Embassy an Urban Monument
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Transcript of Embassy an Urban Monument
Aoife O’Leary 06516572
Embassy: An Urban Monument
Supervised by Dr. Samantha Martin-Mcauliffe.
Fig. 1: Embassy Plaza
Abstract
What is the urban role of an embassy? Through the lens of the United States Embassy in Dublin, this
dissertation analyses the place of an embassy in the city as a deliberate, accidental and transformative
monument. The potential for an embassy to transform the physical and spatial characteristics of an inherited
landscape is explored; as well as as the embassy’s effect on the memory of this inherited landscape and its
own place in the collective memory of the city.
I
I would like to thank my supervisor Dr. Samantha Martin-Mcauliffe, my parents and classmates for their
support and encouragement.
II
Table of Contents
Abstract I
Acknowldgements II
Table of Contents III
List of Figures IV-V
Introduction 1
Existing Memory on the Site 2-7
Constructed Memory: The Embassy as a Deliberate Monument 8-18
Collective Memory: The Embassy as an Unintentional Monument 18-24
Embassy translated from Monument to Primary Element 24-30
Embassy as a Propelling Element 31-37
Conclusion 38-39
Bibliography 40-44
III
List of Figures
Fig. 1: Embassy Plaza IN: Johansen., John M., (1996) A Life in the Continuum of Modern Architecture, ( l’Arca
Edizioni: Milan, 1996)
Fig. 2: Embassy on its triangular site (1964) FROM: Loeffler, Jane C.,The Architecture of Diplomacy: Building
America’s Embassies, (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1999)
Fig. 3: 6 inch map, Ordnance Survey Ireland, www.osi.ie
Fig. 4: 25 inch map, Ordnance Survey Ireland, www.osi.ie
Fig 5: A Plan of Merrion Square with the intended New Streets by Johanthon Barker (1764) IN: Clark., Mary,
Smeaton., Alastair, The Georgian Squares of Dublin: an Architectural History, (Dublin: Dublin City Council, 2006)
58
Fig. 6: Abecrombie., Patrick, The Last Hour of the Night , 1922 IN: Kincaid., Andrew, Postcolonial Dublin: Imperial
Legacies and the Built Environment, (Minneapolis, Minn; London: University of Minnesota Press, 2006), 2
Fig. 7: Walker, Michael S., Half-demolished Nelson Pillar, O’Connell Street, Dublin (1966) FROM: National Library of
Ireland on the Commons, Available at http://www.flickr.com/photos/nlireland/6817741408/, (Retrieved
February 6th 2012)
Fig. 8: G & T Crampton Ltd Builders, Ballsbridge Dublin, U.S.A Embassy-Ballsbridge Dublin, February 1963,
(Embassy of the United States Dublin, Ireland,1963)
Fig. 9: G & T Crampton Ltd Builders, Ballsbridge Dublin, U.S.A Embassy-Ballsbridge Dublin, July 1963,
(Embassy of the United States Dublin, Ireland,1963)
Fig. 10: Gallagher., Sarah, Martello Tower on Ireland’s Eye (2008) FROM: http://www.geograph.ie/photo/
918483, (March 03, 2012)
Fig. 11: Round Tower at Glendalough in Wicklow Mountains Ireland, (2009) FROM: Irish Round Tower Available at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Glendalough_Round_Tower.jpg (Retrieved March 12 2012)
Fig. 12:Stone., Edward Durell, (n.d), United States Embassy, New Delhi FROM: Loeffler, Jane C.,The Architecture
of Diplomacy: Building America’s Embassies, (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1999)
IV
Fig 13: (unknown) United States Embassy London ,(n.d) FROM: Loeffler, Jane C.,The Architecture of
Diplomacy: Building America’s Embassies, (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1999)
Fig. 14: Raidió Téilifis Eireann, (1972) Attack on British Embassy, FROM: Bloody Sunday- 40 Years On, Monday 30
January 2012, Available at http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/0127/bloodysunday.html (Retrieved April 01
2012)
Fig. 15: British Embassy Ablaze McCormick., Jimmy (1972) FROM: Agnew., Paddy, An Irishman’s Diary, The
Irish Times, Saturday March 3, 2012 (Retreived April 4, 2012)
Fig. 16: Palladio’s Rotunda, Johansen., John, M., (1955) Space-Time Palladian, Architectural Record, 118,(1955)
152
Fig. 17: Villa Goode Johansen., John, M., (1955) Space-Time Palladian, Architectural Record, 118,(1955) 152
Fig. 18:Symbolic House Johansen., John M., (1996) A Life in the Continuum of Modern Architecture, (Milan: l’Arca
Edizioni, 1996)
Fig. 19: Embassy Plan Johansen., John M., A Life in the Continuum of Modern Architecture, (Milan: l’Arca Edizioni,
1996)
Fig. 20: Embassy Section IN: Johansen., John M., A Life in the Continuum of Modern Architecture , (Milan: l’Arca
Edizioni, 1996)
Fig. 21: Embassy Basement and Moat (1964) McManus., Ruth, Crampton Built, (Dublin: Gill and MacMillian, 2008) 266
Fig. 22:Aerial View of Ballsbridge (1964) IN: McManus., Ruth, Crampton Built, (Dublin: Gill and MacMillian, 2008) 273
Fig. 23: Drawing by author (2012) Figure-Ground Map showing developments which followed the construction of the embassy,
Fig. 24: Mountbrook Group, One Berklely Court, (n.d) FROM: Mountbrook Group unveils plans for Jurys Berkeley
Court Site- Landmark 37 Storey Proposed Available at http://www.mountbrook.ie/jbc/ (Retreived March 14,
2012)
V
Introduction
In 1903, the Austrian historian Alois Riegl, defined an intentional monument as being ‘a human creation, erected
for the specific purpose of keeping single human deeds or events (or a combination thereof) alive in the minds of future
generations.’1 An embassy begins its life as such a ‘deliberate’ 2 monument, as the built embodiment of a
diplomatic mission sent by one country to another. Riegl also characterised ‘unintentional’ or ‘historical
monuments’3 leading to the consensus that any artifact, regardless of its original significance and purpose, can
be considered an unintentional monument, as long as it reveals the passage of a considerable period of time.4
This is similar to Aldo Rossi’s definition of an urban artifact as a form that has endured through a series of
transformations.5 The United States Embassy in Dublin is an urban artifact, built as a “deliberate” monument,
with an ideology particular to American foreign policy in the 1960’s. As an urban artifact, it speaks of the
memory of this ideology but also of the historical associations of the chosen locus and our ever-changing
relationship with a foreign presence in our country. Through the passage of time, it becomes an
unintentional monument in the city. Both the history of the city and city dwellers alter the image of the
monument, transforming it from a deliberate monument into an unintentional one. However, the monument
also alters the image of the city. As a steadfast and immovable object, it plays a transformative role in the
physical structure of the city.
1
1Alois Riegl, (1903) The Modern Cult of Monuments: Its Essence and Its Development, Oppositions 25, (1982) 69
2 Alois Riegl, (1903) The Modern Cult of Monuments: Its Essence and Its Development, Oppositions 25, (1982)69
3 Thordis Arrhenius, The Cult of Age in Mass-Society: Alois Riegl’s Theory of Conservation. Future anterior: journal of historic preservation history, theory and criticism, 1 (2004), 75-81.
4 Thordis Arrhenius, The Cult of Age in Mass-Society: Alois Riegl’s Theory of Conservation. Future anterior: journal of historic preservation history, theory and criticism, 1 (2004), 75-81.
5 Aldo Rossi, The Architecture of the City, (Cambridge, Mass. ; London : Published by (i.e. for) the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts and the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies by MIT, 2004) 32
Fig. 2: Embassy on its triangular site
Existing Memory on the Site
As Merrion Road begins its journey away from the coast of South Dublin and towards the city centre, it
passes through the suburb of Ballsbridge, becoming Pembroke Road as it sweeps over the Dodder River,
towards Merrion Square. Tree-lined Elgin Road meets this main thoroughfare at an almost 45 degree angle.
At this junction, on a triangular shaped site, sits the embassy of the United States of America.
Opened in 1963, it is a circular building, clad in twisted sculptural precast concrete units, designed by the
American architect, John M. Johansen. It has two stories below ground and three and a half above.
Internally the building is centrally planned, with a rotunda of fifty feet high and fifty feet across that is used as
reception space. This space is ringed by circular galleries on three floors from which offices can be reached.6
Prior to 1988, access to the embassy was controlled only by the topography and planting of the site; a flower-
planted moat was considered sufficient security. For the first 25 years of the embassy’s existence, the un-built
fraction of the site was inhabited by city dwellers as a public plaza, accessible from both Elgin and Pembroke
Roads. Today, the monument lies isolated from city dwellers, encircled by railings, entry being strictly
controlled by an entrance pavilion on Pembroke Road.
Alois Riegl defined a “deliberate” monument as an entity that is conceived of by humans to commemorate a
particular deed or event.7 In light of this definition, we can consider the United States Embassy to be a
monument. It was conceived of by the United States government with the intention of translating the
relationship between two countries into concrete form. Aside from its planned commemorative value, the
embassy is a monument in the city in ways its creators could have not imagined. The United States Embassy
is a monument in both the archival and active sense, a repository for collective memory which transforms the
physical structure of the city. The French historian, Pierre Nora, has coined the term, ‘lieux des memoires’ i.e
where ‘memory crystalises and secretes itself.’8 Through Nora’s writings, we can link memory inextricably to site, it
takes root in the concrete and the definite; spaces, images, actions and objects are all examples of ‘lieux des
memoires’.9 While the embassy may be considered a ‘deliberate’ monument under Riegl’s definition, 10 its site
is an unintentional one which reveals the history of the city to us.
2
6United States Embassy Office, Dublin." Architectural Design 34, (1964): 549-551,
7 Alois Riegl, (1982) The Modern Cult of Monuments: Its Essence and Its Development (1903) Oppositions 25, 1982
8 Pierre Nora, (1989) Between Memory and History: Les Lieux des Memoires, Representations 26, Regents of the University of California, 7.
9 Pierre Nora, (1989) Between Memory and History: Les Lieux des Memoires, Representations 26, Spring 1989, Regents of the University of California, 9
10 Alois Riegl, (1982) The Modern Cult of Monuments: Its Essence and Its Development (1903) Oppositions 25, 1982
‘Consider an assembly of all the ideals that have shaped this great and ancient city. Its fabric becomes invisible beneath the
cumulative dreams of its creators. Their ideals lie inseparable in layers within the land which they have transformed, the clarity of
their presence directly related to the degree to which their projects survive, as traces, shells and memories...the presence of the past
often interferes with the promise of the future. There are no dreams in isolation; all are in reflection and reaction, in a swirling
confusion of past existence.’11
The above quote is Alan Balfour’s portrait of the layered urban landscape of Berlin, however it is equally
applicable to the morphology of mid-twentieth century Dublin. By the time the United States government
purchased the site of the future embassy in 1956, it had already been shaped by the urban visions of two
powerful dynasties over two centuries. The 18th and 19th century developments of the Fitzwilliam and
Pembroke dynasties still dictated the form of much of the south of the city. Overlaid upon this Georgian web,
were the twentieth century elaborations of the Free State and the later Republic. Considering the curious
triangular shaped site of the United States Embassy, where is the evidence of the multiple urban pasts of
which Balfour speaks? Looking at any map of the area, it is evident that the site is formed by the junction of
Elgin Road with Pembroke Road. Present day Pembroke Road lies along one of the main approaches to the
city centre from the south side. This route was as a result of the Fitzwilliam development of the area,
stemming from the familial estate of Mount Merrion. This estate was described by Francis Elrington Ball as
being ‘the most prominent object on the coast to the south of Dublin’,12 and it related directly to the dynasty’s other
monumental development, Merrion Square.
On the six inch map, Elgin Road is unmarked. On the 25 inch map, a rapid urbanisation is visible with Eglin
road, Clyde Road and Raglan Road all being developed between 1857 and 1864. These roads themselves,
were planned as monuments; Raglan Road, (1857) to celebrate peace after the Crimean War (1853-1856)
and Elgin and Clyde Road (1863-64) commemorating the heroes of the Indian Mutiny (1857).13 By
commemorating a specific event, these roads are what Alois Riegl defines as ‘deliberate monuments’.14 These
roads served a commemorative purpose, but also became unintentional monuments by functioning in
urbanisation, they acted as primary elements within the development of the district. Elgin, Clyde and
Raglan Roads, as monuments, accelerated urbanisation to the point to that the Pembroke Estate became the
Pembroke Township and thus an urban entity. An Act of Parliament designated the area of present day
Ballsbridge to be the “Pembroke Township” in 1863.15 The Act of Parliament which created the township
recognised the increasingly urban character of the district. The prelude of this act described the Pembroke
3
11 Alan Balfour, Berlin: The Politics of Order, 1737-1989, (New York: Rizzoli, 1990) 249
12 Francis Elrington Ball, A History of the County of Dublin: the people, parishes and antiquities from the earliest times to the close of the eighteenth century, Part 2, being a history of that portion of the County comprised within the parishes of Donneybrook, Booterstown, St. Bartholomew, St. Mark, Taney, St. Peter and Rathfarnham, (Dublin: Greene’s Bookshop 1995), 24
13 Nicholas Donnelly. Bishop of Canea,(A short history of some Dublin Parishes, Pt.1, The Sacred Heart, Donneybrook: Star of the Sea, Sandymount: St. Mary’s, Haddington Road: St. Patrick’s Ringsend: In two parts. Part 1, (Blackrock: Carraig Books, 1977)
14 Alois Riegl,(1982) The Modern Cult of Monuments: It’s Essence and Its Development (1903) Oppositions 25, 1982
15 Nicholas Donnelly. Bishop of Canea,(A short history of some Dublin Parishes, Pt.1, The Sacred Heart, Donneybrook: Star of the Sea, Sandymount: St. Mary’s, Haddington Road: St. Patrick’s Ringsend: In two parts. Part 1, (Blackrock: Carraig Books, 1977)
4
Fig.3: 6 inch map showing historical presence of Pembroke Road
Fig. 4: 6 inch map showing historical presence of Pembroke Road
Township as a ‘large, populous and improving district, and the population thereof has of late years greatly increased and is
increasing.’16 The infrastructural developments of the 19th century meet the sweep of Pembroke Road, thus
creating the triangular shaped site. On the six inch map, we see large detached and semi-detached villas on
the Pembroke side and a Victorian terrace with a tighter grain on Eglin Road, the site being the residual
space between between these two Victorian housing typologies. Until 1957 was occupied by two Victorian
semi-detached houses, 93 Pembroke Road (Lea House), and 42 Elgin Road. An urban node, critically
located between the monumental infrastructural developments of the Fitzwilliams and the Pembrokes is
another reading of the site. Therefore, while appearing as a forgotten remnant, the site was in fact a
prominent junction in Ballsbridge and a significant point along a historic approach to the city centre. In this
light, the site can be considered a dormant monumental location. The left-over site of an eighteenth century
dynasty would become the monumental home of a twentieth century superpower. By occupying this
junction, The United States Embassy slotted into to a highly developed and rational monumental
infrastructure.
Today, the embassy of Great Britain is located at 29 Merrion Road in Ballsbridge. Designed by British
architects Ailes and Morrison, the scale is domestic rather than monumental. The edifice adopts the model of
the eighteenth century house in Ireland with gardens and stable yards to the rear.17 Over the past forty years,
the diplomatic mission has resided at no less than three separate addresses in Dublin. The most significant of
these was no. 39 and no. 40 Merrion Square. Construction began on Merrion Square in 1762 and it was
completed in the 1790’s.18 The Georgian planning principle of the whole being greater than the sum of its
parts was executed with rigour in Merrion Square. The form of the square, a rectangle of 1150 feet by 650
feet was the driver of the scheme.19 Early schematic drawings of Merrion Square by Jonathan Barker show a
greater variation of style amongst the terraces, however the idea of a large rectangular tree-lined space
framed by terraces was a constant. 20Merrion Square can be read as an urban artifact under Rossi’s
definition. Its constant form has borne witness to great change in the city, both political and social. Prior to
the Act of Union, it was home to many members of Parliament. Though the Act of Union led to their
exodus., it remained however, an upper class residential area. Independence would see the square become
less residential and instead home to Government bodies of the Free State and the later Republic. 21
5
16 Nicholas Donnelly. Bishop of Canea, A short history of some Dublin Parishes, Pt.1, The Sacred Heart, Donneybrook: Star of the Sea, Sandymount: St. Mary’s, Haddington Road: St. Patrick’s Ringsend: In two parts. Part 1, (Blackrock: Carraig Books, 1977)
17 "An Irish Solution." Architectural Review 199, no. 1190 (1996): 34-39, http://search.proquest.com/docview/55184605?accountid=14507 (accessed April 8, 2012).
18 Mary Clarke, Alastair Smeaton, The Georgian Squares of Dublin: an Architectural History, (Dublin: Dublin City Council, 2006) 57
19 Niall McCullough, Dublin: an urban history:the plan of the city, (Dublin: Anne Street Press: Associated Editions, 2007) 129
20 Mary Clarke, Alastair Smeaton, The Georgian Squares of Dublin: An Architectural History, (Dublin: Dublin City Council, 2006) 59
21Mary Clarke, Alastair Smeaton, The Georgian Squares of Dublin: an Architectural History, (Dublin: Dublin City Council, 2006) 84-85
6
Fig. 5: Early drawings of Merrion Square by Johanthon Barker
In Genius Loci, Towards a Phenomenology of Architecture, Christian Norberg Schulz discusses Heidegger’s theory of
the bridge as a building which both symbolises and reveals the landscape to us.22
‘Before, the meaning of the landscape was ‘hidden’, and the building of the bridge brings it out into the open. The bridge gathers
“Being” into a certain “location” that we might call a place. This ‘place’, however did not exist as an entity before the bridge
(although there were always many ‘sites’ along the riverbank where it could arise) but comes to presence with and as the bridge.’23
The sites of the United States Embassy and the former British Embassy lie within the greater inherited
landscapes of the Fitzwilliam and Pembroke Estates. Indeed the whole embassy belt area can be read as
cuckolds of foreign territory within this inherited landscape. The building of the United States Embassy on a
triangular shaped site, an urban remnant of both the Pembroke and Fitzwilliam estates, throws the history of
the district into sharp relief, bringing knowledge about the city to the surface. The British diplomatic mission
reused two existing Georgian townhouses on Merrion Square and thus exposed the history of city to us
through use and occupation rather than construction. The inherited landscape of Dublin ‘comes to presence with
and as’24 these foreign monuments.
7
22Christian. Norberg-Schulz, Genus Loci Towards a Phenomenology of Architecture, (London: Academy Editions, 1980) 18
23 Christian. Norberg-Schulz, Genus Loci Towards a Phenomenology of Architecture, (London: Academy Editions, 1980), 18
24 Christian. Norberg-Schulz, Genus Loci Towards a Phenomenology of Architecture, (London: Academy Editions, 1980), 18
Constructed Memory, The Embassy as a Deliberate Monument
‘In order to be significant, architecture must be forgotten, or must present only an image for reverence which subsequently becomes
confounded with memories.’25
This quote from Aldo Rossi illustrates the multiple roles of a monument in the city. An embassy strives to
construct a deliberate and particular image. This image provides a canvas against which the city and citizenry
make projections. Concurrently, the embassy is in the process of becoming “forgotten”, that is to say,
absorbed into the urban fabric. Rossi has described the making of a city as ‘a permanent moment of the political
and institutional coming into being’.26 With any deliberate monument that the political and institutional might
create, a strong desire exists to devise the ‘image for reverence’, which Rossi speaks of. Many of Dublin’s
monuments were initiated with the view of exerting ideological control through a built edifice.27 This is
particularly true of monuments dating from the second half of the eighteenth century. The monumental
projects of the Wide Streets Commissioners, sought to illustrate the benefits of colonial occupation and
underline its liberal nature; hegemony rather than direct force was used to assert control. 28 Civic was the
image which the British wished to endow upon projects such as the Four Courts, The Customs House and
the General Post Office. Prime Minister William Gladstone stated that, ‘something must be done...to restore to
Ireland the first the conditions of civic life’29 Thus, under this veil of “civility”, some of Dublin’s best known
landmarks were built.
