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Back to the kiosks, my god those kiosks on Grattan bridge are absolutely awful! They look like stationary Luas cars with the roundy edges knocked off that could easily have been bought in a portaloo catalogue. Also how do they relate to the already primitive seating that is in place, with their pseudo celtic ‘windbreakers?’ I thought those seats were a temporary arrangement and the new kiosks would be attached or connected in some masterstroke, but what the crap?

The Central Bank, Its a quality building Its frightening the way some ignorant CEO Mullah from the sub_urbs can swipe away the most successful and accessible public space in the city. I am at a loss to see how some middle class kids with heavy make up can be considered intimidating.
more dissapointing is that an increasing number of our public spaces are becoming privatised. If you go down to the IFSC with a camera you will be approached by an irate securityman asking you to leave as you pose a security risk. Even good ol socio democratic countries with civilised planning systems like Germany are adopting this idea, Eg Potzdammer platz in Berlin is owned by the Sony corp, and if they dont like your haircut its bye bye.
Perhaps the boorish reputation of Stephenson comes from old staff rumours from his office. It was believed he did not come up with the idea for the central bank as his co workers simply couldnt believe he had the intelligence to concieve it. I’ve been to Stephenson Lectures myself and quite frankly I would believe the hearsay, juvinile and all as it is. The piss take of urban design that these railings are is not a silly joke, but an accurate representation of his thinking maybe.

JC Wetherspoon; Stella and some Czech beers? More like Alec Gilroy, swirley carpets and blingiddy fruit machines along with Hearsay playing in the background and all this with the foul taste of warm wee! It doesnt bare thinking about.

Anyway if Michael Mc Dowell has his way we’ll all be in bed by 11 with warm milk and cookies. Even President McAleese proved she can still speak by jumping on the conservative bandwagan and stating that ‘too many young people make a connection between fun and alcohol’, erm yea?

Also can we honestly expect Witherspoons to be cheeper. Not a hope they’ll resist temptation to rip us off when everyone else is doing it, paisley carpets are expensive these days you know.

The images explain the haptic vision for the future project much better than flash modelling companies do dont they. You get the sense that the architects know whats going on and that the project is not about a completely ocular obsession. I’d almost forgotten how powerful painterly impressions are compaired to by now irritating ‘is it for real?’ computer generated perspectives, they feel so hollow compaired to this.

The way I see it is we have four options;

A After its creator –Richies tower – no thanks

B After a deserving unappreciated, plenty of them in Ireland but the who and why arguement is endless and pointless

C In 20th century abstracted style, eg. ‘monument of light’ being the closest I’ve heard to this method. However over the last 70 years or so this type of titleing has become pastiche.

D Which only leaves one other option. The pop approach. I’m not familiar with any piece of public art that has been named by pop public response. The title of ‘the Spike’ is certainlty not abstract or positivly symbolic etc, its obviously quite crude. But it is a populist gut reaction to a piece of art and I think this ‘tart with the cart’ analogy would be interesting to explore.

Art has become more interested in audience reaction over composition in the last few years in its tireless search to represent society. Architecture however is the only artform that strives to show society as it should be! every other medium shows society as it is. In debating a contrived name for the piece we are following the habitual (and valid) utopian response of architecture when this is in fact a piece of art. So an ‘official’ title is an insult to the piece as it fundamentally doesnt understand the whole point of art.

So can we please stop worrying about being a laughing stock! Its time for us to stop having such a regional attitude in this country towards art and especially architecture, I think the real reason we would be a laughing stock is because were always so bloody worried about what the neighbours think we are scared to make our own valid decisions.

Jesus why all the hostility already! I walk down Patrick every day now and I think it looks fantastic!

I also dont understand all the jibes about getting ‘urban designers’ involved? Gali’s office is one of the most inventive and reputable urban design offices in the world and has won many jobs internationally after the enormous success of their urban planning projects in Barcelona. In fact the office has only ever done about 2 or 3 buildings, the rest is all public space!

I also think the lights look great and the only problem I have with them is that maybe there is too much of the concented lighting elements. Gali’s idea behind these lights (which she has used successfully in many other projects) is that the urban space is an outdoor theatre or film set and these concentrated elements are spotlighting for the show, Thanks Shakespeare. This is used to stunning effect on the beach in Barcelona, from the marina leading up to the two Olympic village towers, (near Gehreys little splayed house sculpture). Here, the situation of being on the edge of the city isolated in spots of blinding illumination makes one feel incredibly aware ones self in the city and of the enormous expanse of ocean beyond.

However I dont think this will work as well in Cork as there is so many spotlights and diffused elements that there is no longer any element of contrasting darkness in the street which is a vital part of the idea.

I also think the paving has worked out beautifully. There is a range of about 7 different types of stone from local (Kerry red limestone) to more affordable Spanish stone. It’s refreshing to sea that Gali hasn’t used the granite blanket blitzkreg approach to repaving which has been used so brutally and insensitively in many other historic european cities. A good Irish example of this hegemony of ocularisation in urban planning is Henry street in Dublin which has the character of a morgue! And of course arriving 10 years after everyone else on the other side of that huge North sea realised this was not always a successful solution!

Definatly,the new Roches is going to look just as bad as the old one, if not actually worse, because our aspirations should have risen a lot since then.

Also while Roches may not be the most progressive clients in the world they didnt actually design the thing themselves and they were obviously up for something modern, which is a suprise considering the state of what happened the last time they trusted modernism. It is so easy for a client to use this as an excuse for a bit of fiddleditwee So a fair bit of responsibility has to be given to the architects for this new ‘reworking’ budgeting et al considered.

on a more pressing matter, whats the news on Zara moving in to this Roches soon? Has it all been a cruel rumour? I’ve been waiting for ages for them to come & now theyre even in New York before Dublin!!

I dont know why you feel so isolated there Lugh, there are thousands of people just like you who think that the ‘junkies needle’ is a waste of money.

as someone pointed out earlier, ‘the poor will always be with us’. It was that jesus guy who said that and i think you could do yourself and every other Joe Duffy listener in the country a favour by popping in to the new homeless persons unit on Gardner street with the entire spike budget and dispersing it among everyone in the line. Then walk around the streets and see how many people are sleeping rough! It will be exactly the same as previous nights. People are homeless for a reason, no amount of fast cash will fix the problem as it needs much more attention. We need to set aside consistent funding for problems like this, and even then the problem will not be solved, it is never ending.

However there is absolutely no reason to discontinue art and cultural pursuits as a result. They are also important (to other people obviously) and must also demand funds. We are human beings and need stimulation and challenge not just for rapid monetary gain. It is not merely our purpose to eat, shit and reproduce.

However if you do feel that this is the case, then may god bless you, there will always be a spot here in Fianna Fail for you!

01.What about Ulsterbank on Georges Quay and that po mo microcity growing up behind it?

02.That building beside citybank, to the east-jeasus brissssse solielarama (oh and citybank & everything else S.T.W have done in the last 10 years)

03.And as for the expanded semi-d style of apartements beside O’M-pikes nice tower on Charlotte Quay with the lovely pitched roofs, almost as if you were in liexlip/ashbourne/clane/naas….. only on a bigger scale. Are people who design this stuff actually taking the piss? (see also 90% other apt block in the city built in the last 10 years)

04. But who could have forgotten that lovely clock tower on the Jervis centre, d’ya know what but tis beautiful. it could have done with another dado rail below the clockface though!

05.And best of all that extension to the quays bar, on temple bar square and all it stands for! yahoo diddle di idle, dydle dum. da di dyddle dun di dee…..

06. But last and certainly not least, yes you guessed it……
—‘PHOENIX HOUSE’ at the south side of smithfield square, so good they dedicated the entire top floor to a massive plant room, so good the staff arent allowed to touch any windows in case it interferes with this beautiful feat of engineering, and sooooooo good they placed a silverish giant bald headed american eagle on the roof looking west, or is it actually a phoenix. I kid you not!!!!!!! You have to see it! if you laugh half as much as myself and my flatmate do everytime we pass it, it would be worth it.

It’s interesting that, after investing fart all cash into this highly successful project, the government, Sile de Valera is preparing to pump EU15 million into a crude pastiche extension to Collins Barracks. Doesn’t it instill such confidence in the powers that guide our arts and culture in this country!