This is the new TCD biosciences building. You're in Pearse St. at the junction of Sandwith St. looking towards the Westland Row and Tara St. intersections.
I pass here regularly and have been keeping an eye on the site since it was a ground level car park. It now looks more or less finished, but you never know what lies behind a new building façade these days.
Clearly, the intention was to let the ground level to some sort of retail activities. No doubt the rent from these was expected to offset some of the mortgage/loan service costs.
So far this has not worked out and the ground level windows and doors have huge, very lifelike, photos behind the glass, depicting a newsagent's, a coffee dock, and something else I can't quite fathom.
It struck me to wonder yesterday if these images had in any way been customised to the locality they were now displayed in. So I had a quick look at the magazine shelves to see if there were any Irish publications on display.
Divil a bit. A panorama of globalised civilisation? They all looked American (USA) to me.
And the newspapers? Those that I could see and identify were American: Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and the Arizona Reporter.
Then there was the coffee dock. The newspaper was something called Arts Entertainment. Certainly not one of ours. But, wait a minute. There is something odd about the girl's t-shirt.
Indeed there is. She is wearing it inside out. The photo is not reversed as the menu and newspapers are OK. So what is this then. The t-shirt is for College Heights Christian School, which has a catchment area in four US states and gives a first and second level Christian education. Did the shoot director figure this was too specific for the stock photos he was shooting and ask her to turn it inside out? Intriguing.
But there was a limit to the globalised input. One of our own, with blue paint and brush, had gone around obliterating invisible nipples. Well, some of them, anyway. Yes, the paint is on the outside of the glass!
And again. Maybe John Charles was right about Trinity after all and Maria Duce should have been given freer rein in its day.
It's a wonder our graffiti person left the bra strap showing, but then there's no accounting for taste.
I passed this way again today and, thankfully, most of the ground floor units are occupied.
You will remember this one from above, and the miracle is ...
... four years on, one blued nipple still survives.
This building could be very useful for those of us who use the DART and frequent the Gilbert Library, in the Dublin City Library and Archive, as it contains a new, and more convenient, entrance to Pearse Station.
ReplyDeleteHopefully work on the building will be finished and the lack of ground floor tenants will not delay the opening of this entrance for too long.