaissance-influenced exteriors, or baronial for his country houses. It’s interesting that he chose a neoclassical design for the Dublin office – wonder why: the still at-the-time largely Georgian context perhaps?
intellectual
That’s certainly one way of putting a good whinge 😀
Are they PVC sashes Sarachryan?
Salvaged sashes are highly unlikely to fit, or properly at least. Replicas are usually the best course of action when it comes to such cases – though salvaged glass may be available which could be cut to size – for the front facade at least perhaps.Isn’t it extraordinary how so many people ‘do the windows’ before selling up?
Often laughed at the idea of contacting the agent with €8000 knocked off the asking price, and the scene with them trying to translate to the incredulous vendors that it’s necessary as the brand new windows ‘have to be done’ :D.
DePVCed 🙂In some areas, mostly in south Dublin, replacement windows undoubtedly devalue property.
A pity about Mother Redcaps, albeit not particularly remarkable – a quaint little building. What’s the interior like – I’ve heard it described as ‘old’ but does that mean 1950s wainscotting or 1850s elaborateness?!
Agreed about the historic Dutch Billies dating from oooh, considering the fenestration, brickwork and decorative features – 1997? 🙂
Could something a little more inventive not have been conjured up? Although saying that, the gables I suppose are quite a fun reference to the history of the area – better than Zoesque flat parapets anyway…🙂
Speaking of the National Irish Bank, it is one of the most notable buildings not only on O’Connell St, but the city centre in general, yet receives little to no attention at all which is a shame; it is an exceptionally fine building, a lot nicer than some of the big guns in the Dame St area I think.
And it is remarkable from another perspective too, something I only realised when writing for something about the street, highlighting how O’Cll St encapsulates the development of the city overall in its architecture from the 1750s to the present day. The NIB building is surprisingly one of exceptionally few Victorian buildings on O’Connell St, and certainly the only one of merit – extraordinary considering the thoroughfare’s importance, and the amount of banks and institutions built in the latter part of that period in the city; the NIB is literally the only one of note on the entire street! (Thanks of course to 1916 & 1922)
From Archiseek: “Built for Standard Life Assurance, the National Irish branch on O’Connell Street [designed by David Bryce] has a striking pediment sculpted by Sir John Steell. The fluted Corinthian columns which uphold the pediment create a strong rhythm of light and shade over the stone façade.”
Does anyone know what stone it is built of – sandstone? I think it is the most striking feature of the building, a highly unusual rust colour not seen anywhere else in Dublin, it must be imported. The Corinthian order really makes it though, generally regarded as the most superior order of all; so elegant and powerful.
Does the building date from 1853 though as stated? The neoclassical architecture suggests a bit later and the windows are at least 1865+. And just reading on the internet, it’s said that the carved depiction in the pediment of ‘The Wise and Foolish Virgins’ ;), was sculpted for the building in 1868 which ties in perfectly.
It’s interesting: apparently the exact same grouping was carved by Steell in 1839 for the company’s Edinburgh office, and was used again for the Glasgow office in 1890 – so a bit of history there.Pity about the ground floor, surely there’s cut stone beneath that diarrhoea coloured paint 😮
Even if there isn’t, it ought to be properly restored using such materials. Stone and paint do not mix; the ground floor looks so false in comparison with the upper façade.
It could be magnificently floodlit too Рso much potential there with the extent of relief in the fa̤ade and plenty of space for concealed lighting.What a pity Рesp regarding the glazing bars which were very fine and delicate.
And they appear to be in an excellent state of repair (glass aside) in the first image 🙁
What a shame that they slipped through the system.The new ones are quite bizarre as they go backwards with the thickness of the glazing bars, indeed they almost look Queen Anne, yet go forward to the late Victorians with the horns!
Have you seen the glazing bars on the pink houses on St. Stephen’s Green? They are without doubt the thinnest bars known to mankind :). You’d wonder how the glass is even holding in the windows – really the very peak of Georgian refinement.
Here’s Wynns’ windows – they look very well, although no doubt they originally featured lots of shimmering early 20th century glass similar to Eason’s 🙁
But the dead glazing aside, the double-glazed units are simply indistinguishable from single glazed from street level – really good, and without compromise on the slenderness of the bars.
Perhaps the peripheral frames of the arched windows are a teeny bit too wide?…but that could just be down to an unfair comparison with the Georgains, and their obsession with concealing the frame.These windows look magnificent – and are painted a soft not-in-your-face shade of white.
Well others made contact too – indeed mine was significantly delayed in the system…
Anyway it’s good to see things can get done, and yes the CC can be very pro-active when they put their minds to it.
I saw a pic there recently of a similar banner plastered over the Irish Nationwide across the road about two years ago – indeed I remembered it upon seeing it once more. Suffice to say that won’t be happening again…Well here’s Parnell under wraps – still managing to look as stately as ever 🙂
One more here too:
