Ringsend Public Library is an art deco style public library in Ringsend, Dublin designed by Robert Sorley Lawrie working in the city architect’s office under Horace O’Rourke.
This building was one of four similar libraries built by Dublin Corporation between 1935 and 1940 in the Dublin suburbs of Phibsborough, Ringsend, Drumcondra and Inchicore.
The Kodak Building is one of two listed Art Deco buildings in Dublin. It was designed by Architects Donnelly, Moore and Keatinge in 1930.
A complete refurbishment was undertaken in 1998 to convert the building into modern office space by Paul Keogh Architects . The project received an RIAI Award and won a prestigious Glen Dimplex Design Award in 2002. It was short listed for the RIAI Silver Medal for Conservation and has featured in international publications on the design principles of remodelling existing buildings for contemporary use.
Kodak began selling its original camera, created by George Eastman, in 1888 in the US for $25. It was a leather-covered box camera that came pre-loaded with 100-exposure roll film. When used up, the entire camera could be sent to the Kodak factory, after which it would be returned loaded with fresh film along with the negatives and mounted prints, for a cost of $10. It was advertised with the slogan “You Press the Button, We Do the Rest”. Replacement film was sold for $2 for customers who had access to photographic processing. The ease of use and relatively low cost made photography widely accessible to the general public rather than only professional photographers, beginning the modern era of consumer photography.
The Eastman Kodak Company (referred to simply as Kodak is an American public company that produces various products related to its historic basis in analogue photography. The company is headquartered in Rochester, New York, and is incorporated in New Jersey. Kodak provides packaging, functional printing, graphic communications, and professional services for businesses around the world. Its main business segments are Print Systems, Enterprise Inkjet Systems, Micro 3D Printing and Packaging, Software and Solutions, and Consumer and Film. It is best known for photographic film products.
ART DECO BUILDING – FORMER BANK OF IRELAND ON ROYAL AVENUE IN BELFAST
The five-storey listed building on Royal Avenue is one of very few art deco buildings remaining in Belfast. Located on Royal Avenue it has remained vacant since the Bank of Ireland relocated their headquarters to Donegall Square South in 2005.
In 2012 the building was headline news when the “Take Back The City” element of the Occupy Belfast protest began squatting there.
Late last year [2021] Belfast City Council purchased the building to home a new £100 million tourist project. The building will be restored and turned into Belfast Stories, visitor experience which will tell the stories of Belfast, the people and the place. The Belfast Stories development is one of seven tourism and regeneration projects included in the Belfast Region City Deal (BRCD). Due to open in 2028, elements of the new visitor attraction will be housed in the building and the surrounding 4,000 sq m site.
CHRIST THE KING CHURCH BY BARRY BYRNE AT TURNER’S CROSS IN CORK
Visitors are immediately greeted by an impressive 19 foot sculpture of Christ the King, by Chicago modernist sculptor John Storrs, towering up over the twin entrance doors with arms outstretched.
Turners Cross is a ward on the south side of Cork City, and home to the Roman Catholic parish of the same name.
Largely residential, one of the key features of the area is the iconic church created by architect Barry Byrne and sculptor John Storrs, the Church of Christ The King. It was commissioned in 1927 by Rev Daniel Cohalan D.D., Bishop of Cork. The church was the first Irish church to be built from concrete instead of brick and is one of the largest suspended-ceiling churches in Europe. Opened in 1931, the church is based on the principles of Art Deco which makes strong use of symmetric and geometric forms.
CHANCERY HOUSE, PARK AND KIOSK – DESIGNED BY HERBERT SIMMS
“Designed by Herbert George Simms as part of the development of Chancery House housing scheme, this modest kiosk is built in the same style as the latter with Art Deco elements including a stepped parapet and geometric window railings. The contractor was G.& T. Crampton. The housing scheme was heavily influenced by what was happening in Amsterdam at the time, with many of the buildings having fine rounded corners and brick detail. These flats are unusual in that they have a mixture of rendered surfaces and brickwork. There is a small enclosed garden to the foreground for the residents at the perimeter of which stands the kiosk. The use of Gaelic script to the front of the kiosk provides artistic as well as contextual interest. The provision of a clock to the outer façade is both functional and decorative, and indicates the responsibility to the public which was assumed by the architect.”
In May 2018 Dublin City Council considered a report from city officials proposing that blocks of flats across Dublin’s city centre should be taken off the list of protected structures, and demolished to make way for “regeneration”.
Later the City Council made the following statement “Dublin City Council has not planned the demolition of any of the blocks designed by Herbert Simms (aside from those already being redeveloped as part of the Teresa’s Gardens regeneration programme) nor planned de-listing of these blocks and there is no current suggestion of changing this position.”
Herbert George Simms (30 November 1898 – 28 September 1948) was an English architect who worked in the department of the Dublin City Architect Horace Tennyson O’Rourke.
During the First World War he served in the Royal Field Artillery. He was awarded an ex-service scholarship of £150 and tuition fees which allowed him to study architecture at Liverpool University. He began studies in October 1919 but had to abandon them for financial reasons when the three years ended. He had received the Certificate in Architecture in 1921 and passed the third and fourth years of the Diploma course. On grounds of previous office work and the standard of his studies he was permitted to sit the course for the Certificate in Civic Design which he was awarded in March 1923.
After university he moved to Dublin, where he worked for a while in the office of Aubrey Vincent O’Rourke. In February 1925 he was appointed temporary architect to Dublin Corporation, a role that was gradually extended and lasted until December 1927. In 1926 he was authorised to visit London, Liverpool and Manchester to examine the latest developments in flats.
In 1932 or 1933 a separate housing architect’s department was formed to focus on the building of new houses and Simms was appointed to the new role of Corporation housing architect. He immediately recruited staff to work in the department. In the sixteen years he was in the post he was responsible for the construction of 17,000 residences, including both flats and houses.
His work on flats showed influences by Michel de Klerk, Jacobus Oud and Johannes van Hardeveld.
After Horace O’Rourke retired in 1945, the pressure on Simms increased. He had already suffered one nervous breakdown fifteen years before and on 28 September 1948 he took his own life by throwing himself under a train at Dún Laoghaire. A suicide note said that he felt overwork was threatening his sanity. He was buried in Deans Grange Cemetery.
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