Similarly, the United States Government is a foreign presence in Dublin. As an equal foreign nation exerts its
presence in a different manner to a colonial power. A colonial power wishes to assert and maintain control
over its subjects through architecture. The projects of the Wide Streets Commissioners, as discussed above,
are examples of an authority asserted through hegemony.30 An equal and democratic foreign nation wishes to
pronounce its presence abroad, rather than assert control. The Architectural Advisory Panel advised
architects to affirm the United States presence abroad in a more restrained manner. Embassies were to have
8
25 Aldo Rossi, A Scientific Autobiography, (Cambridge, Mass. ; London : Published for the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, Chicago, Illinois, and the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies, New York by the MIT Press, 1981) 45
26 Aldo Rossi The Architecture of the City, (Cambridge, Mass. ; London : Published by (i.e. for) the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts and the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies by MIT,1982) 87
27 Andrew Kincaid, Postcolonial Dublin: Imperial Legacies and the Built Environment, (Minneapolis, Minn; London: University of Minnesota Press, 2006)
28Andrew Kincaid,, Postcolonial Dublin: Imperial Legacies and the Built Environment, (Minneapolis, Minn; London: University of Minnesota Press, 2006), 4
29Andrew Kincaid, Postcolonial Dublin: Imperial Legacies and the Built Environment, (Minneapolis, Minn; London: University of Minnesota Press, 2006), 4
30Andrew Kincaid, Postcolonial Dublin: Imperial Legacies and the Built Environment, (Minneapolis, Minn; London: University of Minnesota Press, 2006
9
Fig. 6: The Last Hour of the Night
Fig. 7: Half-demolished Nelson Pillar, O’Connell Street, Dublin
the characteristics of ‘dignity and repose’.31 Nevertheless, ideology is still expressed through a built edifice, an
attempt is made, to quote Riegl, to dictate the ‘commemorative value to us.’32 The embassy in Ballsbridge was
built as part of the post-war expansion of the Office of Foreign Building Operations. The Office of Foreign
Building Operations had evolved from the Foreign Services Building Commission created in the 1920’s.33
The FBO, as it was more commonly known, was concerned with the purchasing, construction and
maintenance of the buildings of the United States government abroad. From the 1950’s onwards, the
expression of these buildings was strongly influenced by the Architectural Advisory Panel.34
‘Though the mass of inhabitants might be poorly fed and overworked, no expense was spared to create temples and palaces whose
sheer bulk and upward thrust would dominate the rest of the city.’35
In the above quote, Lewis Mumford is describing monumentality in the ancient city. However, his words are
equally applicable to the monumental projects of the Nazi and Soviet regimes. The aftermath of World War
II saw monumentality to the fore of architectural discourse in the United States. The type of monumentality
described by Mumford, a built expression of an unrelenting power, designed to remind the city dwellers of
their place in society was totally at odds with the image of the United States in the post-war era. The image
that the United States wished to cultivate was that of a youthful, dynamic and progressive nation.36 Emerging
from World War II relatively unscathed in comparison to Europe, the United States found itself ‘thrown into a
position of leadership in the world’.37 It so follows that such leadership should be expressed through
monumentality of sorts. The need to assert this newly found leadership was tempered by the obligation to
respond to threat of Soviet hegemony. 38 To counter such hegemony, the United States needed to transform
former foes into allies and win support for democratic forms of government. Built outposts of the USSER
abroad exuded the monumentality which Lewis Mumford speaks of, typically classically mannered masonry
buildings. 39 A new expression for monumentality was needed, which could express a democratic prestige
without the totalitarian associations.
Siegfried Gidieon began to fuel the discourse on monumentality in 1944, with his publication, Nine Points on
Monumentality. The modern monument would not serve the status quo. Central to Gidieon’s manifesto was the
10
31 Jane C. Loeffler, The Architecture of Diplomacy: Building America’s Embassies, (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1999), 223
32 Alois Riegl, The Modern Cult of Monuments: It’s Character and It’s Origin (1903) Oppositions 25, 1982
33 Jane C. Loeffler, The Architecture of Diplomacy: Building America’s Embassies, (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1999), 19
34 Jane C. Loeffler,The Architecture of Diplomacy: Building America’s Embassies, (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1999), 142
35 Lewis Mumford, The City in History: its origin, its transformations and its prospects, (Harmondsworth: Penguin in association with Secker and Warburg,1966) 81
36 Jane C. Loeffler, The Architecture of Diplomacy: Building America’s Embassies, (New York, Princeton Architectural Press, 1999) 168
37 Rep. Frances Bolton (R. Ohio) IN: Loeffler, Jane C., The Architecture of Diplomacy: Building America’s Embassies, (New York, Princeton Architectural Press, 1999) 37
38Jane C. Loeffler ,The Architecture of Diplomacy: Building America’s Embassies, (New York, Princeton Architectural Press, 1999) 37
39 Jane C. Loeffler, The Architecture of Diplomacy: Building America’s Embassies, (New York, Princeton Architectural Press, 1999)100
idea of monuments as ‘human landmarks, which men have created as symbols for their ideals, for their aims, and for their
actions’.40 This influenced Louis Kahn to develop his ideas about ‘people marks’; the monument as the
architectural means by which citizens could be situated in their community. 41 Through the dialogue that
emerged, two seemingly conflicting qualities of the modern monument formed, technological progress and
historical continuity. The modern monument as a figurative representation of democracy was adopted by the
Foreign Building Office. Architects working for the FBO were asked to weave two narratives, to design
something that was undoubtedly modern, thus possessing ‘a distinguishable American flavour’ ,42and in parallel to
situate the embassy within the host country by respecting preexisting historical, climatic and cultural
conditions. These democratic monuments were exported, with varying degrees of success, worldwide.
In 1963, the United States Embassy in Ballsbridge published a pamphlet to celebrate its opening. This
pamphlet describes the edifice as a ‘a fitting symbol of the Nation’s strength translated into modern forcefulness from
ancient traditions’.43 The presence of this “modern forcefulness” is quite apparent. The precast concrete facade
was the figurative representation of a modern Nation; it was the world’s second precast facade after
Saarinen’s embassy in London. In 1944, Gidieon had called for the new monumentality to be expressed
using light-weight modern materials.44 However, as the discourse on monumentality developed during the
following decade, strongly influenced strongly by Kahn’s rhetoric and built work, concrete emerged as the
material of choice. Adrian Forty observes that it ‘reconciled cultural demands for historical continuity and canonical
status with a technocratic construction process that could be presented as being far more modern than vernacular, craft-based
building’.45 By using such an innovative building technique, the embassy could present an image of the United
States as an innovator and thus act as a billboard for American business.46
The memory of the embassy as being symbolic of the progressive nature of the American spirit was readily
and enthusiastically adapted by the Irish people. In the early 1960’s, Ireland was undergoing an ideological
transformation under the government of Sean Lemass, moving from being an isolated nation post-
independence to an internationalised one on the cusp of joining the European Union.47 In this climate,
11
40J.L Sert., S., Giedion, F. Léger,(1943) Nine Points on Monumentality, in Siegfried Gidieon, Architecture, You and Me; the Diary of a Development, (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1958)
41 Sarah Williams Goldhagen, Louis Kahn’s Situated Modernism, (New Haven; London, Yale University Press, 2001) 209
42Jane C. Loeffler, The Architecture of Diplomacy: Building America’s Embassies, (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1999), 168
43 The new offices of the Embassy of the United States of America, (Dublin: Three Candles Ltd, 1964)
44 J.L Sert., S., Giedion, F. Léger,(1943) Nine Points on Monumentality, in Siegfried Gidieon, Architecture, You and Me; the Diary of a Development, (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1958)
45 Adrian Forty IN: Murray Fraser, Architecture and the ‘Special Relationship” the American influence on post-war British Architecture, (London: Routledge , 2007) ,345
46Murray Fraser, Architecture and the ‘Special Relationship” the American influence on post-war British Architecture, (London: Routledge , 2007) ,350
47 Andrew Kincaid, Postcolonial Dublin: Imperial Legacies, and the Built Environment, (Minneapolis, Minn; London: University of Minnesota Press, 2006) 4
Frank McDonald commented that ‘to be modern was everything’.48 The development policies of Sean Lemass
relied heavily on modernization theories, and modern architecture with a distinct corporate undertone was a
key element in this.49 Michael Scott, Johanson’s advisor on the embassy, was also chairman of the National
Building Centre, opened in 1957. From its inception, this centre had a very definitive stance on
modernization; the use of modern materials and equipment and machinery was one of its principal aims.50
In such a climate, it is easy to see why the technology behind the embassy garnered much publicity. In an
Irish Times article from the 25th of October, 1963, the use of innovative building techniques is discussed in
detail. It is reported that the 12 precast sections of the roof from Schak-Beton in Holland were were
assembled on site in a mere six hours.51 The innovation of the precast facade is lauded, ‘Each piece dovetails or
locks into the other and the reinforcing bars and the upper and lower ends of each piece provide an efficient link system capable of
taking enormous strain’.52
12
48 Frank McDonald, The Destruction of Dublin, (Dublin: Gill and MacMillian, 1985)
49 Andrew Kincaid, Postcolonial Dublin: Imperial Legacies, and the Built Environment, (Minneapolis, Minn; London: University of Minnesota Press, 2006), 121
50 Andrew Kincaid, Postcolonial Dublin: Imperial Legacies, and the Built Environment, (Minneapolis, Minn; London: University of Minnesota Press, 2006), 125
51 A, Special Correspondent. "NEW U.S. EMBASSY TO OPEN ON MARCH 17th." The Irish Times (1921-Current File), Oct 25, 1963, http://search.proquest.com/docview/524167524?accountid=14507 (accessed April 7, 2012).
