SeamusOG
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Well, of course, we’ve heard all this before, but for what it’s worth…
@The Sunday Times, October 26th wrote:
Paradise regained behind the Dail
Leinster Lawn to be restored after car-park plans are scrapped due to lack of funds Colin Coyle
They paved “paradise†and put up a parking lot. Now the government has been told that Leinster Lawn, a once lush green area behind the Dail and Seanad, will be restored.
The Office of Public Works (OPW) told Oireachtas officials last week that it plans to replant it in spring after plans for a 500-space underground car park at Leinster House were scrapped due to a lack of funds.
The lawn was taken away and replaced by a car park in July 1998 as a “temporary†measure. Planning permission terms from Dublin city council stated that it should be reinstated by the end of 2000. This never happened, and the site now has a reputation as one of the capital’s biggest eyesores.
The space has been used as a parking apron for Dail staff, journalists and occasionally, TDs and senators, who also have their own parking spaces to the side of Leinster House.
More recently the OPW announced it would build an underground car park whichwould allow the lawn to be replanted, but this has been deemed financially unviable.
An OPW spokesman said: “We plan to reinstate the lawn during the growing season next year.†Developers proved reluctant to take on the underground car park in a public private partnership. The Oireachtas argued that the park could be self-financing in 30 years.
Restoring the lawn has been the subject of campaigning by environmentalists since 1999, including by John Gormley, Minister for the Environment.
Ian Lumley of An Taisce said: “It’s about time . . . The Department of the Environment has a new strategy to prevent people from paving over their front lawns to reduce localised flooding, so it’s high time they heeded their own advice.â€
Leinster House was built in the late 18th century by the Earl of Kildare, who predicted that others would follow from the more genteel northside. The Georgian squares around Leinster House became the destination of choice for aristocrats.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/ireland/article5014954.ece
@Irish Times wrote:
Restrictions on cars, which will be put in place within the next two years, to allow the construction of Transport 21 projects such as Metro North and the Luas interconnector line, are expected to be retained to allow the city to function in the future.
I wonder what Olivia means by the “LUAS Interconnector”? Is this perhaps the LUAS link-up, the DART interconnector, a mixture or combination of these or perhaps something else entirely?:confused:
@Peter Fitz wrote:
woops i’ve no wish to question the drafting accuracy (or skill ) of gunter !!!
Neither do I, at all.
However, the nine-storey BOI building is set quite far back from the road with two 4-5 storey buildings in front of it (as shown in the aerial photo), followed by the houses on Baggot Street.
I think that amount of the BOI building may very well be visible from Leeson Street Bridge, I am, however, sceptical that that was or is the case at the lower level (along the canal) where the picture seems to have been drawn. (Unfortunately I’m currently unable to do my own investigations on this, though I suspect Gunter may not be giving his creative side the credit it deserves).
What we need here is for Pythagoras to sign up to Archiseek, if he hasn’t already done so, and give us his views.:p
@gunter wrote:
More interested in the short skirts, I’m afraid.
Excellent news – then perhaps you have Margaret Court or Evonne Goolagong (as she then was) in skirts, stretching for rhe ball, against a Georgian backdrop? 😀 (I’ve been told they also visited, as it was usually the week after Wimbledon)
The full sketch with B of I in the distance and canal in foreground.But how can this be, Gunter? What’s happened to the stretch of Georgian houses along Lower Baggot Street -i.e. IBEC (ca. no. 90) to Fitzwilliam Street. If it was Wilton Place you probably wouldn’t have been able to see the B of I buliding above the Baggot Street rooftops, and surely not to the extent which is depicted?:confused:
@ctesiphon wrote:
The bollards are certainly Grand Canal style. Which one is the Goulding building, Seamus- the IDA building or the tall one that houses William Fry, etc.? IDA would get my vote for this sketch, based on the traffic islands.
The “Goulding” building is the big one which houses William Fry and others, including (I think) the Australian Embassy. As far as I remember, it was originally the HQ of Goulding Fertilisers.
I may be mistaken, but I’ve a feeling that the other one you’re talking about, ctesiphon, – the IDA/An Foras Forbatha (sp?), WMK, etc, building – was built on the former grounds of Fitzwilliam Tennis Club.
Perhaps Gunter has a picture in his extensive collection of Rod Laver serving for the match against a backdrop of Georgian Dublin – as apparently he did in the Irish Open on a number of occasions – to help us get our bearings right.:D
@phil wrote:
I think the second one is Wilton Place
That was my first thought, Phil, if you’re thinking of the old Goulding building beside the canal. (i.e. the big one along that stretch).
