Irish Times Circulation: 82059 Friday, 11 April 2014 Area of Clip: 108700mm² Page: 14 Page 1 of 3

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OnlyGeorgianthree houses on Merrion Squarecore and eight housesIn onneed Fitzwilliam Squareof arenew lived in. What lifeis holding peopleback from moving into the area and what will it take to repopulate Dublin’s southside Georgian core?

use to be the address for Dublin’s ‘Nobody lives there' middle-class professionals - medical So why is it that hardly anyone lives there? consultants in the good old days, solicitorsAccording to the 2011Census, a mere 531 more recently, some architects people reside in the south Georgian core, still - but the south Georgian core is of which less than half are in buildings now in trouble as a working area, with up pre-dating 1919. A survey by DIT also toIt 20 per cent of its buildings vacant. found that only 7 per cent of all the properties This is seen by many experts as a perfect in the Georgian streets and squares Frank McDonald storm caused by changing business models, were residential. plunging property values, escalating Some of the underlying reasons cited by maintenance costs, scarce resources and a consultees included the self-reinforcing perceived onerous interpretation by Dublin point that “nobody lives there” (which City Council officials of architectural could obviously be changed) and other factors, conservation and building-control policies. such as the lack of gardens for children But the storm could also be an unrivalled to play in and the quality of local opportunity to return the Georgian schools. But St Stephen’s Green is close by squares and streets to their original use as are some of the best schools in the city. residential - thereby injecting much-needed Other consultees felt that “the houses life into an area that is now dead after are simply too big” - a view Kearns found dark. unconvincing, given that so many desirable City council planners are focusing on homes in , Dalkeyand Palmerston what might be done through policy co-ordination, Road are equivalent in size to houses marketing, tax incentives and other on . And the flights of initiatives to promote the concept of stairs “would not present a problem [for] “Living, working and waking up in Georgianable-bodied cohorts”. Dublin” - based on a “residential vision” Concerns were also expressed about the that aims to consolidate the city core cost of ongoing maintenance and the potential and urbanism in general. It is set out in a cost of carrying out renovations, lengthy discursive document, The Future due to uncertainty over how Dublin City of the South Georgian Core, drawn up last Council’s conservation policies would be year by senior planner Paul Kearns, with applied. Approval for the parking of dou- detailed recommendations; if these are not implemented, the report says, the future of one of the most distinctive areas in Dublin would be “put seriously at risk”. It describes , Fitzwilliam Square and their adjoining Georgian streets as “arguably Dublin’s greatest architectural and urban design set-pieces” (after College Green, surely?) and says Dubliners “wouldn’t disagree that this is quintessentially the most beautiful part of their city”. Irish Times Circulation: 82059 Friday, 11 April 2014 Area of Clip: 108700mm² Page: 14 Page 2 of 3

