urbanisto
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Some nice images there. Its certainly a very high spec. It makes you think what a great attraction to the top of the street this site and a revamped Royal Dublin Hotel (as proposed by Ashlin Coleman) would have proven. Bold, modern contemporary architecture to complement the exiting street.
Hmmm did they say that when they built Pennys, Dublin County Council Offices and Findlater House….. how the worm turns.
Well thank you Starch…I stand wholey corrected. I imagined this centre would be as busy as say the Financial Regulator’s info centre on Dame Street. A great idea to be sure but is it ever used, since many people would probably access information like this by internet and phone. However as you point out there seems to be a well thought out case for this centre. So by all means…
For the record my “taxpayer” arguement does not stretch to foreign aid. I completely support the Irish government being an aid donor.
One problem this design has is that it makes the rest of the builidng look so bad. I hate those exposed columns – they looks awful and not at all what was intended I am thinking. I agree with the granite wall as well. Its so bland. A more textured surface would have been so much more interesting.
The design aside my main grip is from a taxpayer point of view. What on earth is this place all about? Who is going to go in here? Why waste a perfectly good space and design with an office that few people will use.
You beat me to it with the benches Graham. Progress at last and I think their positioning at least suggests some though was put in.
I see dodgy signage popping up again at various points…..
I spotted in the Irish Times today that Ulster Bank have lodged a planning application to restore their O’Connell Street premises to its 1923 condition inclusing the ground floor facade and various windows. Also planning to install a new floodlighting scheme.
Wasnt that the proposals for the redevelopment of Castle House or whatever that monolithic monstrisity is called? Dealt with further back at the start of this thread I think.
And…almost forgot…that monstrosity down the end of Tablot Street with the “new street”. What a mess!
The Tesco is planned for the vacant units of the residential building opposite Irish Life Mall (as you suggest Tomk). Another interesting application on the street is for a mosque to be located just a few doors up in what I think is a B&B now (just after the D of Education building).
That building is a disgrace! How muvch would a slap of paint cost. Still the Bag Store building which was looking pretty crumby until recently was cleaned and restore over the past month and looks so mcuh better for it.
Starbucks have suffered from their late arrival in the market here as most of the prime pitches have been snapped up by other chains and they are left with slim pickings. Its really noticeable when you compare to London where they are everywhere!
I see there’s a clean up job taking place on the South City Markets as well. Are there apartments on the upper levels. I’d love to have a look.
Any progress on the Drury Street plans to link Grafton St with SGG St. In fact surely a whole framework plan and design statement is required for this quarter.
The developer is probably awaiting the new Building Heights Strategy for Dublin City due to be published very soon. It will no doubt give clearer guideance as to what can happen on the site
Hmmm…Im going to be the minority report here. I dont think the Cafe Noto works are all that bad. It is a little clumsy around the chimney and I wonder would removing the chimney have made a difference. To be honest I actually quite like the idea of these new rooftops and I think that they are a real solution to the need to reinvent so many of the very average Georgian and Victorians that fill the city. Of course they are not suitable in every situation and they should definately not be used to ‘unify’ streetscapes but they area valid design solution.
No sign then of the blitz on empty and redundant signage posts promised by DCC in the spring. All still in place and happily being added to as far as I can see.
This is an interesting discussion….a few comments
What Brian McGuinne was describing was the historic need and trend for “rus in urb”, that is the recreation of the rural or an arcadian landscape or victorian garden, etc. in the city versus the current needs and uses that new modern urban space needs to provide. He wasn’t dismissing green space at all, just describing the change that the role open space is finding itself needing to address.
I always wonder when I hear comments like this because I am not sure what these ‘changing needs’ are? I dont think the needs of people vis a vis open space are all that much different from before. And I am not at all sure hard landscaped areas fullfill any need at all. In some cases, eg new Store Street area, they provide an improved aesthetic environment for a small area but they arent really of any use. In the case of Smithfield, Wolfe Tone and the City Hall plaza they fail because the real need here are spaces that people can interact with and they generally dont do that with concrete. On the other hand ‘rus in urb’ parks such as Stephens Green. Merrion Sq and even the small park pre the City Hall development attract people precisely because of the lack of hard landscaping.
Im all for a quality hard landscaping as part of the wider public domain but I firmly believe the neeed remains for planted areas and unfotunately there is a growing tendancy to remove these. I think its driven by maintainence issues as mcuh as anything.
To emphasis my point when was the last time you saw anyone in City Hall Plaza! I never see anyone there. The barriers at the rear are still in place and the CC have taken to not illuminating the seat lights at night. Another ‘special occasion’ lighting project such as Smithfield’s braziers no doubt.
Any explanation as to how Mitchell managed to omit a cycle lane from key parts of their design for O’Connell Street ?
I don’t know if they were fully responsible for this massive gaff, but obviously as chief landscape architects for the scheme, it is their job to establish current & desired uses of a space, ensure they are adequately catered for in any landscape design & push the client to implement the design in full
There was a cyclelane in the original layout…only it was meant to run the length of the street against the median so as not to interfer with buses. Of course no cyclist in their right mind wanted to do that so the land has to be ‘redesigned’ or in the case of the section from Abbey Street to OC Bridge ‘overdesigned within an inch of its life!’
Well indeed and I did say that at the start. I havent heard more than he was hurt. As i said there was nothing further in the media which seems extraordinary given the prominece of the street and the fact that a fatality occured here last year
