aj
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@aj wrote:
I see the scaffolding going up. Also by looking at the DCC websiite it looks like the facade at least is to be kept.
I see some of the render has been striped to to the brick which looks in surrpisingly good condition. Interestingly one half of the building appears to be a cut stoneface under all that yellow render
I see the scaffolding going up. Also by looking at the DCC websiite it looks like the facade at least is to be kept.
I see all the windows of the Hume Street Hospital are now open giving some impressive glimpses of some very fine pasterwork.
It looks like the refurb has begun!
So its not DCC Architects but a group of artist for the studio opposite.
“The Way Wiser Collective are proud to present In Progress, a site-specific animation projected onto DCC Market builing on Little Mary Street. The artwork is part of the local arts festivalGentrify This! Dublin Contemptibles 2 and runs from 13th -30th September, 8pm-9pm.
The projected animation explores the process of gentrification, through an examination of the Victorian tradesmen who built the DCC Market Building. The collective based the drawings on photographs from The National Library (see http://www.dublincityarchitects.ie/?p=98) providing a direct connection with the period; however, during the process the themes transform and become imaginative interpretations.
The Way-Wiser Collective was founded in 2011 with the mission of using visual art to explore latent possibilities in the urban landscape and creating interventions to shift public awareness. The members include Gráinne Tynan, Eimear Tynan, Mark Ferguson and Francis Quinn. They work out of The Market Studios, Dublin 7.
For more information please seehttp://thewaywisercollective.blogspot.ie/p/gentrify-this_10.html and http://dublincontemptibles.wordpress.com/. “
No comment needed really.
On a more positive note,currently there is a nightly light show on the building showing it being built.
I have to say it looks fantastic, very entertaining I can only imagine how good something like this would look like on one of the big signature buildings in the city.
Not sure who is behind this show but given the state of the building unlikley to be DCC.
More of this sort of thing.
brilliant work Alex
DCC are currently too busy beavering away on the Village Design Statement for Sandymount (Apparently the benches are too clincial and planters too plastic.. quote unquote) to be worried about anything as irrelevant as lighting , cleaning or general maintence in the city centre.
I am guessing DCC approves demolition with conditions only for the permission to be overturned by ABP?
Given the lack of pre 1916 buildings still standing in the area surely ABP will throw this out.
why did they not put the originals back in the first place … has DCC the money to waste laying footpaths three times?
The documents are up on the DCC website for the JWT premises are they are pretty shocking.
In effect half the corner is demolished half is “restored”. I cant see given how little of anything pre 1916 is left standing in this area how DCC can permit such a level of demolition.
not sure the “limp pastiche of the past” would be allowed in such a sensitive setting
if it good pastiche can be done in parnell square why not Fitzwilliam street?
Lads,
hate to break it to you but DCC dont care, they have simply given up enforcing any of their own planning laws.looks like the front facade of Pearse is finally gettin a decent makeover …
they are removing all advertising , replacing the broken window frames, repainting, repointing and replacing the canopies…
lets wait and see how it ends up looking!
“Fingal will be gone in its entirety and Dublin Bus re-faced as it is a Protected Structure with a near-fully fledged townhouse surviving behind its deceptive curtain wall. Just a correction from earlier, the RDH has vanished in its entirety, with only the gable walls left standing for the benefit of No. 42 and the AIB”
graham I am intrigue about the dublin bus building I thought it was pure 60s have you any more details of what has survived of the townhouses ?
surely if they are being refaced tey should have their facades restored
@hutton wrote:
A few facts to clarify:
Having spoken recently to some of the owners, I can throw some light on this.
Firstly, to answer jdivision, the council have taken ownership of two houses, numbers 3 and 14 by CPO, previously owned by the Underwoods. The Underwoods no longer own any property on this street. The house referred to as being for sale, number 7 is indeed in serious need of restoration and €1m+ would be the very minimum to get a good start underway; however at under €2m acquisition cost for more than 8,000 sq feet, I wouldn’t consider this to be “silly money” – at 4 floors over basement, 4 bays wide, the building would make an excellent corporate HQ, and has an amazing double height hallway with a baroque ceiling. More details are at the bottom of this post.