52 A, Special Correspondent. "NEW U.S. EMBASSY TO OPEN ON MARCH 17th." The Irish Times (1921-Current File), Oct 25, 1963, http://search.proquest.com/docview/524167524?accountid=14507 (accessed April 7, 2012).
13
Fig 8:United States Embassy, February 1963
Fig 9:United States Embassy, July 1963
The theme of historical continuity and the embassy is a more difficult narrative. Projecting an image of
historical continuity was seen as being essential to the success of the embassy. Thus it is not surprising that
Johansen mentions a plethora of Irish references. The majority of these were form led, a justification for the
presence of the circular form in the terrace. Johansen himself wrote that, ‘the circular form is a well known Celtic
Christian motif. It has been used for centuries considered symbolic of unity, timelessness, tranquility and order. The circular motif
also appears in the Celtic cross, the brooch and the round towers. Further precedent can be found in the circular colonnade of the
Parliamentary buildings, the semi-circular element of the National Library and the building of the ‘Rotunda’ off O’Connell
Street’. 53
On first consideration, this sweeping statement of Johansen’s presents problems in the formal and typological
sense. Native Celtic and medieval era monuments are alluded to side by side with colonial imports such as
Martello Towers and the Palladian buildings of nineteenth century Dublin. Round towers are the only
“native” built form referenced by Johansen and of all the references used, this one bears the least
resemblance to the edifice. While certainly circular, their chimney like form bears little resemblance to the
form of the embassy. The use of the Martello Tower as a formal reference for the squat form of the embassy
and encircling moat is slightly more plausible.54 Typologically, however, Martello Towers were defensive
structures, thus it seems conflicting to present them as a reference for a building whose purpose was the
promotion of cultural relations between the two different countries. At that particular epoch, Jane C. Loeffler
comments that openness was both ‘a top design priority and an diplomatic objective’.55
These historical references do have some symbolic connotations which can connect them to Johansen’s
embassy. Embassies, round towers and martello towers all stem from a national or international political
landscape. Chris Cortlett, writing in Archaeology Ireland, assigns an eleventh to twelfth century date to the
surviving Round Towers which dot our landscape today.56 As adjuncts to the principal churches in Ireland,
they offered a scale unknown in the early medieval landscape. Thus, the round tower, as a feat of
construction and engineering, would have been an architectural form without precedent in secular society
and therefore a built and steadfast reminder of the dominance and power of the church.57 The thesis of the
Round Tower, as a symbol of power is further aided by the evidence that the construction of these towers
was often aided financially by local kinships.58 In addition to expressing the power of the church, they were
14
53United States Embassy Office, Dublin. Architectural Design 34, (1964): 549-551,
54 Annette Becker, John Olley, Wilfired Wang, 20th Century Architecture Ireland, (Munich:Prestel, 1997) 127
55Jane C. Loeffler, The Architecture of Diplomacy: Building America’s Embassies, (New York, Princeton Architectural Press, 1999)
56 Chris Cortlett, Interpretation of Round Towers: Public Appeal or Professional Opinion? Archaeology Ireland , Vol. 12, No. 2 (Summer, 1998), pp. 24-27 Published by: Wordwell Ltd.Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20558757
57 Chris Corlett, Interpretation of Round Towers: Public Appeal or Professional Opinion? Archaeology Ireland , Vol. 12, No. 2 (Summer, 1998), pp. 24-27 Published by: Wordwell Ltd.Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20558757
58Chris Corlett, Interpretation of Round Towers: Public Appeal or Professional Opinion? , Archaeology Ireland , Vol. 12, No. 2 (Summer, 1998), pp. 24-27 Published by: Wordwell Ltd.Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20558757
15
Fig. 10: Martello Tower, Ireland’s Eye
Fig. 11: Round Tower, Glendalough
also monuments symbolising the secular political territories of the aforementioned kinships.59 Similarly, we
can interpret Martello Towers as monuments which define territory and articulate power. These towers were
built, quoting Buck Mulligan in Ulysses, ‘when the French were on the sea’,60 during the Napleonic Wars of 1803 to
1815.61 The 28 towers along the coast of Dublin define Ireland as British territory from the sea, their coastal
location making them prominent and distinct. The embassy, the Round Tower and the Martello Tower are
all monuments which express power. The embassy, as a foreign presence in a country reminds the citizens of
the host country of the achievements and ethos of that foreign presence. Martello Towers, as impenetrable
stone structures built with military precision were a constant reminder of the might of the British empire.
Round Towers symbolised an all-powerful church, closely tied to the ruling kinships.
Through a broad spectrum of references, Johansen hoped to endow the building with a nationalistic memory.
This was a conceit in the formal and typological sense. The symbolic realm is more difficult to quantify. In
popular memory, the fact that Round Towers are an almost-exclusively a national phenomenon has led to
them being described as ‘the architectural symbol of Ireland’.62 Similarly, the appearance of the Sandycove
Martello Tower in “Ulysses” imbues the colonial structure with a popular Irish cultural significance. On closer
examination, symbolically they have more in common with an embassy than Johansen may have realised. In
reminding secular society of the might of a distant power, be it political or religious, these monuments were
more “foreign” than “native”.
Edward Casey defined participation as being key to success of commemoration.
‘Commemoration cannot be accomplished by representations by alone...however accurate or adept or dramatic these may
be...Whenever we become engaged in commemorative activity- whether this takes place in a dyadic or a polyadic context-
representation cedes to participation’.63 In mentioned the references described above, John Johansen would have
hoped to achieve commemoration by representations alone. His use of representations was neither “accurate or
adept”.64 The accuracy of representations is irrelevant however, if participation does not occur. In a similar
vein, the French historian Pierre Nora has noted with regard to the the sustenance of memory, “a will to
remember must be present”.65 The success of the embassy as a symbol of modernization as previously discussed
can be more closely linked to the willingness of the Irish people to accept it, as opposed to Johansen’s
mastery in projecting it. The image of the building as a symbol of historical continuity directly contrasts this.
At that particular era, a “will to remember”66 the embassy as being something native was not present. In the
16
59Chris Corlett, Interpretation of Round Towers: Public Appeal or Professional Opinion? Archaeology Ireland , Vol. 12, No. 2 (Summer, 1998), pp. 24-27 Published by: Wordwell Ltd.Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20558757
60 James Joyce, (1882-1941) IN: Rose., Daniel (ed) Ulysses,, (London: Picador, 1997)
61 Jason Bolton, Martello Towers Research Project, Dublin: Fingal County Council, Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council (2008)
62 Seán O’Reilly,, Birth of a Nation's Symbol: The Revival of Ireland's Round Towers, Irish Arts Review Yearbook , Vol. 15, (1999), pp. 27-33
63 Edward S. Casey, Remembering: a Phenomenological Study, Bloomington; (London; Indiana University Press,2000) 251
64 Edward S. Casey, Remembering: a Phenomenological Study, Bloomington; (London; Indiana University Press,2000) 251
65 Pierre Nora, (1989) Between Memory and History: Les Lieux des Memoires, Representations 26, Regents of the University of California, 19
66 Pierre Nora,(1989) Between Memory and History: Les Lieux des Memoires, Representations 26, Regents of the University of California, 19
Lemass era, nationalism was being blamed for the failure to create an ‘industrial economy and a prosperous
bourgeoisie’.67 The 1960’s saw populist nationalism labeled backwards and a possible liability to international
trade.68
The United States Embassy in London was designed by Eero Saarinen and completed in 1960. The site was
Grosvenor Square, a Georgian square in the Mayfair district, dating from the early eighteenth century.69 In
its early life, it was an unobtrusive urban ensemble of terraces on four sides surrounding a rectangular
garden. 70 Today, the american embassy takes up the entire western elevation of the square. The dominating
precast concrete structure has nine floors, six above ground and nine below. The London embassy, also saw
the Foreign Building Office project a simplified image of historical continuity, presenting a what was
essentially an enormous political fortress as a Georgian terrace. The facades of the building were symmetrical
and their openings were scaled to those of a Georgian townhouse.71 Grosvenor Square’s Georgian heritage
had largely been distorted and masked over by Victorian facades in the 19th century. 72 Once again, we see
the failure of representations to create commemoration. The attempted execution of historical continuity in
the embassy, could not will the critics including Peter Smithson, Reyner Banham and Lewis Mumford to
remember Grosvenor’s Square’s “Georgian” past. The edifice had failed to symbolise their image of the
United States, as Peter Smtihson called it, ‘a generous egalitarian society’.73 Smithson believed the image of the
United States was one of the “revolutionary” and thus the design should have been an opportunity to
question the ‘role of an embassy and the role of the building in the society in which it is placed’.74 Other American
embassies such as Edward Durrell Stone’s New Delhi Embassy, dealt with the theme of historical continuity
with greater success. The embassy is given a temple like appearance through the use of a raised platform, an
extended roof and columns detailed in gold leaf. In contrast to Johansen’s and Saarinen’s designs, Stone’s
embassy was praised for blending ‘ancient Mogul glamour and contemporary American design’.75 The combination of
traditional building techniques and local labourers with the location of New Delhi, the capital of the new
17
67 Andrew Kincaid, Postcolonial Dublin: Imperial Legacies and the Built Environment, (Minneapolis, Minn; London: University of Minnesota Press, 2006) 148
68 Andrew Kincaid, Postcolonial Dublin: Imperial Legacies and the Built Environment, (Minneapolis, Minn; London: University of Minnesota Press, 2006) 125
69 Fraser Murray, Architecture and the “Special Relationship” the American influence on post-war British Architecture, London: Routledge, 2007), 347
70 Fraser Murray, Architecture and the ‘“Special Relationship” the American influence on post-war British Architecture, London: Routledge, 2007), 347
71 Jane C. Loeffler, The Architecture of Diplomacy: Building America’s Embassies, (New York, Princeton Architectural Press,1999) 203
72 Fraser Murray, Architecture and the ‘Special Relationship” the American influence on post-war British Architecture, London: Routledge, 2007), 347
73 Peter Smithson, IN: Ron Robin, Enclaves of America: The Rhetoric of American Political Architecture Abroad 1900-1965, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1992) 136
74Peter Smithson, IN: Ron Robin, Enclaves of America: The Rhetoric of American Political Architecture Abroad 1900-1965, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1992) 136
75 Jane C. Loeffler, The Architecture of Diplomacy: Building America’s Embassies, (New York, Princeton Architectural Press,1999) 193
Indian Democracy since 1947 was a potent one. The political and cultural climate in New Delhi at that
particular time meant that a ‘will to remember’ 76 the embassy as a a symbol of India’s history was present.77
18
76 Nora, Pierre, Between Memory and History: Les Lieux des Memoires, (Representations 26, Regents of the University of California, 1989) 19
77 Nora, Pierre, Between Memory and History: Les Lieux des Memoires, Representations 26, Regents of the University of California, 1989) 19
Fig. 12: United States Embassy, New Delihi Fig. 13: United States Embassy, London
Collective Memory, The Embassy as an Unintentional Monument
As fixed points in the city, monuments are immovable, their place in space is resolute. They become
unintentional monuments in the city when we define their commemorative values ourselves. The United
States Embassy was built with the aim of projecting a definite memory or image. Like any monument in the
city, it becomes “confounded with memories”,78 independent of those of its creators.
