Jim Barrett is retiring as Dublin City Architect on June 15th, having made a major contribution to the capital, writes Frank McDonald, Environment Editor
THOSE achievements have been substantial. Projects he was involved in as a "mover and shaker" include the Liffey Boardwalk, the Spire in O'Connell Street, the restoration of City Hall, the remaking of Smithfield, the Millennium footbridge and the James Joyce bridge at Blackhall Place, among other interventions.
Jim Barrett had made his name in Limerick, of course. And it is largely due to his 20-year-old vision of turning the city around to face the Shannon that the riverside is now peppered with apartments, offices, restaurants, pubs and shops as well as two high-rise buildings - the Clarion hotel and Riverpoint office block.
Pat Keogh, the developer to whom he has agreed to sell his home at Eglinton Wood - subject to planning permission - is based in Limerick, coincidentally. The scheme of townhouses, designed by an old friend, architect Gerry Mitchell, has been approved by city council planners, but is certain to be appealed by local residents.
Barrett entered the planning arena on previous occasions, often in defence of high-rise schemes, such as the abortive Skidmore Owings and Merrill plan for George's Quay and at least some elements of the overblown master plan for the National Conference Centre site at Spencer Dock, by Irish expatriate Kevin Roche.
In doing so, he clashed with former chief planning officer Pat McDonnell, whose reports in 1999 on both of these schemes were quite scathing. But Barrett had the support of former city manager John Fitzgerald, with whom he worked very closely in developing ideas on how to improve Dublin's degraded public realm.
The Liffey Boardwalk, for example, was conceived over drinks with Fitzgerald and current chief planner Dick Gleeson in a bar in Liverpool - though Barrett insists that the story about him sketching it on a beer mat isn't true. Later, architects McGarry Ní Eanaigh were commissioned to bring it to fruition as a millennium project.
Although it was described by An Taisce at the time as "anti-urban and gimmicky", Barrett stuck to his guns - and few would argue that he was wrong in doing so. He was equally strong in deflecting the brickbats fired at the idea of erecting a soaring stainless steel "spike" on the site of Nelson's Pillar in O'Connell Street. Since Ian Ritchie's design won an international competition in 1998, he was convinced that the Spire would have a "phenomenal wow factor" - which indeed it has. All Barrett got wrong was that it wouldn't have to be cleaned because it's stainless steel; apart from the shiny base, it is now streaked by Dublin's grime.
Built two years behind schedule, after the High Court ordered an environmental impact assessment, the Spire was an instant hit. When it was finally inaugurated in July 2003, even the then Lord Mayor, Cllr Dermot Lacey, had to admit that he had been "utterly and inexorably wrong" in opposing it at the outset.
The €5.7 million restoration of City Hall, reinstating its "spacious, lofty and noble" internal layout when it was originally built as the Royal Exchange in 1779, was another triumph. And that it was done "just for the joy of it", as conservation architect Paul Arnold said at the time, spoke volumes about the city administration.
Of course, it's possible to make wrong calls - as in the case of that universally-detested new building, with its bleak plaza, beside the City Hall, designed by MBM Arquitectes, of Barcelona. Barrett commissioned them to do it "because of their urban design strength as much as their architectural skills". It just didn't work out.
Dublin City Council deserves credit for other speculative schemes, such as architect Shay Cleary's office block beside the Mansion House or Donnelly Turpin's building in Tara Street, now occupied by The Irish Times, and for David Slattery's exemplary restoration of a grand pair of Georgian houses on St Stephen's Green.
Jim Barrett worked well with deputy city engineer Tim Brick on several projects, such as the Millennium footbridge (by Howley Harrington Architects/Price & Myers structural engineers), the restoration of the Halfpenny Bridge (by Paul Arnold) and the James Joyce Bridge, one of two designed for Dublin by Santiago Calatrava.
"I wouldn't in any way be apologising for it because I believe it's the right thing to do," Barrett said after the parabolic-arched bridge was criticised by An Taisce; bridges were about more than "just conveying X number of cars from one side of the river to the other". But vandals have since wreaked havoc on its glazed panels.
The four grey metal kiosks on Grattan Bridge were conceived as book stalls, to recreate something which the city used to have on Bachelor's Walk and Wellington Quay. But the late Gerald Davis condemned their "visual vandalism" and, in truth, they don't work. Three are vacant and they should all be relocated to, say, Smithfield.
Smithfield hasn't quite worked out either, certainly not for concerts (too many of its residents objected). Though the 12 tall lighting masts, designed by McGarry Ní Eanaigh, certainly put it on the map, their signature gas braziers are rarely lit and - quite inexplicably - the plaza remains unfinished at its southern end.
Other projects have yet to be realised, such as the MBM plan to make a centrepiece of the Fruit and Vegetable Market after it changes from wholesale to retail, and the Urban Design Initiative that was meant to transform more than 50 run-down public spaces in the city; its results have fallen far short of the ambition in 2000.
One factor that helped Jim Barrett realise as much as he did was that "the money was there, so we couldn't say 'we can't afford it'. The quality of architecture in Dublin has improved enormously, there's a tremendous energy out there and I've been more than happy to get the chance to tap into it and do something."
He strongly believes that there must be leadership in urban design and this must be provided by the local authorities. But now he's moving back to the private sector, to become a freelance consultant on development projects that interest him. An always ebullient, almost Falstaffian figure, he will be missed in the Civic Offices.
