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REVISITING DUBLIN CITY QUAYS ASSIGNMENT 1: Interpreting & Understanding the Urban Narrative

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REVISITING DUBLIN CITY QUAYS ASSIGNMENT 1: Interpreting & Understanding the Urban Narrative REVISITING DUBLIN CITY QUAYS ASSIGNMENT 1: Interpreting & understanding the urban narrative ‘Dublin City Quays are the face of the city to the river. They are an essential part of what makes Dublin a special city. If we lose them we lose the soul of Dublin’ (Gerry Cahill, 1986) [Lombard, 1987] Rachel Loughrey ARCT 40020 UNIVERSITY COLLEGE DUBLIN SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE The Custom House and Georges Quay ‘Given its exceptional character this site offers the opportunity to make a unique piece of city in close proximity to the traditional urban centre’.(Benson et al.1987) Georges’ Quay and the area of the Custom House is a critical city block in Dublin located between the city and the port. City blocks are in a way like cells in a body, either helping the life and functioning of a city or blocking it like a cancer. This short report examines this way of analysing a city block. [Custom House and Georges’ Quay, 1980] [Custom House and Georges’ Quay, 2015] This analysis demonstrates that despite the best intentions of the planners, the city quay has turned out to have a cancerous negative impact on the city such as that the quay has failed in the following key criteria for healthy city blocks: 1.It is gated; shutting out diversity and pedestrians 2.It is nonfunctional excluding diversity 3.It is over scaled with no city green space, shutting out light and life to the street [photo:walking beside custom house] Georges’ city Quays and the Custom House in the 1980s were described as ‘largely redundant’.(Benson et al.1987) However since the area of the Custom House and Georges’ Quay ‘occupies a central and highly accessible waterfront location in the inner city’ (Benson et al.1987) it became a flame of interest for the government. Alas the Urban Renewal Act 1986 came into play. It was claimed that the Urban Renewal Act, 1986 was ‘to regenerate the improvement of the environment of that area, so as to rebuild confidence and encourage investments’ (Benson et al.1987). The Act also claimed that the development of the area must be seen as a critical and challenging first step in the transformation of the relationship between the riverfront and the centre of the city. (Benson et al.1987) The Custom House Docks development must set the standard for renewal of the city. Its development must exploit fully the site’s fine waterfront setting with style, flair, and imagination, pursuing excellence of design and quality of construction.’ (Benson et al.1987) It is interesting to read the Custom House Docks Development Board proposal for the Custom House docks area in lieu of what was actually built. In this report the river Liffey is referenced as the key focal point in the city. However, in the reality the Liffey was not considered in any of the designs. ‘In a special way, the history of the River Liffey is the history of Dublin’. (Benson et al.1987) Reference is made to James Joyce giving the River mythical properties in her embodiment as Anna Livia. Jack B.Yeat’s painting of the Liffey Swim is also referenced. This artistic flair and hopeful guise of how the quays were to develop did not come into consideration. (Benson et al.1987) [Yeats,1923] When it came down to the urban design and the site planning for Georges’ Quay and the Custom House area nothing of the flowery language or hopeful reminiscing of the river Liffey’s past importance and beauty was in any way utilised. After the Urban Renewal Act was put forward the competition for redesign was opened. Instead of obviously going for a project which would as they had stated ‘exploit fully the sites fine waterfront setting with style, flair and imagination’, they instead opted for stocky buildings which were financially secure. [photo: view of custom house, IFSC] Buildings on Georges’ Quay like the Ulster Bank Headquarters do not embrace the waterfront. Statements saying ‘public spaces are fundamental to the quays success’ (Benson et al.1987) are brushed aside and instead the Custom House Docks Authority chose an un-urban plan which gave nothing back to the city and inhabitants of Dublin. [photo: Ulster Bank Headquaters, KMD Architecture] [photo: Ulster Bank Headquaters, KMD Architecture] The IFSC House akin to the Ulster Bank Headquarters does not give back to the Liffey in any way. Instead it acts as an off scale abrasive number of structures which takes away a lot of the beauty from the architecture of the Custom House. [Photo:IFSC House] Alas it is interesting to pair the built 1980s Custom House and Georges’ Quay area with the hopeful