(pardon the pedantry, but I think the address of that building might be Cumberland Road, rather than Wilton Place):)
Well done, Ebear. I knew I’d seen those mews buildings but couldn’t place them. So that “modern” building (is it Brennan Insurance?) was built in place of those old houses. Was the whole of/most of lower Mount Street in that style at some stage then, Gunter? What a ruin it is now, in comparison to Upper Mount Street.
And a pure guess at Y. Holles Street.
@Today’s Irish Times wrote:
York Street social housing the smartest in town
Royal College of Surgeons students newly arrived from abroad and looking for digs may be casting admiring glances across the road from the college at the new block of apartments nearing completion on York Street.
It looks as though it might have been designed for the college as suitable accommodation for would-be docs, but in fact the spanking new block is social housing, designed to replace a block of flats demolished by the council some years ago to a certain amount of hue and cry, because the flats looked like quaint Victorian tenements but had in fact been built in the 1950s. The block, designed by Seán Harrington Architects, will house 66 families, most of whom lived in the old flats. They will move in this autumn. Meanwhile the council is so pleased with the design that it plans to open two show units in the development – to show others how it should be done. Watch this space for opening times.
Meanwhile college of surgeons students will have to look elsewhere. Mind you, they are firm favourites around the corner in the Adelaide Square apartment complex, carved out of the old Adelaide Hospital, which has more medical tenants per floor than any other scheme in town.
© 2008 The Irish Times
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/property/2008/0828/1219680141542.html
It is unusual – though probably a great honour, etc., etc., for this building:D – to appear on this thread posthumously.
I wonder does GrahamH plan to apply Nobel Prize criteria in this kind of situation, prior to the roll-out for other cities.:)
Anyway, Gunter, the silence indicates that we are struggling. Any chance of a further clue?
@ctesiphon wrote:
As far as I recall, there is a carriageway (i.e. lower than the paved surface, with a kerb) at the east end of Marienplatz on which buses run. Admittedly, it’s at a snail’s pace, but they’re there.
There is indeed, right down at the east end, as you say. You can see it here – on the left of the photo. I’d forgotten about that:o
Apparently, two bus routes do still run along this carriageway. I’m guessing here, but with so many pedestrianised streets in the vicinity, it’s possible that it is needed in any case, for ambulance/fire brigade access.
I see Munich’s Marienplatz mentioned on this thread in relation to the pluses and minuses of the use of College Green for public transport.
It’s important to remember that the location is fully pedestrianised, with not a bus or tram in sight – hardly any buses enter Munich’s city centre, while most of the city’s trams are only a few hundred metres distant (e.g. at Karlsplatz), but not in the Marienplatz itself.
However, the square retains a very, very serious public transport function through the important interchange which lies beneath it. These include S-Bahn services (7 lines) to around 140 destinations and U-Bahn services (2 lines) to approximately another 40.
If the plans for underground lines in Dublin are to go ahead – and it may still be an “if”, though I hope not – I think this is the kind of thing which should be envisaged for Dublin: reclamation of a great urban space while facilitating public transport rather than hindering it.
The is one (but just one) of the reasons why I favour a close look at College Green/Dame Street as the location of Martin Cullen’s “Grand Central”. The current alternative – i.e. a St. Stephen’s Green which will take many years to recover and a College Green which is still snarled with buses and will not even have a metro station, just doesn’t seem to have the same number of positives.
@tommyt wrote:
That’s not a Muddy Fox ATB by any chance? edit-just notced it’s actually a Giant looking at the frame shape-tells how disgusting that riverbed is that no one has tried to salvage it!.
The tyres seem to be holding up particularly well. A decent sized hook on the end on the end of a long rope – followed by a hosing – could see that thing back on the road in no time.
There are also enough traffic cones down there to keep training going for a few soccer clubs, should the FAI ever run out of money.
Hmmm….
That bike could be used for missions related to the “How well do you know Dublin” thread.
Thanks for posting that, Gunter…:p
@gunter wrote:
The translucent skin on the Allianz is illuminated internally by, either red or blue, lighting depending on which of the resident clubs. Bayern, or Munich 1860, are playing.
I believe it can also be illuminated in white – for occasions when the German national team are playing in the stadium.
@Today’s Irish Times wrote:
Plans to restore Leinster Lawn to be reviewed
Olivia KellyPlans to restore Leinster Lawn, which was paved over almost 10 years ago to create a “temporary” car park for the Dáil, are to be reviewed at an Oireachtas Commission meeting next week.
A delegation from the Office of Public Works (OPW) is to appear before the commission to discuss plans for a two-storey underground car park, underneath Leinster House, which would facilitate the reinstatement of the lawn facing on to Merrion Square.
