Category / Architecture & Urban Design

by shannonchance

Wilde Fun at the Gaiety

Inside of the Gaiety Theater, mentioned in Oscar Wilde’s “Dubliners.”

It’s hard to feel lonely when you have a Facebook community to lean on. Being five hours ahead of the time at home can make me feel a little isolated on Sunday mornings, when the people I love most are still asleep.  But what do you know, another Fulbright living in Ireland jumped right in this morning via FB and offered solidarity.

Scene from Wilde’s story about the characters of Dublin, set in 1848.

I perked up after heading across town to the Gaiety Theater for a Sunday matinee.  Oscar Wilde’s stories were  delightful due to some great choreography and skillful acting.  Perhaps he didn’t mean it to be so comical, but nevertheless, it was a highly entertaining theatrical production. It was delivered entirely in third person to keep true to Wilde’s text (which wasn’t penned for the stage). The stories involve a bunch of off-beat personalities, but most of them are lovable enough. I’m sure the book itself could get depressing, but the play seldom did.

Anyone care to join me?

There was even a singer in the play who reminded me of my Dad’s cousin, Robin Massie.  With her beautiful curly red hair, super-cheery personality, and incredible soprano voice, Robin could definitely find a place on stage here.

Sunday afternoon streets are always full of people — as long as the rain holds off.

The design of the Gaiety Theater is itself a treat.  Inside, it looks a lot like the Olympia (which I posted a picture of previously), except that this theater is bigger.  It’s where Riverdance performs, for instance.

I also finally sought out the Cornucopia restaurant. It specializes in vegetarian, wheat-free, gluten-free, vegan, and sugar-free options.  And, believe it or not, they also specialize in delicious dishes!  I wonder:  How on earth did it take me so long to find this place? Mark (at the Kildare Street Hotel) told me about it weeks ago.

Shopping for light bulbs, a bell pepper, and ginger root on the way home… along with everyone else!

The play and a warm bowl of soup did wonders for my day.  The rain showers melted into sunshine.  The afternoon streets filled with people.  I even found one of the light bulbs I needed to purchase while I was on the way home (even the light bulbs are different from what we have at home, and so keeping each light fixture aglow offers me new challenges.)

Shopping successful, tummy full, and Shannon happy, I returned home to reflect and transcribe.

PS — My new URL is shannonchance.net to save you a few keystrokes.  If you receive my blog posts by email, I recommend you click the title of the piece when they arrive, so you can read the online version.  That way you get a better graphic experience (and sometimes a few less type-os). Now, if only I could figure out how to control this crazy template’s layout.

An urban reflection from today.

by shannonchance

Sights and Sounds of Thessaloniki

Reflection in Thessaloniki

Thessaloniki was amazing!  I had most of a day to explore the city before the conference started.  I had no trouble getting around and the Greek people were amazingly helpful.

Inside the down of the Agia Sophia church.

I was lucky to be exploring the city on a Sunday because all the churches were open for celebrating mass.  I observed christenings in two different churches–one that has a basilica (Christian cross) plan and another with a Byzantine cross plan (where all the arms have equal length). The basilica plan is typical of Roman planning (of Roman Catholic heritage) and the other (like San Marco in Venice) is typical of Greek Orthodox planning.

This area was under control of the Ottoman Empire for a period of time, after it belonged to the Roman Empire, and the Ottomans worked to convert the Christians to Islam.  There are Roman and Byzantine scattered artifacts throughout Thessaloniki.

I missed the actual baptism and anointing, but after that a team of women dressed the baby head to toe. Here the parents presented the fully-dressed child.

I particularly enjoyed visiting the Greek Agora (which became a Roman Amphitheater during Roman occupation of the area) and the Museum of Byzantine Culture.  I had visited the Museum of Byzantine Culture for just an hour on my own, so I was thrilled when the conference included a dinner plus tour there as well.  I felt like a kid in a candy store!
I’m not one to dwell on negatives, but I will mention a couple of oddities of my stay in Greece. There were two bus loads of riot police parked in front of my hotel the entire time I was there.  One week prior to my arrival, the police had reclaimed the building a few doors down.  It had been held by a group of anarchists for the past five years.  I could see burn marks on the underside of the balconies of the building as I walked by.

All set up outside for the after-baptisim festivities.

In the past, I had heard that the riots I’d witnessed in Rome were organized by anarchists from the Balkins, and not by Italian people.  I’ve been in or near Rome for two, both of which were in response to visits by President Bush the second.

I can’t vouch for the accuracy of that claim, but it certainly seems possible to me now that I’ve seen the anarchists in action in Greece.

Despite the potential for chaos, I felt quite safe everywhere I went in Thessaloniki, even when I was out by myself.  However, I didn’t get a chance to visit the oldest part of the city where it’s acropolis is located, so I can’t speak to the atmosphere of the whole place. But my hotel was allowing the police to use the facilities from time to time, and things felt stable enough to me.

I love to see depictions of saints holding models of churches. This one appears to have a Byzantine cross plan.

