urbanisto
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I have nevcer understood how this muck was built. While you are about shooting the architect get the planner and city manager as well! Shame!
There was a note in the Indo I think at the weekend saying the GPO would be under scaffold for 6 weeks for a clean. The report also said that bullet holes from the 1916 Rising would not be repaired (in line with the policy towards the statues on the street)
Getting back to those signs. They are truly dreadful, exactly what I feared might happen. The final design of the street is now being seriously compromised by all these ill thought out additions, signage (as you rightly point out Graham not even installed properly), lack fo enforcment of parking policy, bus stops galore, the taxi rank. Its very dissappointing.JDP I can only imagine that you were being sarcastic in your comment above.
Excellent pics of the OC St chimeyscape. It goes to show how very rarely we look up.
Aaah sure dont worry about that. Sure isnt Frank a great contributor to the local economy. And sure if he didnt build his barn he might get fed up and take his money somewhere else, like Bangladesh or something. Ill tell you what Frank….heres a few tax incentives and a grant. Why not build the barn as a National Museum of… Dogs or something like that. It would be a great attraction. Really help put the area on the map!
Its the pavillion for the Eucharistic Congress held in 1932 isnt it? I think you might even find a pic somewhere on this site, its been posted before
BTW I have no problem with Starbucks….. I quite like it apart from its tendancy to dominate those places it sets up in. I just dont thinks its the right place for it here.
I mean the move from institutions in landmark buildings ie the banks, university, tourist office etc to low end retail units such a convenience stores and takeaway coffee shops. At least Habitat is nivce and healthily in the middle with a well designed store and a high grade cafe. Winding Stair…nice book store with even more potential. Even the Italian restuarant (Caesars?) could create a bit of atmosphere if it were complimented with other such places.
From this mornings Times:
Upgrade of Luas system before Christmas
Dublin’s Luas system is to be upgraded with a rebuilt Luas stop at St Stephen’s Green, electronic “notice boards” at all stops and new ticket-vending machines at seven stops across both routes. Tim O’Brien reports.
The Railway Procurement Agency (RPA) which advertised phase one of the work on the Government’s e-tendering website this week said “passenger frequency patterns” had dictated the changes.The biggest change will be to the St Stephen’s Green stop where the platform will be widened along its 50-metre length, taking up some of the existing footpath.
The work will include moving the ticket and electronic display machines as well as handrails and fencing.
Also included is the “remodelling” of the concrete base and “recutting and relaying” of the paving. But the tender stipulates that work will be done “while a full tram service operates”.
St Stephen’s Green is the busiest Luas stop with between 20,000 and 30,000 passengers a day.
The tender deadline is September 13th and the RPA believes the undertaking can be completed “in a couple of months”, leaving all work finished by Christmas.
The RPA is also planning to install electronic notice-boards pointing out local “attractors” such as museums, shopping centres and connections to buses and other forms of public transport.
The notice-boards would provide information about the tram stop location and its place in the network.
In addition, stops as Jervis Street, Connolly, Heuston, St Stephen’s Green, Dundrum, Milltown and Windy Arbour are to get new ticket machines, to meet passenger demand.
“Luas Rage” – where passengers miss their tram because the person in front is slow in choosing a ticket – had been mostly resolved by increasing the speed of the ticket machines after the first few months of operation, said RPA spokesman Ger Hannon.
The new ticket machine arrangements reflect user patterns such as the number of people opting for single tickets instead of weekly ones – or vice versa – which the RPA said it could not predict in advance.
“It is difficult to predict the patterns when you get to a very fine grain level,” Mr Hannon said.
The demand for Luas services was very steady throughout the day, particularly on the Green line, he added. “We predicted 20 million passengers and we will do that too.”
© The Irish Times
I also noticed a planning application to convert the old public toilets here into a drivers stationa dn information office.