Leinster Lawn was replaced by a car park in July 1998 as a “temporary” measure during the construction of new facilities for Leinster House. The planning permission for the work at the time required that the lawn be reinstated after the works on Leinster House were completed in 2000. However, this was never done.
The car park on the lawn is now mainly used by Dáil staff and journalists. Politicians have their own reserved spaces to one side of the lawn or in front of Leinster House. The facility is available free to all serving and former members of the Oireachtas.
Promises of an underground car park have been made since 2000. The OPW in late 2006 told the Oireachtas Commission, an 11-member group of TDs and Senators which is responsible for the facilities at Leinster House, that a car park under the building was feasible and could be completed by the beginning of 2011. The OPW had expected an answer from the commission earlier this year, but no decision was made.
However, the new commission, formed since the general election, has scheduled a meeting with the OPW on December 12th to discuss the matter and it is expected that detailed proposals will be put forward.
The restoration of the lawn has been the subject of consistent campaigning by environmentalists over the years, including Green TD John Gormley, now the Minister for the Environment.
A spokesman for Mr Gormley said that he has no involvement in, or responsibility for, the project in his new role. A decision on the project, which will also require Government approval, would allow the car parking at the Kildare Street side of Leinster House to be removed.
The meeting next week is also likely to focus on the long-term development of the Leinster House complex. Proposals including the possible construction of a new Dáil chamber, or major works on the existing chamber and the expansion of the complex to take over the neighbouring Department of Agriculture offices, were made by the OPW to the commission in September 2006.
The expected increase in TD members over the coming years will require the expansion of Dáil facilities. Leinster House, built as the home of the earls of Kildare in the mid-18th century, was bought from the family a century later by the RDS.
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/ireland/2007/1203/1196375209810.html
2015 anybody?
I hope the board will forgive me a bit of hubris in quoting one of my own posts.:o
It’s simply that, in the light of recent discussions (here and elsewhere) about the possibility of the city centre LUAS link-up being scrapped, I see this as a way of solving potential conflicts between buses and trams in the area south of College Green.
@Seamus O’G wrote:
Perhaps someone could help out here, as I can’t seem to copy the picture illustrating option E.
It’s just that a thought occurred to me over the weekend about this possibility, which is comfortably the least favoured option on this forum.
And it’s this. If the trams were to go South instead of North along Dawson Street, and North instead of South along Kildare Street, it might help to reduce the conflicts between the trams and buses in and around TCD. There could be a tram stop on the East side of Dawson Street (perhaps doubling with a station around the corner on the South side of Nassau Street), the West side of Kildare Street and the East side of Westmoreland Street; and bus stops on the West side of Dawson Street, the East side of Kildare Street, the North side of Nassau Street, Suffolk Street, the West side of Westmoreland Street, and College Street. In other words, all the bus stops which we currently have would remain, with the exception of the ones outside TCD on the bottom of Grafton Street.
What I’m trying to get at, this would reduce the amount of road space where buses and trams are actually sharing road space and also travelling in the same direction to perhaps a couple of hundred metres (between the bottom of Dawson Street and the stretch around the front of TCD), with the loss only of the stops at the front of TCD, the potential conflicts could be seriously reduced.
The same kind of thing could also be achieved by reversing the bus flows along Dawson Street and Kildare Street. With the current arrangements around St. Stephen’s Green, that might even be more favourable.
Anybody get what I’m on about?
It does not, I fully agree, deal with the issue of College Green itself, or Westmoreland Street or O`Connell Street.
I see no alternative to banning private vehicles from College Green if buses and trams are to live together efficiently in this area. With the current arrangement where so many buses pass through College Green, this would simply have to happen.
However, with four lanes of traffic currently passing between TCD and the BOI at College Green, it should be possible to convert this little stretch into two lanes for trams and two lanes for buses. (Even if TCD had to cede a couple of feet).
I don’t think the above arrangement would impinge on the plan to have the trams travel along Marlborough Street in one direction. I think that is a weird plan, but I don’t think the above proposal would impinge on it to any great extent.
(And apologies to GrahamH as, if implemented, it would in all likelihood involve overhead wires being present in College Green).
College Green does seem to be the real snag point. And there’s really only one solution for that, albeit one which users of private vehicles may see as a Domesday scenario. But if such a decision were to be taken, I’d suggest that the above solution about a variation on option E might be one which could make the link-up run quite efficiently as a whole.
Or is there some very obvious problem that I’ve missed?
Please help, as I quite like this one.:)
@notjim wrote:
I vote to have Frank McDonald replaced by Graham H.
A bad idea. I’m sure even he would become poisoned by the various issues on which he would have to report. That can’t be allowed to happen.
