Peter Fitz
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Ah yes, lets make sure that the Rosie Hacket challenges the shit out of O’Connell Bridge, not only by its proximity but now by giving it the show time lighting treatment.
So the aforementioned ‘lighting scheme’ from Kenilworth Park – Kenilworth Road – Grosvenor Road is now complete it seems.
What we got is a lovely mish mash, you might even say an eclectic mix.
Entrance to Street
A few new posts, hewn from melted shopping trollies
And, ah lads I couldn’t be arsed with this anymore
Nice one DCC.
Meanwhile I see the Luas carve up of the street begins as the RPA get to realise their vision – a vista of overhead cables through the heart of the city and it’s main buildings.
A crazy, lazy decision, typical of the contempt many state agencies seem to display for this city & its built environment.
What have they done to the oriental planes on O’Connell Street? – It is normal to raise the crown of a tree as it matures, but not to remove half of it’s branches.
Just as they were coming in to their own, we are no left with a few leaves on a stick, no doubt all in the name of Bridey, who couldn’t quite see her bright yellow bus stop.
It looks like the shopping trolley treatment is being extended to take in Kenilworth park, Kenilworth Square North, Kenilworth Road & Grosvenor Road.
Most of the existing posts appear to be in very good condition. No doubt the council will argue that there were wiring difficulties internally, but surely some form of reconditioning was a viable option when set against the cost of a fresh install.
So that crappy galvanised post that stood alone at the top of Kenilworth Square North for the last number of years was no accident and has been deemed an acceptable replacement for the entire stretch from the junction with Rathgar Avenue down to the end of Kenilworth Road.
20 or so of the brown aggregate concrete posts line the stretch right down to the end of Kenilworth Road, one of the longest remaining stretches that I am aware of, currently being ripped out and replaced with the lighting equivalent of a shopping trolley.
I remember when RTE started to relay euronews in the mid 1990’s, that somewhat annoying but oddly compelling news station.
On their weather round up, they would take a whistle stop tour of European capitals, featuring an iconic photo of each city, overlayed with weather graphics.
Sometimes, Dublin even made it in to the mix, oh the glamour.
Euronews decided that parts of this terrace were representative of the Irish capital, and so a shambolic image of Dublin was presented, complete with random neon signage, tacky shop fronts & the general mish mash we’ve become used to.
The image was cringe worthy. I remember thinking the obvious, why couldn’t they just use a shot of the Custom house, Four Courts or whatever?
But then the reality is that given it’s prominence, Dublin leaves itself open to the perception that this terrace is representative of the capital & who could blame that euronews graphics guy from the mid 90’s for thinking so.
@rumpelstiltskin wrote:
I have to disagree with this. Maybe it’s just my obsession, but I think this terrace is the worst thing in the whole of Dublin city centre. It’s a combination of its prominent location and the egregiousness of its aesthetic crimes that does it for me. It’s supposed to be a gateway to O’Connell St, “the premier street of the nation”. What does it say about us as a country, then, that this is what the entrance to it looks like.
In fact it’s so important, that the city needs to provide a financial incentive to get that original brickwork exposed. That rendering of the corner building is a complete aesthetic disaster, regardless of how long it’s been there. It makes the whole area seem shabby and grey, and really drags down O’Connell St and Bachelors Walk. It should be removed, or at the very least painted over – but the former option is of course by far the more desirable.
+1.
Targeted financial incentives to encourage sensitive restoration, and they’ll have to be significant, are in reality the only way any substantial progress can be made on sites such as this.
A more enlightened approach may eventually develop, but in the short term, it’s all about the money.
“10 Thousand Restaurant” given 3 years permission, bringing us nicely up to 2016.
Just the thing to mark the centenary.
I believe Collins was partial to the odd ‘B Special’.
Interesting that the city council’s latest vision for the future of our city ‘Your city, Your space’ notes that there has been a ‘proliferation of street furniture, signage and other forms of clutter in recent years’… ‘negatively affecting the visual quality of these spaces’ alongside a commitment to develop a ‘design’ to upgrade College Green & Grafton Street…just weeks after their botched lighting additions to College Green pictured in Graham’s post.
One arm knows not what the other does.
In fairness the report does at least go some way to identify the nub of the issue, namely that there is ‘no overarching control mechanism other than a permit system’ for the key players carving up our city spaces – city council, transport agencies, utility companies, state agencies and private developers.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/frontpage/2012/0104/1224309781208.html?via=mr