Interesting to see views on this. Surely it is a valid point that appealling this particular application is asking the CC to draw a line under the downgrading of uses that is quickly taking hold along this stretch. Soon coffee shops will be talked about in the same way we are talking about convenience stores now…and when Starbucks really gets going you’ll all be moaning at how you cant move without seeing one…thanks certainly what its like in London – 2 sometimes 3 to a street! Also while the Centra is terrible its possition is less prominent than the proposed Starbucks which faces argruably one of the most important buildings in the country. I think what this application highlights more than anything is how little thought it being put into the new uses that are taking over College Green. but as usual the CC have no desire to intervene and prescribe some more fitting uses.
I fully agree with poeples thoughts on the convenience store pandemic thats recently hit the city 🙂 It getting out of hand…in fact its gotten out of hand. I know that the CC last year refused an application on OConnell St on the ground that there wer more than enough of these stores about. They really should think about other areas pf the city. The fact that these stores figure on so many of the threads here says it all.
I think it highly likely a convenience store will want this location but the fact is there is a large SuperValu just completed at Independent House, a large Spar across thew road, a Dunnes Stores on North Earl Street and about 5 other newsagents/convenince stores on the street (including another Spar, a Centra and another Centra on the way for N Earl St!!) Surely thats sufficent.
But of course we know well that the CC are hesitant to intervene in the market…they woud rather moan from the sidelines or else let things go to rack and ruin and then pick up the pieces (rather expensively) in 10 years time and say it will never happen again (OConnell St anyone). Ate last night at Talbot 101 – possibly the only decent restaurant in the hole area! John Fitzgerald wants more but his planners seem intent only on pandering to the needs of the convenince store lobby. Give us a bit more variety to our streets. If the market wont do it of its own accord then oblige them to! 😡
This is an interesting picture…. the same aving as O’Connell St in Dublin, a similar lampstand as those on OC St and similar stainless steel bollards…as are found on Oc St Dublin. Is there no originality anymore. Are these pieces the faux-Victorian cast iron stuff of the 1990s.
Oh dear…things just go from bad to worse in Galway:
CHINESE paving slabs may have to be removed from Galway city centre after dozens of people were injured when they slipped on them.
Fine Gael councillor Padraig Conneely said that a restaurant close to Eyre Square had become an “accident and emergency centre” in recent weeks because of the number of people slipping outside the premises.
Staff at Maxwell McNamara’s, on the corner of Williamsgate and Eglinton Street, have treated more than 20 people in the past few weeks. “In six of these cases, the injured people, mainly elderly, had to be removed to hospital to be treated for their injuries,” Cllr Conneely said.
“I have held the view from the outset that the paving slabs for the new footpaths are totally unsuitable and will lead to pedestrians being injured.
“It is just another example of the shoddy work that has been carried out in the redevelopment of Eyre Square,” Cllr Conneely said.
Work on the €6m revamp of Eyre Square ground to a halt earlier this summer when the contractors, Samuel Kingston Construction, walked off the site. Tenders are now being sought from contractors to complete the job but work is not expected to restart until at least October.
Cllr Conneely now wants the paving slabs to be replaced. “I realise it will cost a lot of money, but in the long run it will cost a lot more if people who are injured lodge claims against the city council,” he added.
John Fallon
© Irish IndependentFrom todays Info…..
STARBUCKS’ plans to increase its planned coffee shop outlets in Ireland have run into difficulties, amid claims the company’s presence would “dumb down” an historic part of Dublin.
The US chain will open its first coffee shop in the country in the Dundrum Town Centre today, but planning objections have delayed its flagship outlet, on Dublin’s College Green.
One objector to An Bord Pleanala has protested that granting planning permission would “dumb down” an historic part of the city; that allowing a coffee shop to open would run contrary to plans for a site that had been earmarked for a high quality restaurant, supposed to bring some class back to the area.
Paul Duffy, from Donnycarney, said he has no axe to grind with Starbucks, but added: “May they continue to grow and thrive and dominate the world as they are doing, but let them do so on the side streets away from our most important and historic buildings.”
He suggested Starbucks could relocate to Temple Bar “where the coffee might have a sobering effect on the drunks”.
