DublinBikes

ACROSS THE STREET FROM THE GOOGLE BUILDING ON GRAND CANAL STREET

February 18, 2024 by infomatique

DUBLINBIKES DOCKING STATION 14

Google employees will be able to cycle to and from work as there is a DublinBikes docking station across the street from their workplace.

I have not visited this area for a few years and today I was surprised to discover that the Treasury Building is currently a construction site.

When I returned from California in the 1980s I lived at the corner of Eblana Villas and Lower Grand Canal Street and at the time the building was the Hertz HQ in Ireland. There were three apartments but mine was the only one that was occupied. I think that the building is now named Wentworth House and it may have been home to a language college. I was offered all three apartments at a very good price but decided against buying as there was serious anti-social activity in the immediate area.

Google bought the Treasury Building from Ronan Group Real Estate for €120 million in early 2020 to further expand their Silicon Docks campus which is nearby. In February 2022 Dublin City Council granted planning permission to Google Ireland to increase the height of the building from six to eight storeys.

The Treasury Building was the headquarters of the Irish government’s National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) for many years. Redeveloped by Ronan Group, the Treasury Building was described as a landmark six-storey Grade A office building that previously housed Boland’s Bakery. This historic building was occupied by Éamon de Valera, later President of Ireland, during the 1916 Easter Rising.

Following its purchase in 1984, a major redevelopment saw the building stripped back to its concrete framed structure and reimagined for a new commercial future with the first 20,000 sq ft floorplates ever delivered in the Irish market.

Rowan Gillespie was commissioned to create a sculpture for the outside wall of the building. The statue, named ‘Aspiration’, was originally of a naked man climbing the outside wall, but Johnny Ronan insisted that the sculpture be changed to a woman. The statue was made of fibreglass. The sculpture was removed in 2020 when the building was sold.

HANOVER QUAY EAST DOCKING STATION 117 AT THE AIRBNB WAREHOUSE HQ BUILDING REF-225479-1

November 27, 2023 by infomatique

THERE IS ANOTHER STATION AROUND THE CORNER ON BENSON STREET

For some unknown reason there is no number plate identify this docking station so I decided to explore the user interface and it showed the location as being Station 117 at East Hanover Quay. There is another docking station very close by on Benson Street.

Housed in one of the last remaining warehouse buildings that were so characteristic of the Dublin Dockands, the new EMEA headquarters building for Airbnb is designed as a workspace for 400 people.

Hanover Quay forms the north boundary of the extensive L-shaped docks that terminated the Grand Canal, next to the mouth of the River Dodder. Constructed between 1757 and 1796, the Grand and Royal canals encircle Dublin city centre and provide navigable waterway connections between the Liffey and Shannon rivers. Despite construction of these deep-water docks, ships continued to berth on the Liffey quays and, with the decline of the Grand Canal, the associated docks followed suit.

Despite alterations to the adjacent quays, the calp limestone walls are retained, in addition to other salient features. The scale and quality of construction of the quay and docks are testament to the ambitions of the Grand Canal Company. It forms an important part of the city’s industrial heritage and is an important reminder of the heyday of the canal era, prior to its demise following the arrival of the railway. The district is now largely redeveloped, focusing on the Grand Canal Theatre.

HANOVER QUAY EAST DOCKING STATION 117 AT THE AIRBNB WAREHOUSE HQ BUILDING [THERE IS ANOTHER STATION AROUND THE CORNER ON BENSON STREET]-225479-1
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DUBLINBIKES DOCKING STATION 42 REF-225435-1

November 26, 2023 by infomatique

A WET COLD DAY AT SMITHFIELD PLAZA

Smithfield Square is not a place that I visit on a regular basis but I usually visit at this time as they usually have an interesting Christmas Tree but this year it was not worth photographing so I photographed the DublinBikes Docking Station instead. The weather was horrible … wet and cold.

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DUBLINBIKES DOCKING STATION 99

October 7, 2023 by infomatique

SIR JOHN ROGERSONS’S QUAY OCTOBER 2023

I visit this area frequently as I have friends living in the area.

With an Annual Subscription you can rent a bike 365 days a year for an annual fee of €35. The first 30 minutes of each journey is free, after this rental charges apply.

DublinBikes, also known as NOW DublinBikes, is a self-service bike rental system open to everyone from fourteen years of age.

Stations are distributed throughout the city centre to enable easy access and optimal use for subscribers. Each station has a minimum of fifteen stands, making it easy to avail of this service.

The service is accessible twelve months a year, seven days a week between the hours of 5am and 12.30am.

For more information on how to access the service visit the official website

DUBLINBIKES DOCKING STATION 71

October 6, 2023 by infomatique

KEVIN STREET ACROSS FROM WHERE THE COLLEGE WAS

For over 130 years, Kevin Street was synonymous with technological education in Ireland, but in 2021, TU Dublin closed the gates of Kevin Street for a final time as staff and students relocate to fabulous new facilities in the Central Quad on the new Grangegorman campus.

Back in the late 1960s I studied Telecommunications and Electronics at Kevin Street College Of Technology and I must admit that I disliked the building which was supposed to be modern and the best thing since sliced-bread. The classrooms were too warm in good weather and freezing in winter and there were many other problems that I will not discuss here.

Dublin Institute of Technology has its origins in the City of Dublin Technical Schools, with a Technical College founded at Kevin Street in 1885. In 1963, the Minister for Education, (future President) Patrick Hillery, signed a contract for a new building for the College of Technology at Kevin Street. The project was completed in 1968, with Hooper & Mayne as the architects. It’s an International Style building, with the administration and entrance block to Kevin Street capped by a wavy canopy on the fourth floor.

The Kevin Street College site was sold in April 2019 for €140 million: https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/art-and-design/frank-mcdonald-what-s-not-to-like-about-dublin-s-new-kevin-st-development-quite-a-lot-1.4321803

In 2021 An Bord Pleanála granted a 10 year planning permission to Shane Whelan’s Westridge Real Estate for the development of 53,110 sq ft of office accommodation in two 11-storey blocks alongside 299 build to rent apartments across three buildings of up to 14 storeys in height. Westridge acquired the 3.57 acre site for €140 million in August 2019 and a report lodged with the plans by EY estimates that the total output that the redevelopment will generate over 10 years is €7.67 billion.