GregF
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Flower containers add great colour and warmth and are a great transient visual addition to a streetscape.
I take it you are not a keen gardener.I think Ireland will have to look into the Nuclear option. It is rediculous the way the goverment ignorantly dismisses the idea. We don’t have any natural energy resources as such …besides wind power….and the ESB and the gas bills keep going up. I would hate to think we were totally dependant on Britain and Europe for our gas and electricity supply. We like to ignore isssues or let some one else deal with them. We have to face up to the problems we have and make, as like the idea of having a National Incinerator, which is another no-no at the mo. There are an abundant of Nuclear power plants in operation throughout Britain and Europe. Sellafield is not the only plant in Britain. It has many more. France has about 59, Germany has 17. See the chart in the link….http://www.euronuclear.org/info/encyclopedia/n/nuclear-power-plant-europe.htm
Very true Denouncer….we are indeed very, very conservative …..but also very careless. Pity we didn’t apply this tight arsed conservatism to the saving of the historic fabric of our cities architectural gems that have suffered over the years…… and it’s still happening today. The Dublin docks was an ideal spot and a blank canvas to have any sort of contemporary and exciting new architecture which could be viewed and admired from near and far. Instead we get toytown legoland, and another proposal of plonking a giantnormous monolith building in perhaps one of the most significant and historical parts of the city…the James ‘s St /Thomas St vicinity. These streets still have fine old 18th century type houses and instead of being restored and treated with a little bit of respect, will no doubt be botched and bulldozed to make way for yet another fucking overpriced crappy appartment scheme for upstarts buying a lifestlye which they are mind numbingly sold in the daily media.
The O’Conneli Street makeover has come to a standstill. It desperately needs some soft planting like containers of folwers etc… to add some colour to the grey street. it needs some furniture like seating and the kiosks as mentioned. And most of all it need the grubby and tawdry shpfront issue tackled immediately. The tacky cheap look of that travel shop beside the GPO is a daily eyesore,
Although Gdansk hasn’t got a good example of high rise compared to the other cities pictured; however, look at how neat the terracotta pitched roofed buildings are and how both the backs and fronts of the buildings look presentable, uniform and tidy. Compare that of any shot of Dublin city and you’ll see hotch-potch, mis-match, grubbiness, filth, and irregularity all gone beyond. And when you think that Gdansk was under the dreaded bankrupt Commie regime for years and suffered during WWII as well.
I think the DDDA might feel that they have generally made a dogs bollocks of the Dublin docklands regarding its visual impact, innovation, an exciting place to live etc…so they are trying to patch it up with all this guff and last minute bits and pieces of a few towers. To initially have a mininmum height of 3 storeys or whatever it was in this area was ludicrous as the outcome now is truelly awful. Anyone that pays over half a million or more for an appartment here are robbing themselves in reality. Peter Coynes precedent has fucked up what could have been far far better. (he has fucked back to Scotland now, has he not, and handed the reigns to some other civil servant type.)The skyline of Frankfurt in the photos looks the biz, (as well as London and Paris; Barcelona looks lost as well.) A similar cluster of even just a few towers in Dublin docklands would have made an immediate and striking impact for this part of the city, and also act as a better selling point regarding finance, corporate business etc…than what’s there now. What’s there now is truelly awful as it gets more and more completed by the day. An assortment of run of the mill bollocky blocks does not make it unique in any way. 🙁
Thats old Bolands building is an impressive structure in the B/W photo. I guess we have gone backwards since then. The Scott Tallon Walker proposed scheme is another one of their unimpressive banal offerings. Anyone know anyone who works with this firm of architects. Looks as if it may be a bunch of chimps reusing some old failed proposals from the 1960’s.