Starbucks has more than 9,500 coffee shops worldwide, serving some 33m customers a week. The Seattle-based chain already has a small outlet in Dublin City University, but the Dundrum shop will be its first in the Republic to open to the general public.
Dublin City Council granted planning permission earlier this year to Treasury CMBS, owner of the College Green premises, to change the use of its Riada Building from a restaurant to a coffee shop, but that has now been appealed to An Bord Pleanala, with a decision due in October.
Another objector, Magdalena Gendek, from Drumcondra, protested that a Starbucks coffee shop would further erode the civic fabric of the urban centre, increase litter and it goes against the council’s policy of trying to control the spread of heavy corporate branding.
She said: “A restaurant of high quality such as Shanahans would be appropriate for the area, however a Starbucks multinational coffee shop chain store is an entirely different use.”
Aideen Sheehan
I thoroughly agree! This is a prime spot….or would be in any other city. However if Starbucks get in you will be able to get your latte to go just befre you hassle a taxi driver to whisk you away from the sight of all those ugly Georgian piles….
I think this is a ridiculous decision by Fingal. What on earth are they playing at. How can you justify refusing permission to someone with as any western councillor wil tell you, a jusifiable connection to the land when all around you have let countryside be swallowed up by dreary housing estates! Its totally bizarre. Regardless of who is invloved its just plain wrong to refuse permission on the grounds outlined. Green belt? Special Conservation Area? Well then how come the other two Haughey houses were allowed? How come they are entertaining this new tourism development of Abbeyville lands? How come they have laid the North Fringe sewage system to facilitate further development?
April is the date I have heard. At least for all the paving works. As mentioned earlier the Spire will be cleaned in summer. I think by June next year the street should be completed…if you can wait that long.
As for GPO… it is a bit grimy, especially around the portico. Maybe your right about the cost though…they could probably spend the money on all there post boxes crying out for a lick of paint.
Objectivity in any area is a difficult thing to master but to be objective you also have to be knowledgeable. You have to actually know what you are looking at! However I dont think (albeit at this early stage) that a planner alwasy should be objective. There is plenty of low-grade stuff going through the planning system and very often it is up to the planner to improve the projects through pre-planning consultations, conditions attached, etc. And when this doesnt happen the usual comment is ‘bad planning’…its the planner fault for letting that get built! The fact is most laypeople see planners as arbitrartors of good taste in design. I know this is a bit expectation to put on planning but the very least the profession can do is give the individual planner the tools to at least appreciate the design in front of them.
As a planning student I have to say my biggest disappointment and constant complaint about the course (undergraduate) is the poor level of architectural and design studies. There is a huge focus on sustainability, ecology, natural resources managment etc but very little effort put into developing a knowledge of good and bad architecture. I think this is a mistake. I think a planner has to be able to have a critical opinion on a new development, to be able to appreciate the good elements of a building and to recognise the bad elements. I think most planning students probably leave college without the ability to even communicate with an architect.
I have never said that I support the idea of the taxi rank returning to the street…I think as you rightly point out there are a number of other options with less visual impact. However I think a degree of realpolitik set in here and a number of parties probably lobbied at planning stage for the taxi rank to be retained while probably no one argued against. I would also argue that the plan for the street put forward in 1998 is completely different from the plan taking shape now…. so many elements have been added and subtracted. However for the record I would prefer the taxi rank to be moved. I think a reason for it being completed first is also to get the carriageway beside the median returned to use asap so that work can start on the outer pavements,
Anyone see the article in the IT on Saturday regarding the Spire. It will be cleaned next summer once all the works have been completed. The contrasting pics of the Spire when installed and the state its in today were alarming….its bloody flithy. The DCC are expecting to have to clean it every 5 years. Cost €50,000 a pop. The cleaning job will take place over a weekend next summer and require the huge crane used to erect it as well as two VERY BRAVE guys to scale it and wash it.
Also, scaffolding is going up around the GPO since Sat. I think the facade must be getting a clean. It should look great when finished if so. I think it was last cleaned in the late 1980s for the Dublin Millennium. A new floodlighting scheme should also be considered I think.