The relationship between urban dwellers and monuments is constantly evolving. Against this backdrop of
evolving relationships, social memory is constantly being constructed or reconstructed. In his seminal book,
On Collective Memory, Maurice Halbwachs describes how the individual relies on social memory. ‘The individual
calls recollections to mind by relying on the framework of social memory. In other words, the various groups that compose society
are capable at every moment of reconstructing their past. But, as we have seen, they most frequently distort that past in the act of
reconstructing it.’79 Three of Dublin’s best known monuments offer a potent example of this; The Customs
House, The General Post Office and The Four Courts. They were certainly the built manifestation of a
colonial power however a civic ideology of sorts underlines them.80 They lie within the wider infrastructural
developments of the Wide Streets Commissioners whose interventions were embedded in the concept of
“civic aggrandisement”.81 These three buildings portrayed the idea of civic improvement in three distinct areas,
communication, trade and law. 82 As Ireland moved towards independence and the subsequent Civil War,
these edifices would be captured, set ablaze and bombarded, becoming the nuclei of revolution.83 Another
prominent monument, Nelson’s Pillar was built between 1808-1809 and largely destroyed by a Republican
bomb on Easter Monday 1966. Its relationship with city dwellers was fraught. In 1931, Dublin Corporation
voted unanimously for the removal of Nelson’s Pillar. William Butler Yeats spoke against the demolition of
the monument, defining it as an urban artifact. ‘The life and work of the people who erected it are part of our tradition.
I think we should accept the whole part of this nation and not pick and choose.’84 The value of Nelson’s Pillar to the city
was acknowledged after its demise, the decline of O’Connell Street being partially attributed to its absence.85
19
78 Aldo Rossi, A Scientific Autobiography, (Cambridge, Mass. ; London : Published for the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, Chicago, Illinois, and the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies, New York by the MIT Press, 1981) 45
79 Maurice Halbwachs, On Collective Memory, (Chicago; London: University of Chicago Press, 1992) 182
80 Andrew Kincaid, Postcolonial Dublin: Imperial Legacies and the Built Environment, (Minneapolis, Minn; London: University of Minnesota Press, 2006), 4
81Niall McCullough, Dublin: An Urban History, (Dublin: Anne Street Press,1989) 74
82Andrew Kincaid, Postcolonial Dublin: Imperial Legacies and the Built Environment, (Minneapolis, Minn; London: University of Minnesota Press, 2006), 5
83Andrew Kincaid, Postcolonial Dublin: Imperial Legacies and the Built Environment, (Minneapolis, Minn; London: University of Minnesota Press, 2006), 5
84 Willism Bolger, Bernard Share, And Nelson on his pillar 1808-1966, : (Dublin) ((11 Clare St., Dublin 2)) : Nonpareil ; 1976 (Distributed by O'Brien Press)
85 Shane O’Toole IN: John O’Regan, “A Monument in the City: Nelson’s Pillar and its aftermath” (Dublin: Gandon Editions Dublin, 1998) 33
‘Memory is blind to all but to the group it binds...that there are many memories as there are many groups, that memory is by
nature multiple and yet specific, collective, plural and yet individual’86
These are the words of Pierre Nora when discussing the fluid and multiple character of collective memory.
An embassy is a monument for which different memories exist for many groups.The citizenery of Dublin
perceive the United States Embassy in different, contradictory ways. For the first twenty five years of its
existence, the plaza of the embassy was accessible to the public, allowing it to become a rallying point for
protest. The plaza came to embody the qualities of monumental space, as defined by Henri
Lefebvre .’Monumental space permits a continual back-and-forth between the private speech of ordinary conversations and the
public speech of discourses, lectures, sermons, rallying cries and all theatrical forms of utterance.’87 This is particularly true
of the 1970’s when protests against American involvement in The Vietnam War would errupt world-wide.
The excerpt below from The Irish Times offers an example of how the building was appropriated at such a
protest. The demonstrators defaced the embassy by pouring blood down its steps and in a symbolic gesture,
removed and burnt the American flag. ‘The demonstrators, who protested under the name of the Irish Vietnam Solidarity
Committee poured animal blood over the steps of the embassy and lowered the American flag from the pole outside the embassy
and set fire to it.’88 In an another similar protest against The Vietnam War, more than 1,000 people marched
from Parnell Square to the embassy in Ballsbridge.89 Once again, the embassy was a locus for the expression
of anger and the site of a highly symbolic act; the trial and burning of an effigy of President Nixon. ‘It was
after this that the President’s effigy, which had been carried during the parade in a black coffin, was burned.’90
Other groups have appropriated the embassy for memorial rather than protest, creating a memory of it as an
commemorative monument. In the aftermath of 9/11, the embassy became a gathering point for those
wishing to remember the victims. This time, the building would be appropriated with floral tributes, candles
and other memorabilia. The Irish Times illustrated the potent atmosphere. ‘There was an outpouring of grief; people
cried on each other’s shoulders as they examined thousands of floral tributes from all over the country which lined the grounds and
railings outside the embassy. Children lit candles on the base of a small tree. The smell of lilies, the floral symbol of sorrow was
overpowering...Other symbol of solidarity were tied to the railings, an NYPD baseball cap for the hundreds of New York police
officers lost in the rubble of the World Trade Centre and those who continued to pull victims from the tangled mess.’91
20
86 Pierre Nora, (1989) Between Memory and History: Les Lieux des Memoires, Representations 26, Regents of the University of California, 9
87 Henri Lefebvre,, The Production of Space, (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1991) 224
88Court to Judge U.S. Embassy Protesters Today." The Irish Times (1921-Current File), Apr 26, 1971, http://search.proquest.com/docview/525809394?accountid=14507 (accessed April 7, 2012)
89 Demonstrators burn effigy at embassy. The Irish Times (1921-Current File), pp. 1. 05 October 1979 Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/525650553?accountid=14507
90 "Other 8 -- no Title." The Irish Times (1921-Current File), Oct 05, 1970. http://search.proquest.com/docview/525616727?accountid=14507.
91"Thousands in Display of Grief and Solidarity at Embassy." The Irish Times (1921-Current File), Sep 14, 2001, http://search.proquest.com/docview/527101182?accountid=14507 (accessed April 7, 2012).
As a monument, we can see the embassy having what Maurice Halbwachs describes as a ‘double focus’,92
central to the creation of collective memory. Halbwachs defines a ‘double focus’ as a’physical object, a material
reality such as a statue, a monument, a place in space, and also a symbol, or something of spiritual significance, something that is
shared by the group that adheres to and is superimposed upon this physical reality’.93 The above protests can be described
in terms of this double focus. The embassy is both a very particular physical place in the city, at the junction
of Elgin and Pembroke Roads and a symbolic location where memory can be constructed and reconstructed.
Animal blood was poured on the steps because it was the physical location of the United States Embassy but
also because it was a symbol of the American government. The pulling of the American flag from the pole
became a symbolic claiming of the territory. The physical location of the embassy is fixed, its place in space
is resolute, its material reality clearly articulated. It is therefore, the other side of the ‘double focus’, the symbolic
realm, that is fluid and open to interpretation.
As previously mentioned, the most notable address that the British diplomatic mission has occupied in
Ireland is number 39 and 40 Merrion Square. Similarly to the United States Embassy, it lay within the
inherited landscape of the Fitzwilliam and Pembroke estates. Despite this shared inherited landscape, these
edifices provoke different memories. As discussed earlier, no building was considered to be greater than the
whole in the plan of a Georgian square. 94 As a former domestic residence sitting sedately with the urban
ensemble of Merrion Square, the former British Embassy at number 39 and 40, would in the words of
Robert Musil, have acted as ‘the walls of our life, the backdrop of our consciousness’.95 Maurice Halbwach’s thesis of
“double focus” is even more potent when considering the former British Embassy. Both its physical address and
symbolic value alluded to British presence in Ireland. Merrion Square, and indeed all the Georgian squares
of Dublin were considered by some to be symbolic of a colonial presence in Ireland. The 1970’s would be
most difficult decade for the British mission in Ireland since the War of Independence. Bloody Sunday in
Derry would see thirteen civilians shot dead by British paratroopers.96 The embassy became a physical
location, the locus to which many city dwellers flocked to express their anger. However, in addition to this, it
also took on a symbolic value, transformed in the minds of many. Merrion Square, one of the most
significant civic ensembles in the city was being considered foreign territory. Similarly to protests at the
United States Embassy, Merrion Square was initially physically appropriated by protestors, The Irish Times
describes protestors climbing trees and hanging from lampposts and balconies of the Georgian houses.97 This
21
92 Maurice Halbwachs, On Collective Memory, (Chicago; London: University of Chicago Press, 1992) 204
93 Maurice Halbwachs, On Collective Memory, (Chicago; London: University of Chicago Press, 1992) 204
94Niall McCullough, Dublin: an urban history:the plan of the city, (Dublin: Anne Street Press: Associated Editions, 2007) 129
95 Robert Musil, Posthumous Papers of a Living Author, (Hygience Colorado, Eridanos Press,1987), 62
96 "Fusillade of Petrol Bombs Sets Embassy Ablaze." The Irish Times (1921-Current File), Feb 03, 1972, http://search.proquest.com/docview/526340981?accountid=14507 (accessed April 11, 2012).