Secondly regarding the points made by AJ and Johnglas, I thoroughly agree. The street has been left in a disgraceful condition, however I want to make a few further points here:
1) About 15 years ago Dublin City Council commissioned repaving of the street, setting in cobbles replacing tarmac; however they did this in the absence of professionally qualified advice, with the result that the load bearing of the new cobbles started collapsing the street into cellars. Dublin City Council’s way to rectify such a problem, and restore the city’s oldest street – well to fill in the cellars with concrete 😮
Understandably a number of owners who had bought houses to prevent demolition in the 60s and 70s went nuts about this and were forced to take legal action to stop the council doing this to all of their properties on what is Dublin’s oldest Georgian street.
DCC simply then sat back and left the street covered with roadworks bollards for over 10 years, during the boom, substantially devaluing all properties on the street. This has since been resolved 18 months ago with owners ultimately accepting reinstatement of the cellar forms in concrete, as they could no longer afford legal bills. In reinstating the public domain, DCC inserted brand new granite slabs rather than appropriate historic pavings, some of which I now see have subsequently been removed with tarmac once again featuring as pavement 🙁
No compensation or grants to do up the houses was given by DCC for the years of damage they presided over.2) The monsterous block built at the end of the street was approved by Dublin City Council in 2003 – again the DCC planning department to blame, who should have stopped this.
3) Two years ago DCC produced a “conservation report”, which one would think would indicate that they now were going to show some commitment to the street. 10s of 1000s was spent on commissioning the report – however, once again no money whatsoever was allocated to the actual buildings themselves, except in fairness the structural consolidation of numbers 3 and 14, the houses CPO’d from the Underwoods. Hence in effect, a report that tells everyone how important the street is which is already well documented, and effectively nothing else.
4) Last year an “ideas competition” was commissioned up by DCC to reinstate the missing half of number 15; although a noble idea in itsef – and an excellent winning design – the reality on the ground is that no physical change occurs.
Are we beginning to notice a theme here? In my opinion it is very much at the door of DCC that the blame lies 😡
Bought by conservationists in the 60s and 70s as the buildings were under serious immediate threat, a number of the houses have been let to artists since the 70s which at least kept some life – however such lettings I do not believe would bring in much money. Instead should an owner wish to restore one of these houses, they will be further penalised by DCC with a development levies bill somewhere in the order of 40 – 70 thousand euros per house – so a further disincentive.
Despite all of this, the nuns did an excellent restoration of numbers 8 – 10 ten years ago, the King’s Inns have recently restored number 11, while numbers 5 and 6 have also had some works done in restoring the facades – as far as I am aware no grants money was made available by the state for these works. Furthermore I also note that number 13 is currently undergoing facade restoration.
Finally I fully agree that the street would make a tremendous amenity for tourism as an intact Georgian open air museum, particularly as it sits on top of what is now the ACA of Capel St – but it may be worth noting that there is absolutely no marketing of here or any other part of north Georgian Dublin. Instead just up the road two years ago DCC were happy to give the go-ahead to the demolition of the what they believed to be the birthplace of Richard Brinsley Sheridan at 12 Dorset Street. Subsequently refused on appeal to An BP, it then transpired the house wasn’t actually Sheridan’s as the street was renumbered – however despite this, the developer has since revised his scheme to reinstate that house and match it with a pastiche, and erect a plaque on the front noting BS’s connection with the street. So an amusing and happy ending there – but no thanks to DCC 😡
Hope this helps clarify a few points 🙂
in summary DCC are a joke
@rumpelstiltskin wrote:
Something has to be done about the surrounding area first. It’s actually slightly intimidating walking up there, as I imagine it would be for any tourists. I think this is part of the reason it’s so neglected; the fact that it’s survived around here at all is pretty amazing.
true but so is St Patricks Catherdal