As I have always said the Dublin Docks is really a missed opportunity. It could have been more spectacular in many ways. It was a blank canvas to start with. What a no-no now. Whats to redeem it in some ways still remain on paper or are still concepts floating about. Hardly a great advertisment for the Celtic Tiger. Business folk and suits from abroad attending the IFSC lauugh no doubt at the toy town boxes. Mean-arsed architecture morelike.
Looking at the street now that its finished I think it is a little sterile as it misses the seating and most of all some flower containers which it always had in summer. I think some contempory public seating should be installed as well as some transient comtemporary seasonal plant cobntainers. It would certainly add a litlte more colour and softening. Also detract from some of the shitty shop fronts.
With the street repaved now and looking good it somehow emphasizes the tawdry and grotty shop fronts all the more. The Council should act on this immediately That holiday shop on the corner of Henry Street across from the GPO has to be number 1 on the hitlist with the proprieter/landlord/owner of the premises fully accountable for having no taste and low standards. Anyone ever notice too the tawdry conditions of some soliciters premises, especially allong the quays. With all the money that these cunts make ye’d think they have something more to show for it instaed of their premises resembling Bargaintown. The fine old Georgian block on Ormond quay that houses an early bar and those who work at the bar come to mind.
Those buildings are just too tall for this historical part of the city. Down to the docks with this sort of proposal where it is needed and where it would work. The architects are arseholes to even propose such an overbearing scheme. Thomas Street/James Street is on a hill too when viewed from the river Liffey so these 2 towers would really dominate the area and the city itself. Thomas Street and James Street are two fine old historical streets with remnants of fine old Georgian houses. It should be treated sympathetically in this case …not abused and over-shadowed by a proposal from what seems a bunch of overbearing brassy hairdressers.
If people think that the street is woeful now after it ‘s got its multi-million euro makeover….imagine how it was before the revamp. It was really really bad.
Don’t blame all the Dubs either for the litter problem…..Dublin is a melting pot of all peoples; rich and poor, young and old, good and bad, etc…from outside Dublin and abroad. In highly congested areas of people litter and general grubbiness is always a probem.
Note: aspects of London, New York etc…@kefu wrote:
Agree with most everything that has been said. But I think one thing in need of particular attention is the Luas electricity sub-station at the Liffey end of the street. It really is incredibly incongruous and yet, it would have been so simple to even just clad it in timber.
I think the best thing for it now would be an open artist’s competition to transform it into a large open-air installation of some sorts. I’m absolutely convinced this is feasible even if the ESB require entry to it.Saw the lads giving this concrete lump a lick of magnolia/grey paint this morning as well as the cast iron bollards in front of the GPO’s pillars.
Kinda quirky isn’t it…..but plenty of character…If that was in Dublin it would have been knocked down for road widening development.
Just to add we have another ‘Father of a Navy’ as such, that being Commodore John Barry , Father of the American Navy. Another unsung Irish hero, he hailed from Wexford.
ha ha …good one Frank.
On the topic of statues ……see that the hoardings have finally been removed from the Thomas Davis and the 4 provinces ensemble around the corner on Dame St …Looks great too.
However placing the statue of Admiral William Brown and the new Department of the Marine inland, in a landlock county is surely rediculous. He’d be better placed overlooking the seas in Galway, Cork, Waterford or Dublin which have fine maritime histories. This is truely Irish and rather stupid ….could only have been devised by suits and bureaucratic geeks.
It’s a good rendering , but the building looks very bulky and cumbersome as it dwarfs the little Georgian two storey houses beside it, (although it is the same height as the newer building on its other side.) While I’m all for height and substantial buildings …..this might be a bit too massive….maybe its the view here too that don’t do it justice. They should build it if its needed i suppose.
Maybe they should have let him build it after all …..ahem!…….it is a much needed facility. That giant neo georgian pastiche cow shed could only be a giant neo georgian pastiche cow shed, so to blend in with the rest of the disneyland ensemble. Anything contemporary would just look odd. Besides most of the suits who attend these functions would probably think it lovely. Ah sure bless ’em all!