97 "Fusillade of Petrol Bombs Sets Embassy Ablaze." The Irish Times (1921-Current File), Feb 03, 1972, http://search.proquest.com/docview/526340981?accountid=14507 (accessed April 11, 2012).
22
Fig. 14: Attack on the British Embassy
Fig. 15: The Embassy Ablaze
potent symbolic value culminated in the embassy being burned by an angry crowd on the 30th of January
1972.
‘Then the petrol bombing started, at first sporadically, each flash encouraged by the crowd, who shouted ‘more, more more’...Three
young men climbed onto a balcony at the end of the square, and swinging between the balconies made their way to the poles which
once bore a British flag. A man in a fawn pullover took a tricolour from his pocket and hoisted it to the half-mast position. The
crowd roared approval...the crowd marked each blow with a cheer and as the glass fractured and the steel fell back, roared with
delight.’98
This destruction of monuments is known as iconoclasm.99 Adrian Forty comments that ‘the lessons of iconoclasm
are largely negative- rather than shortening memory, it is just as likely, whether intentionally or not, to prolong it.’.100 The
destruction of the embassy cannot erase the memory of a British presence in Ireland. The placing of a
tricolour upon a flag pole will not fully inscribe number 39 and 40 Merrion Square in history as being “Irish”
territory. This is because the location itself, the whole of Merrion Square speaks of a more conflicted and
complicated collective history. The burning of a single building will not remove a complicated common
history from public consciousness. The excerpt below is from a report published by The Irish Times detailing
the restoration of the embassy in the aftermath of the attacks. The embassy was restored as a showcase
Georgian house, portraying life on Merrion Square in the years immediately following its construction.
However, for the reporter, the fire and subsequent destruction of the embassy remains the overriding
association with the edifice. She writes that ‘being there brought back memories of that rainy Wednesday, of a throng of
people converging on the square, of ranks of gardai, and finally of the fire and the loud cheering that followed it’.101
The destruction of the monument being the means by which the monument becomes more imbued in public
memory is a common one. Following the fall of communism in the Soviet Union, Communist monuments
were removed in a zealous manner. In Moscow, Adrian Forty comments that ‘the voids were as noticeable as the
sculptures that stood on them previously had been invisible’. This condition is aggravated when iconoclasm occurs in a
cohesive urban ensemble like Merrion Square. If the whole is cohesive, it so follows that through the
destruction of a single building, its presence is made apparent by its absence. Number 39 and 40 form part
of the east elevation to the square, its most uniform and coherent side.102 In her thesis, The Development of
Merrion Square, Nicola Matthews outlines the rigour applied to the east elevation to the square. All of the plots
were leased to one master builder, Samuel Sproule and his control lead to repetitive plots of similar size,
23
98"Crowd Shouted More, More as Embassy Blazed." The Irish Times (1921-Current File), Feb 03, 2010, http://search.proquest.com/
docview/863253469?accountid=14507 (accessed April 7, 2012).
99 Adrian Forty., Adrian, Susanne Kuchler, The Art of Forgetting, (Oxford:Berg, 1999), 10
100 Adrian Forty., Adrian, Susanne Kuchler, The Art of Forgetting, (Oxford:Berg, 1999) 11
101 Caroline Walsh "£100,000 to Restore Fire-Bombed Embassy and Neigbouring House." The Irish Times (1921-Current File), Jun 14, 1976, http://search.proquest.com/docview/527579937?accountid=14507 (accessed April 7, 2012).
102Nicola Matthews,The Development of Merrion Square, Dublin, (M.U.B.C Thesis, University College Dublin, Ireland, 1997) 22
regular three bay elevations and almost uniform treatment of window sills, balconies and parapets.103
Certainly on the scale of the city, the east elevation reads very strongly as an unified whole. The destruction
of Number 39 and 40 is thus the opposite of Heidegger’s aforementioned theory of the bridge as the artifact
which reveals the landscape to us. It is the destruction of the embassy that reveals the past colonial landscape
and enshrines it in collective memory.
Aldo Rossi wrote in the The Architecture of the City, ‘the concept that one person has of an urban artifact will always differ
from that of someone who ‘lives’ that artifact’. 104 The citizens of Dublin have “lived” the artifacts of the United
States Embassy in Ballsbridge and the former British Embassy on Merrion Square. Memories and
perceptions of these are created, which may differ from those of their creators and caretakers. Protests and
memorials are times of heightened emotion when the symbolic significance of a monument becomes
stronger than the monument’s physical presence in the city. When this occurs, the site’s historical links with
the city become clouded, we read it less as something of Dublin, and more as foreign territory, a built symbol
of another nation’s presence.
24
103Nicola Matthews, The Development of Merrion Square, Dublin, (M.U.B.C Thesis, University College Dublin, Ireland, 1997) 22
104 Aldo Rossi, The Architecture of the City, (Cambridge, Mass. ; London : Published by (i.e. for) the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts and the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies by MIT, 1982), 93
Embassy translated from Monument to Primary Element
Divisive and controversial histories shroud many of Dublin’s monuments. Against this background of
conflicting memories, they continue play a pertinent urban role. Nelson’s pillar offers a prime example of
this. As an object in the city, it played a pivotal role in the urban set piece of O’Connell Street, closing vistas
from North, South, East and West. Shane O’Toole describes the pillar as giving the quality of a grand civic
room to O’Connell Street.105 James Joyce chronicles the ritual of viewing the city from Nelson’s Pillar in
Ulysses,
‘They want to see the views of Dublin from the top of Nelson’s Pillar. They save up three and tenpence in a red tin litterbox
moneybox...They put on their bonnets and their best clothes and take their umbrellas for fear it may come to rain.’106
Colin Rowe and Fred Koetter have espoused the theory of ‘building as infill’. 107 This is achieved when an
object, is absorbed into urban texture of the city and reread as part of the urban whole. Given that they
function in commemoration and thus are built to be seen, monument as infill rather than object may seem
like a paradox. The Bank of Ireland on College Green previously functioned as the House of Parliament
prior to the Act of Union in 1801. As a monument, it symbolised Ireland as the colonial subject of Great
Britain. Thus, its presence as a monument in the capital of the Republic of Ireland is a provocative one. On
the level of the street, however, we do indeed experience it as “infill”. Moving from the enclosure of Grafton
Street to the openness of College Green, its curving flanks lead the pedestrian down Westmoreland Street
moving from South to North.
The United States Embassy is a three dimensional object with a clear profile placed at a distinct and
significant junction in the city. Its form constitutes a strong juxtaposition to the existing fabric. A circular
form within a rectilinear terrace should possess that particular quality that Kevin Lynch describes as
“imageability”, the form being so conspicuously dissimilar to the buildings which surround it, that it installs
itself more readily in our memory.
Robert Musil remarked that ‘there is nothing in the world as invisible as a monument’.108 For Musil, these “invisible”
monuments could still play a huge role in urban scenography.
‘Many people have this same experience even with larger-than-life sized statues. Every day you have to walk around them, or use
their pedestal as a haven of rest, you employ them as a compass or distance marker; when you happen upon the well-known
square, you sense them as you would a tree, as part of the street scenery, and you would be momentarily stunned were they to be
25
105Shane O’Toole, IN: John O’Regan,“A Monument in the City: Nelson’s Pillar and its aftermath” (Dublin: Gandon Editions Dublin, 1998) 33
106James Joyce, (1882-1941) IN: Rose., Daniel (ed) Ulysses,, (London: Picador, 1997)123
107Colin Rowe, Fred Koetter, Collage City, Cambridge,( Mass. ; London : MIT Press, 1984) 78
108 Robert Musil, Posthumous Papers of a Living Author, (Hygience Colorado, Eridanos Press,1987) 61
missing one morning: but you never look at them, and do not generally have the slightest notion of whom they are supposed to
represent, except that maybe you know if it’s a man or a woman.”’109
Through its inhabitation of a left-over site, the United States Embassy plays the role of urban infill rather
than juxtaposition. Gianni Vattimo wrote of ‘the background character of good buildings,110 and despite the
categorical will of the embassy to project a very definite image, it possesses this character. It is not, however,
the inhabitation of a residual site alone that allows it to to play this role. The architectural language of the
embassy, specifically Johansen’s use of classical references homogenises the foreign presence in the nineteenth
century suburb.
Johansen has variously described himself as 'classicist” or having designed the Dublin Embassy when he was
in his “neoclassical phase”. An essay penned by Johansen entitled Space-Time Palladian, published in Architectural
Record in 1955 clearly refers to this. He uses Geoffrey Scott’s phrase ‘the laughter of strength’111 to describe the
humanised monumentality of Palladio’s work. This tendency towards a classical approach can most
particularly be seen in his domestic work prior to the Dublin commission. These houses were dubbed ‘Budget
or poor man’s Palladio’, 112 by Johansen himself. James S. Ackerman gave the following description of Palladio’s
Rotunda.
‘The villa was square with a high basement. On each facade, a broad flight of steps lead to an Ionic portico with a door leading
into the villa. The circular central hall on the first floor extended upward the full height of the building to a central dome, a whole
latern admitted light into the apartment.’113
Johansen’s description’s of his Villa Goode, designed more four centuries later, almost mirrors this
description.
