Grand designs will test patience

Major cultural projects will take a long time to be realised because the Government seeks to procure them as public-private partnerships, writes Frank McDonald

It is now more than two years since the Dublin Docklands Development Authority (DDDA) announced plans for an iconic performing arts centre in the Grand Canal Docks, designed by international "starchitect" Daniel Libeskind. In May 2004, it was said that work on the 2,000-seat Grand Canal Theatre would start "soon" with a view to having the wedge-shaped structure - reminiscent of the spaceship in Close Encounters - completed by 2007.

Though the flanking office block designed by Duffy Mitchell O'Donoghue is finished and work is well under way on the adjoining Meridien hotel by Portuguese architect Manuel Aires Mateus, no move has yet been made on the theatre site. This is all the more surprising because revamping of the square that will provide its generous forecourt - a radical scheme by American landscape architect Martha Schwartz - is well under way, even though it was only unveiled last January.

Schwartz's design features a red "carpet", made from bright resin-glass paving, extending from the theatre to the dock, crossed by a green "carpet" of polygon-shaped planters. Angled red-glowing "light sticks" sprout from the red paving. When this plan was first announced, the DDDA anticipated that construction of the theatre would start last April, but that didn't happen. Attempts to contact developer Terry Devey to find out the latest state of play were unsuccessful. Last Saturday, it was revealed in The Irish Times that developer Joe O'Reilly - whose biggest project to date has been Dundrum Town Centre - is to take a major stake in the scheme, with a view to completing the theatre by mid-2009.

Other major cultural projects planned for the city will take even longer to realise, not least because the Government is seeking to procure them as public-private partnership (PPP) projects; the National Conference Centre saga offers a salutary preview.

The Abbey Theatre is another, and so is the proposed new National Concert Hall. How will it be possible to shoehorn a 2,000-seat auditorium and a smaller hall for 500, while retaining the existing one, on the restricted site at Earlsfort Terrace? There is already talk of forging a relationship between the new facilities and the Iveagh Gardens to the rear. The likelihood is that the large auditorium, with its cafe, bar and restaurant, will spill over into this hitherto "secret park".

All the Government decided to do last April was to "designate" the Earlsfort Terrace site - still occupied by a number of UCD faculties - as the appropriate location; the complex logistics are being left to Office of Public Works architects to figure out.

Plans by Dublin City Council to transform Parnell Square into a "cultural destination" will take a long time to realise, especially as they are contingent on buildings in the Rotunda Hospital being replaced to create a "square within a square". Drawn up by architect Seán Harrington, the first phase should see the Garden of Remembrance becoming more "user friendly", with a new pedestrian access and paved forecourt opposite the extended Hugh Lane Gallery. An etched glazed screen will form the boundary between the platform and the sunken garden, originally designed by Dublin city architect Daithí Hanly. Its finest feature is not the cruciform pool, but Oisín Kelly's Children of Lir sculpture. Hopefully, the re-ordering of Parnell Square will also rescue the former Ambassador cinema, once the Rotunda's concert rooms. Its best possible use would be as a new Central Library to replace the awful one in the Ilac Centre.

One cultural project that received a nudge in the right direction last week is Exploration Station, the interactive children's museum planned for a site opposite Heuston Station, with an allocation of €150,000 towards its planning and start-up costs. It is to be the anchor for a mixed-use development designed by Paul Keogh Architects that includes a 32-storey residential tower which, if built, would be Ireland's tallest building. More space for Imma is also to be provided on an adjoining site.

The real question about the cultural facilities being planned is whether Dublin has sufficient critical mass to sustain them. The National Conference Centre at Spencer Dock by Kevin Roche will have a flexible 2,000-seat auditorium. Add the redeveloped Point Theatre, with a capacity of 15,000; the Grand Canal Theatre (2,000), the new Abbey (1,000) and the new NCH (2,000), and one wonders if we're not losing the run of ourselves entirely.