North Circular Road, DublinA planning permission sign, for archi-nerds such as myself, is like a road accident. I know I should keep going, but I can't help but look to see what destruction is in store. Behind this stone wall lurks #230, a former doctor's residence on the site of the old Richmond District Lunatic Asylum in Grangegorman, Dublin. #230, along with its adjacent neighbors, have been slotted for destruction to make way for something the Grangegorman Development Agency refers to repeatedly (and ominously) on their site as their "Masterplan." (Somehow the lack of a space between the two words, not to mention the capitalization, adds to the sinister quality of it.)
However true the phrase may to be the higher-ups, I find it unnerving when development agencies apply the mean-spirited tag "of little architectural value." But at least I appreciate that documenting, photographing, and capturing the buildings -- prior to knocking them down like bowling pins, that is -- is often part of the, ahem, Masterplan. Consider this my small contribution to the documentation. After all, it says nothing of preserving the numbers.
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