‘The main floor of this simple, geometrically shaped house was positioned over a recessed, partially lower level and cantilevered
out on four sides. A clerestory brought light into the centre of the house. Monumental, open riser exterior stairs, without any
railings seemed to only lightly touch the house.’114
26
109 Robert Musil, Posthumous Papers of a Living Author, (Hygience Colorado, Eridanos Press,1987) 62
110 David Leatherbarrow, Architecture Orientated Otherwise, (New York : Princeton Architectural, 2009) 207
111John, M. Johansen, Space-Time Palladian, Architectural Record, 118,( Dec 1955) 151
112 John, M. Johansen, Space-Time Palladian, Architectural Record, 118,( Dec 1955) 152
113 James S. Ackerman, Palladio’s Villas, (Locust Valley, N.Y: : Published for the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, 1967)
114 William D. Earls, The Harvard Five in New Canann: Midcentury Modern Houses by Marcel Breur, Landis Gores, John Johansen, Philip Johansen, Elioy Noyes and Others, (New York, London: W.W North and Company, 2006)
27
Fig 18: Symbolic House, John Johansen
Fig. 16: Palladio’s Rotunda Fig. 17: Johansen’s Villa Goode
28
Fig. 20: Embassy Section
Fig. 19: Embassy Plan
The United States Embassy can thus be read as a Palladian villa, Johansen’s own interpretation of the FBO
directive, modern technology juxtaposed with classical references. The strongest Palladian motif is the
centralised plan surrounded by multiple entrances. Palladio’s geometry is adapted to the local idiosyncrasies;
the embassy stands with two entrances from Elgin and Pembroke Roads rather than the four perfectly
geometrical entrances that are found in the Rotunda. Similarly to the Rotunda, a central top-lit space is
found on the interior. Externally, the parallels continue through the rustication of the two storey basement,
articulated in granite. As a circular form sitting in a triangular plan, the embassy is essentially a villa within a
garden.
At the turn of the twentieth century, there was a return to classical paradigms for monumental buildings.
Alan Colquhuon believes this was due to their latent neutrality. He argues that classicism cannot be claimed
by any particular ideology, rather its strongest characteristic is its reproducibility and thus its ability to take
on a multiplicity of meanings.115 In post-independence Ireland, neutrality was not among the many
connotations of classicism. Since Georgian times, neoclassicism had been an architectural vehicle for
commemorating and exhibiting Ireland’s link with Britain.116 The early 1960’s saw much of Dublin’s
Georgian architecture condemned. However, the urban artifact reveals little of this narrative. The
relationship which the embassy enjoys with it’s Victorian and Georgian neighbours through the use of these
classical references is stronger than the symbolism of the same references. These references allows the
embassy to become a Palladian villa. By establishing a common origin, the embassy can begin to speak the
language of the Victorian and Georgian terraces in Ballsbridge and thus become indigenous in a sense. The
height of the embassy sits comfortably within the terrace described by Ellen Rowley as ‘Johansen’ nod to the
neighboring red brick 19th century suburb’.117 Thus, classicism endows the embassy with the “neutrality” that
Colquhoun speaks of, by allowing it to become domestic. Its most notable Palladian device which enables this
neutrality is barely visible on first approach to the site. The rusticated basement articulated in irish granite,
allows the five story embassy to be read as a three story volume. In this we see the embassy beginning to play
its role within the physical structure of the city. It is a role independent of the intentions of it’s creators, the
associations of the site or the projections that city dwellers make upon it. The form of the United States
Embassy as a primary element within the physical structure of the street is stronger than its classical
connotations. Quietly and sedately, the diplomatic mission marks the corner of Elgin and Pembroke Roads
and denotes the point that Pembroke Road become Northumberland Road. It provides an urban
29
115 Alan Colquhoun, Modernity and the Classical Tradition: architectural essays 1980-1987, (Cambridge, Mass. ; London : MIT Press, 1987), 205
116 Andrew Kincaid, Postcolonial Dublin: Imperial Legacies and the Built Environment, (Minneapolis, Minn; London: University of Minnesota Press, 2006) 104
117Ellen Rowley, (2011), “From Dublin to Chicago and Back Again: The Influence of Americanised Modernism on Dublin Architecture 1960 – 1980” IN: King. Linda, Sisson., Elaine, Ireland, Design and visual culture : negotiating modernity, 1922-1992, (Cork: Cork University, 2011) 219
counterpoint to Herbert Park It plays the role which David Leatherbarrow describes as critical within an
urban ensemble, that of concentrating the ensemble without making ‘steady demands on our awareness.’118
30
118David Leatherbarrow, (2008) IN: Francis Jones., Richard, (Skyplane, Sydney: N.S.W :UNSW Press, 2008)
Fig. 21: Embassy Basement and Moat
Embassy as a Propelling Element
‘When we consider the spatial aspect of primary elements and their role independent of their function, we realise how closely they
are identified with their presence in the city. They possess a value “in themselves” but also a value dependent on their place in the
city.’119
As a primary element, The United States Embassy has an intrinsic value dependent on its place within the
urban matrix of Dublin. Rossi wrote of primary elements, ‘although they are conditioned, they also condition’,120 they
are transformative by nature. A monument is a focal point in the city, fixed in position and it is around this
position that the other parts of the city will flourish and diminish.121 This is the point where architecture
becomes ‘forgotten’.122 In the Rome of Sixtus V, monuments in the form of obelisks transformed the urban
morphology on the level of street, district and city. They reconstructed the character of Rome physically, but
also the image of Rome in collective memory. On the level of the street, obelisks functioned as centre-points,
terminating perspectives. On the level of the district, the obelisks marked out critical junctures in the city
where development could occur, denoting the future location of celebrated streets and sqaures. 123 Moving to
the scale of the city, all of Rome was renewed afresh, almost unrecognizable to some. ‘Everything seemed to be
new, edifices, streets, squares, fountains, aqueducts, obelisks.’124 Similarly, in the Roman world, a monument like an
arch, built to commemorate the stay of an emperor was often the central node in a geometric strategy for
developing a entirely new urban district. 125
‘As they went slowly along the avenues, the trees and scattered lights in the villas soothed their mind. The air of wealth and repose
diffused around them and seemed to comfort their neediness.’126 This was the description of the Pembroke Township
offered by James Joyce in The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. 127 This quote eloquently depicts the
characteristics of the monumental planning of the Pembroke Estate; wide tree-lined streets with large
31
119 Aldo Rossi, The Architecture of the City, (Cambridge, Mass. ; London : Published by (i.e. for) the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts and the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies by MIT, 1982), 87
120 Aldo Rossi, The Architecture of the City, (Cambridge, Mass. ; London : Published by (i.e. for) the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts and the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies by MIT, 1982), 32
121 Aldo Rossi, , The Architecture of the City, (Cambridge, Mass. ; London : Published by (i.e. for) the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts and the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies by MIT, 1982), 87
122 Aldo Rossi, A Scientific Autobiography, (Cambridge, Mass. ; London : Published for the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, Chicago, Illinois, and the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies, New York by the MIT Press, 1981) 45
123 Siegfried Giedieon, Space, Time and Architecture: The Growth of a New Tradition, (Cambridge:Mass, Harvard, 1967)
124 Siegfried Giedieon, Space, Time and Architecture: The Growth of a New Tradition, (Cambridge:Mass, Harvard, 1967)
125 Donald J. Watts, Caroline Martin Watts, The Role of Monuments in the Geometrical Ordering of the Roman Master of Gresa, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians , Vol. 51, No. 3 (Sep., 1992), 306-314
126 James Joyce, A portrait of the artist as a young man / James Joyce ; edited with an introduction and notes by Jeri Johnson.(Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2000)
127James Joyce, A portrait of the artist as a young man / James Joyce ; edited with an introduction and notes by Jeri Johnson.(Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2000)
32
Fig. 22: Aerial View of Ballsbridge, 1964
Victorian villas. The urban condition created by the Pembroke Estate and the later Pembroke Township in
the nineteenth century favoured the creation of an embassy belt in Ballsbridge in the mid-twentieth century.
Pembroke, like the other Dublin townships, lay outside the municipal borders of the city proper. Situated
outside the boundaries of the two canals and the South Circular Road, these townships were essentially self-
governing entities controlled by the upper class Protestants ascendency who had migrated to the suburbs
from the city centre.128 This autonomy allowed the townships of Dublin to essentially control their own
urban development, unconstrained by the wishes of the municipality. This self-governance extended to
infrastructure on a grand scale. Most significantly, the Pembroke Township constructed it’s own drainage
works, thus distancing itself from the municipality.129
The extent to which development and its investment in a strong infrastructure made Pembroke exemplary
amongst the Dublin townships. The Rathmines and Rathgar township and the Pembroke township came
into existence within a twenty year period, in 1847 and 1863 respectively. The crucial difference between
the subsequent growth of both townships was that the estate manager of the former Pembroke Estate
continued to play a dominant role in the commission of the new township.130 The length of the leases
offered by the Pembroke Estate discouraged speculative development. Typically, 99-year and 150-year leases
were the norm, and these guaranteed long-term returns in contrast to the 999- year leases or freeholds
offered in Rathmines.131 The estate, rather than the developer, was responsible for maintaining roads and
sewerage. In other townships such as Rathmines, this infrastructure was often shoddy. 132 This controlled
development and investment in infrastructure meant that local rates were actually higher than those in the
city proper, a condition that would repeat itself in the middle of the twentieth century. As a result of such
rates, very little development took place for the lower middle or working class. 133 Therefore, while
development slackened, the area never suffered the urban decline which was so prevalent in Dublin at the
beginning of the twentieth century. 134 Today, approximately 28 embassies are located around the remnants
of the Pembroke estate, mainly clustered around Ailsbury, Raglan, Elgin and Clyde Roads. All of these roads
exhibit the particular characteristics of the planning of the Pembroke estate. Wide tree-lined streets offer
privacy to diplomatic missions, yet are conveniently located on the approach to Merrion Square via
Pembroke Road.135
33
128Jacinta Prunty, Dublin Slums, 1800-1925: A Study in Urban Geography, (Dublin: Irish Academic Press,1998) 14
129 Jacinta Prunty, Dublin Slums, 1800-1925: A Study in Urban Geography, (Dublin: Irish Academic Press,1998) 14 87
130Andrew MacLaran, Dublin, The Shaping of a Capital, (London: Belhaven Press, 1993), 43
131Andrew MacLaran, Dublin, The Shaping of a Capital, (London: Belhaven Press, 1993), 43
132Andrew MacLaran, Dublin, The Shaping of a Capital, (London: Belhaven Press, 1993), 43
133Andrew MacLaran, Dublin, The Shaping of a Capital, (London: Belhaven Press, 1993), 43
134Andrew MacLaran,Dublin, The Shaping of a Capital, (London: Belhaven Press, 1993), 43
135 Frank McDonald, The Destruction of Dublin, (Dublin: Gill and MacMillian, 1985)
The monuments and strong infrastructure of the Pembroke Estate created an urban condition in the mid-
twentieth century that their creators could not have forseen. Prior to the construction of the embassy, the
morphology of Ballsbridge was a clear and coherent inheritance of the Pembroke Estate. Similarly, the
United States Embassy, as an urban monument, inadvertently transformed the district of Ballsbridge,
creating a new urban condition. Urban coherency, however, would not be one of its defining characteristics.