ble-decker buses on the south side of the high-end residential living” - such as Desmond’sfour-storey-over-basement building into square “doesn’t instil confidence”, the report dumb waiter. The installation of a apartments-the “Georgian Penthouse Duplex” concedes. lift was also seen by many as desirable or (top two floors), the “GeorgianPiano It also notes that overwhelming office even necessary. Nobile Duplex” (maim floor, with mezzanine) use in the area is sustained by “free” Certainly, there was “considerable disquiet” and the “Georgian City Garden Duplex” off-street parking - most of it unauthorised. among the consultees about the (hall floor and basement). The report says this has a real economiccouncil’s strict application of disability-access According to Kearns, such beguiling value: at €2.50 an hour, the value of certificates by its building-control terms “can become powerful marketing 20 car-parking spaces in any of the rear section. Quite how strict may be gauged by tools in furthering successful urban regeneration gardens works out at €100,000 ayear. a survey showing that Dublin city accounted in Georgian Dublin” - but only if Whatever the reasons, just three houses for 20 of 21 appeals to An Bord Pleanala fire safety and access issues are resolved on Merrion Square and eight houses on in 2010-2012,most of which were upheld. by taking a more balanced approach, Fitzwilliam Square are lived in. But even The report recommends that building-controlbased on a “shared vision” among planning, some of these are “phantom residential”, officers should show more flexibility conservation and building-control officers. such as the little-used house at 71 Merrion in dealing with protected structures, Square, controversially renovated by Dermotas they are allowed to do under the Building His report cautions against “conservation Desmond, whose principal Irish residence Regulations, and that the city council approaches to protected structures is on Ailesbury Road. should set up a “one-stop shop” where investorsthat are neither feasible nor practicable” could get expert guidance on what and says it should be possible to install they would be allowed to do. “pocket balcony spaces” or even roof gardens. // The sharp decline A virtual 3D model of the area might M in property prices Fallen prices also be generated and could be used as a provides an opportunity During the property bubble, it was not uncommonphone app to promote cultural tourism. for houses on Merrion Square to But if Dublin is to succeed in having its to prospective sell for up to €5 million each - depending Georgian core designated by Unesco as a residential investment on their size, condition and availability of world-heritage site, attracting middle-income car parking. More recently, prices sought earners to livethere “shouldbe a policy Many of Kearns’s consultees “referred for these large period houses have fallen to priority”; it cannot be left as “nobody’s to what is invariably described as ‘The Dermot€l-€2 million. job”. Edinburgh, for example, has nine specialist Desmond Dumb Waiter Legacy’, “The sharp decline in property prices planners/conservation officers dealing which has left a long-lasting and negative provides an opportunity to prospective residentialwith its Georgian New Town. impression that the city council doesn’t understand, investment. .. particularly for The city council has shown its goodwill nor is it sympathetic to, the desiresmiddle-income earners,” the report says. by abolishing punitive planning levies for or concerns of a certain high-income Demonstration models are needed now, changes of use from office to residential residential urban needs”. to show how this would work - as the ESB and it wants to see the Government initiative As the report says, there was “a concern has pledged to do in the context of its plans Living in the City extended to the or fear that conservation policy would inhibitfor Fitzwilliam Street. The city council got south Georgian core. What it needs to do the fitting or kitting-out of homes Architecture Republic (now Urban Agency) now, Kearns suggests, is appoint a “tsar” with all the mod cons of contemporary to look at converting a standard to take charge of the area. Irish Times Circulation: 82059 Friday, 11 April 2014 Area of Clip: 108700mm² Page: 14 Page 3 of 3

FitzwilliamSquare; George Thompson painting oneof the houses on the square; stained glass at theItalian Cultural Centre on the square. PHOTOGRAPHS:CYRIL BYRNE*

Classical sequences Mews house on Fitzwilliam Square

When architects Urban Agency designed been imagined as a journey, with a series a mews house for a mid-terrace site at the of spatial sequences articulated with rear of Fitzwilliam Square, the challenge various thresholds; lowand high spaces, was howto cater for contemporary living compressed and released moments, within the historical urban fabric. short and long views, the whole Eschewing pastiche, the practice aimed orchestrated with natural light" to “reinvent the banal box typology” of Bedrooms are at ground level, looking some mews schemes in Dublin, opting into a winter garden reminiscent of the for four interlocking, offset vaults to Victorian orangerie, while the living room, create a “dynamic series of outdoor and kitchen and dining areas are upstairs - a indoor spaces flooded with natural light". “true piano nobile, floating between the The vaults - inspired by the dominant treetops", as Laroussi says. Whetherthe stone arch on the lane, says Moroccanborn lanes around Fitzwilliam and Merrion Maxime Laroussi-allowforan squares could take equally imaginative enfilade of grand rooms surrounded by a mews houses without turning into an series of gardens and patios, even though architectural menagerie is a moot point. the house is “only 130sq m”. “The movement through the house has Frank McDonald

Views of the mews: houses ‘flooded with natural light'