There was also some sort of transit strike on the morning I left. I had to take a cab to the airport instead of city bus, and my flight to Rome was delayed for an hour.  After we finally landed in Rome, the folks at the airport forgot to deliver one buggy of luggage to the baggage claim.  That delayed about 40 of the passengers, including myself, for about another hour.  I helped get that sorted out by alerting the airport personnel to the problem.

Each time they enter the church, they visit each important relic. And kiss each and every one!

Overall, I was amazed at how orderly the others on the flight were in loading the plane and, later, waiting for luggage.  Several of them even waited for my luggage–the very last of the set–to emerge before they set off for the city.  They went out of their way to make sure I was okay!

In the interim, I had helped people make their connections by providing advice on how to have baggage delivered directly to their homes.  It was great to be of assistance!  (It wasn’t the first time I awaited lost luggage in Rome.)

I lit a candle in honor of Dave’s dad.

The flights themselves were great.  I managed to get window seats on three of my four flights. As I write this, we’ve just flown over the Ligurian coast of Italy (where Dave and I spent a week this past summer).  I must admit that the mountains that looked so scary from the passenger seat still look scary!  We blew a tire when we accidentally went off-roading.

On another note:  it feels terrific to know the landmarks of Italy and of Rome well enough to get around without a map.  Yesterday, when the busses of Rome were detoured around the city center, I was able to help many tourists find their way.  I don’t even need a map for getting around Dublin, because I spent so much time apartment shopping on line before I arrived!

by shannonchance

My Partners in Crime

Sima with work by fourth year Architectural Technology students.

It was a fabulous first day of school!  I’m off to yoga momentarily, but I thought I’d post some pics of my collaborators.  Meet architecture lecturer (i.e., professor) Sima Rouholamin and engineering lecturer Gavin Duffy.

The photo of Sima is from the March 2011, when I visited her studio as a guest critic.

The photo of the students, Gavin and I was taken March 2012.  The students had built robotic cars and were racing against each other at mid-terms during their spring semester.  They were placing for seeds in the end-of-semester competition.  I’ll get to watch the entire competition unfold this time around….

Electrical engineering students with Shannon and Gavin.
by shannonchance

It’s All About the Light

Dublin was awash in sunshine today!

We awoke this morning for breakfast with two of our house guests–Amanda Bernhard and Jonathan Kennedy–who are in Galway for the year studying Irish.  They have a very interesting blog going and they manage to post it in Irish and English.  I invited them to stay an extra night after the Fulbright Orientation, so we could go to the Cobblestone Pub that’s just down the street.  It’s known far and wide as the best place in Dublin to hear traditional music.  Amanda and Jon each play instruments and they joined in with the other musicians playing at the pub last night.  I’m hoping Dave will provide images of Amanda with her fiddle and Jon with his pipes, so I can post them for you.

We are absolutely loving city life.  Everything is right here… no need for a car day-to-day.

Following breakfast (which included a tasty bowl of porridge with rhubarb at the Cinnamon Cafe), I visited a photo exhibit while Dave enjoyed the weekly outdoor market and the wine festival in Meeting House Square.  Then we both headed over to the Oxfam Home store (which sells used furniture) and the Dublin Food CoOp.  Yelp has proven quite helpful in locating local favorites such as these, which came highly recommended by Peter and Mark at Kildare Street Hotel.

As we ran our errands, we also stubbled across one beautiful place after another.  I’ve attached a snapshot of the park beside St. Patrick’s Cathedral that we strolled through.

After a quick bowl of soup for lunch, I dashed off to see a play with my sister, Heather Massie, who is visiting for the Dublin Fringe Festival.  The play “Guerrilla Days in Ireland” was performed at the beautiful Olympia Theater.  It was a nice complement to the play we’d each seen last week called “The Plough and the Stars.”  Both relay twentieth century Irish history.

Amazingly, Heather has seen ten shows in the week she’s been here–in addition to taking a bus trip to Kerry, meeting us in Galway and Connemara for three days, and coming along on one day of Fulbright orientation with me (to see the Hill of Tara and Trim Castle).  Today she visited the Goal (former jail), art museum and its gardens, the Queen of Tarts….

In other words, it’s been quite a busy week.  I’ve just reported about the tip of the iceberg!  I’ll have to tell you about our other adventures in future days.  I do enjoy the comments you post and emails you send….

by shannonchance

Curved Streets

I captured a few more images of curving streets on our walk to dinner last night.  I mentioned yesterday that Camillo Sitte recommended the urban designers include non-straight streets.  The urban design students I taught this past summer used Sitte’s principles to guide their designs for a new (theoretical) plaza in Rome.  You can see their proposals at Urban Push.  Two of the images below feature landmarks around the bend in the street.

In the photos below, you’ll also see that Dublin has bike share.  If I find the drop-off locations to be convenient, I’ll join the program.  I’ve heard it’s just €10 per year.  Remembering to drive on the left is pretty difficult for me when I’m not in a car, though, so it may be a while before I’m up for riding a bike in the city.  I actually had no problem driving a car on the left side when I rented a manual transmission auto for two weeks in 2003.  The most difficulty I had that year was remembering to convert back to right-handed driving when I got back home.