The United States Embassy has played a spatial and transformative role in the Ballsbridge district and indeed
in the entire city. The city is an inheritence of an centuries old urban evolution. As transformative primary
elements, monuments are capable of diminishing this evolution to create a new urban condition.136 The
United States Embassy was a key catalyst in this urbanisation of Ballsbridge. Frank McDonald, charting the
transformation of Ballsbridge from sedate suburb to prime office location in “The Destruction of Dublin”,
underlines the importance of the construction of the embassy to the growth of the area.
‘The ball was set rolling by the United States government in 1956 when it purchased a substantial Victorian house on the corner
of Elgin Road and Pembroke Road as the site for a new embassy building’.137
In the 1960’s, it was hoped that its modern architecture would give the Victorian suburb a new identity. 138
The embassy was sympathetic to the surrounding context; its presence rather than its manners led to the
genesis of buildings which would alter the scale of the neighbourhood forever. The metamorphosis occured
first in the immediate vicinity of the site, with the steady demolition of all the family dwellings on the
Pembroke Road, between the site of the embassy and the junction with Pembroke Road. By the mid-1980’s,
Ballsbridge would be a suburb transformed. Commercial was now it’s overriding characteristic, at the
expense of the inner city.139 Frank McDonald illustrates this rapid transformation.
‘A prime office location commanding rental levels far higher than anywhere else in the city...Building heights have changed
dramatically and many of the Victorian houses of the Pembroke estate have been converted to office or embassy use.’140
Dublin’s morphology has changed dramatically in the fifty years since the construction of the embassy. In
the process of transforming the suburb of Ballsbridge, it has also been a propelling element in transformation
of the city. The changes that the construction of the embassy enacted on the scale of the district in
Ballsbridge, partially orchestrated a scheme that had the potential to change our image of Dublin forever.
Sean Dunne purchased the former site of Jury’s Hotels, directly opposite the embassy, in 2005. Sean Dunne’s
scheme for the site, One Berkeley Court, (most notably the presence of a 37 storey tower) were perceived to be so
drastic, that a debate was ignited about the future of the entire city. This debate was centered around the
connotation that the high-rise elements of the scheme would alter irreversibly the character of Dublin.
34
136 Aldo Rossi, The Architecture of the City, (Cambridge, Mass. ; London : Published by (i.e. for) the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts and the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies by MIT, 1982), 95
137Frank McDonald, , The Destruction of Dublin, (Dublin: Gill and MacMillian, 1985)
138 Ruth McManus, Crampton Built, (Dublin: Gill and MacMillian, 2008) 266
139 Frank McDonald, (2008, Mar 11). Renewal of inner city areas left high and dry. The Irish Times (1921-Current File), pp. 6. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/529009798?accountid=14507
140Frank McDonald, (1985), The Destruction of Dublin, Dublin: Gill and MacMillian
35
POST-EMBASSY DEVELOPMENTSPRE-EMBASSY DEVELOPMENTSFig. 23: Figure-Ground map showing developments which followed the construction of the embassy
36
Fig. 24: One Berkeley Court
Fig 25: Draft Local Area Plan with yellow stars denoting “landmark” sites opposite the embassy
The manager of Dublin CIty Council, John Tierney, commented that such a high-rise development would
affirm Dublin as being a “dynamic, mixed-use, visually attractive world city”.141 Kieran Rose, senior planner with
Dublin City Council, further affirmed this position by commenting it would symbolise the aspirations of 20th
century Dublin.142 Contesting this, was the assertion of the Department of Heritage that the development
was a danger to the Georgian heritage of the entire southside. 143
Sean Dunne made the following potent comment ‘Ballsbridge has for a long time been portrayed by some as a village
whereas it is in fact a national centre.’144 Directly contradicting this is the view of the residents who believe that
Ballsbridge is ‘a suburban village not the Central Business District.’145
Ballsbridge is an undefined entity, floating between these two opposing views. A Local Area Plan proposed in
2007,146 which sought to reclassify the district a Prime Urban Centre was rejected. The reclassification of the
area was largely based on the idea that Ballsbridge had a ‘national function’,147 based on the number of national
institutions that it already housed. Institutions of national importance do certainly abound such as Royal
Dublin Society, The Aviva Stadium, the AIB headquarters and twenty eight embassies. Thus, it would appear
that the suburb had already achieved a monumentality in public consciousness. The Local Area Plan wished
to translate this perceived monumentality into a built one through a reclassification of building heights in
certain areas, most notably the block directly opposite the American embassy.148 This reclassification of
building heights would then allow for the proliferation of what the Local Area Plan terms “landmark” 149
buildings i.e “monuments”. Siegfried Giedieon defined the modern monument as ‘an expression of man’s highest
cultural needs’.150 A “monument” based entirely on privately financed speculation cannot fulfill such a
definition and thus cannot achieve an urban cohesion.
37
141Frank McDonald, "D-Day Looms for Ballsbridge Skyline." The Irish Times (1921-Current File), Sep 06, 2008, http://search.proquest.com/docview/529282131?accountid=14507 (accessed April 7, 2012).
142Kieran Rose, IN: Paul Kearns, Redrawing Dublin, (Cork: Gandon Editions, 2010) 267
143 Frank McDonald, "D-Day Looms for Ballsbridge Skyline." The Irish Times (1921-Current File), Sep 06, 2008, http://search.proquest.com/docview/529282131?accountid=14507 (accessed April 7, 2012).
144David Robbins, David, “Death of a dream in leafy D4” The Irish Independent (2012, Feb 11) http://www.independent.ie/opinion/columnists/david-robbins/death-of-a-dream-in-leafy-d4-3016668.html
145 Robbins., David, “Death of a dream in leafy D4” The Irish Independent (2012, Feb 11) http://www.independent.ie/opinion/columnists/david-robbins/death-of-a-dream-in-leafy-d4-3016668.html
146 Dublin City Council, Ballsbridge Draft Local Area Plan, (Dublin: Dublin City Council, 2007)
147 Frank McDonald, "Renewal of Inner City Areas Left High and Dry." The Irish Times (1921-Current File), Mar 11, 2008, http://search.proquest.com/docview/529009798?accountid=14507 (accessed April 7, 2012)
148 Dublin City Council Ballsbridge Draft Local Area Plan, Dublin: Dublin City Council, (2007) 43
149 Dublin City Council Ballsbridge Draft Local Area Plan, Dublin: Dublin City Council, (2007) 43
150 Sert., J.L, Giedion S., Léger. F., (1943) Nine Points on Monumentality, in Giedion., Siegfried, Architecture, You and Me; the Diary of a Development, (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1958)
Conclusion
The relationship between two countries is constantly in flux, a product of the national and international
political landscape. It so follows that an embassy is not in a static relationship with the city within which it sits.
As a monument in the city, its first act is deliberate, to crystallise in built form, a particular political ideology
at a precise moment in time. The deliberate monument is produced by a foreign imagination and ideology.
The embassy as an unintentional or accidental monument is a product of the inherited landscape of its host
city and the social memory of its inhabitants. Against this backdrop of its own evolution in the city, the
embassy also evolves, that is to say, it transforms the city both physically and spatially. An urban coherency is
not an inheritence of such transformations. The monument conditions the city, however, the question of
what the city might become remains an altogether more exacting one.
Within the immediate vicinity of the United States Embassy in Ballsbridge, the urban artifacts of the
Pembroke and Fitzwilliam Estates are clearly legible. These monuments did indeed alter the character of the
city, transforming the verdant into the suburban and ultimately urban. In 1784, Merrion Square was still
classified as ‘the suburbs of the city of Dublin’.151 Today, it is very much the heart of the city. The proliferation of
an embassy belt in Dublin has lead to a patchwork of foreign territories being laid down upon this urban
artifact. While the traditional monument tends to configure the city into a more cohesive form, the embassy
as a “foreign” monument tends to do the opposite. The monuments of the Pembroke Estate and Township
were accents in wider schemes on the scale of the city, which were executed over a long periods of time and
controlled by a small elite. As a piece of foreign territory in Dublin, the United States Embassy does not sit
within a wider vision for the city. Its role in the plan of the city is somewhat accidental. The fact that
planning permission for its construction, though sought, was not necessary on the basis of diplomatic
immunity underlines this.152 Without a grounding in the city, these transformations have thus served to distort
rather than renew the district. The inability of Dublin City Council to reach a consensus with the residents
of Ballsbridge on its urban character of the area stands as a testament to this distortion. Ballsbridge has yet
to configure its urban artifacts from various periods into an overall form. The United States Embassy has
played the roles of the deliberate, unitentional and transformative monument. The deliberate and
unitentional voices of the monument clamour for attention throughout its lifetime. In contrast, the
transformative monument takes root in the city from its inception, it is both absorbed into and absorbs the
urban texture. The accidental nature of embassies within the city’s plan mean that the fruits of this
transformative labour are often uncohesive. The United States Embassy has played the role of the
38
151 Nicola Matthews (1997) The Development of Merrion Square, Dublin, Thesis (M.U.B.C), Dublin: University College Dublin
152 E. Shanahan, US plans iron curtain for dublin 4. The Irish Times (1921-Current File), March 27, 1999 pp. A12. http://search.proquest.com/docview/524740374?accountid=14507
transformative monument in Ballsbridge since the early 1960’s, only to produce what Aldo Rossi has termed
“inconclusive times in the urban dynamic”.153
39
153 Aldo Rossi, The Architecture of the City, (Cambridge, Mass. ; London : Published by (i.e. for) the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts and the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies by MIT, 1982) , 95
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