thinking of the Dublin City Quays Project prefigured by the UCD School Of Architecture. As Gerry Cahill(1986) stated ‘The city can become a place to live work and relax’. This methodology was holistically put forward by the Dublin City Quays Group. The area of the Custom House and Georges’ quay in the 1980s had everything a city centre space needs to thrive. The area was firstly located in the heart of the city, it had a railway station in the south western corner, the main bus hub was a stone throw away. It also was located beside the ‘widest, longest and potentially the most impressive urban space in the city’. (Cahill et al.1986) [Clearly et. all, 1986] [Clearly et. all, 1986] Georges Quays main characteristic is its axis to the Custom House. The idea of setting a formal space up on axis to one of Irelands most impressive buildings is a very intelligent move. Visitors and inhabitants of the city alike would rest here in this new ‘urban room’ and gaze upon the beautiful piece of architecture which is the Custom House. [The New Custom House, 1867] ‘The sides of the space are colonnaded and have shopping and restaurants at ground level. There are four floors of offices accessed through raised landscaped courts which have public entrances at intervals along the main space. The corners of the space near the river are large pavilions which indicate the space from a distance..’ (Cahill et al. 1986) ‘The south western conner has apartments which look onto a raised private garden and reestablish the building line of both streets’. (Cahill et al. 1986) The proposed underground parking at one of the main areas in Dublin City is a very imaginative design idea for the quays. Not only will it encourage more people to visit the quays,it will also bring income into the area and push people to eat in the new restaurants. Even though it was known ‘for a fact that the quays (in the 1980s) are littered with derelict sites’ and ‘the population of the inner city is falling rapidly’(Cahill et al. 1986) The Dublin City Quays Project believed that change could happen. They believed that the projects at the Custom House Docks and Georges’ Quay could create spaces as fine as a any in Europe’.(Gerry Cahill, 1986) The Dublin City Quays group saw the real potential of the Custom House and Georges Quay and how it could be like the dock areas of the Thames in London or the Seine in Paris. [Seine, Paris,Pissarro,1901] Hopeful thinking, optimism and studying successful city areas around the world should have been the protocol for change in the 1980s. The projects outlined in the Dublin City Quays book are evocative and full of energy and hope.In their projects they want a city where the Liffey is the true heart of Dublin and life bustles around the river like in the ages gone.. ‘The light that left you streaks the walls Of Georgian houses, pubs, cathedrals, coasters moored below Butt Bridge And old men at the water’s edge Where Anna Livia, breathing free, Weeps silently into the sea, Her small sorrows mingling with The wandering waters of the Earth’. Derek Mahon: Leaving Howth. [Photo from National Library Archive,c.1899] One can only dream of what the area around the Custom House and Georges Quay would be like today if only the Dublin City Quays project had been designed. The area would be a bustle with inhabitants of the city and visitors from other lands alike trundling down the quays, awing at the beauty of the custom house while leisurely dining alfresco in one of the restaurants in the new ‘urban room’. The area would be changed beautifully. One can imagine watching this video of two elderly tourists watching the quays and the Custom House in an other world where there is no traffic, the architecture is not abrasive and the Liffey is highlighted as the once majestic artery that it once was. film link : https://vimeo.com/141384578 References Benson,F.L, Corrigan, K.P.A, Doyle, P.V, Herlihy,P, O’Rourke,D, MacAmhlaigj G(1987) Custom House Docks Dublin: Custom House Docks Development Authority, Cahill Printers Ltd. Cahill, G., O’Neill C., Bannon M.J., de Courcy, S., McDonnell, P., Culligan, D.,McMonagle,M., Clancy, J,. Convery, F.J., Malone, P., Brwone,I,. O’Siochru,E,. O’Muire, T., Tomlin,B., Keogh,P., Tynan,D(1986) Dublin City Quays -Projects by the School of Architecture UCD, The Orchard Press Ltd. Images National Library of Ireland, Dublin Port Butt Bridge. Available at: http://www.bridgesofdublin.ie/gallery/view/butt-bridge-c1899 [Accessed 25 September 2015] Camille Pissarro (1830-1903) - ‘Morning, Winter Sunshine, Frost, the Pont-Neuf, the Seine, the Louvre, Soleil D’hiver Gella Blanc’, ca. 1901. Available at: http://www.historytoday.com/andrew-trout/seine-life- line-paris [Accessed 27 September 2015] Image from Dublin Port Authrity,’The New Custom House 1867’.
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