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

http://www.osi.ie

http://www.osi.ie

http://www.osi.ie

http://www.osi.ie

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nlireland/6817741408/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nlireland/6817741408/

http://www.geograph.ie/photo/918483




http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Glendalough_Round_Tower.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Glendalough_Round_Tower.jpg

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

http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/0127/bloodysunday.html

http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/0127/bloodysunday.html

http://www.mountbrook.ie/jbc/

http://www.mountbrook.ie/jbc/

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

http://search.proquest.com/docview/55184605?accountid=14507




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

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=wordwell


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


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


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



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



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


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



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


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




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


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)









http://www.independent.ie/opinion/columnists/david-robbins/death-of-a-dream-in-leafy-d4-3016668.html








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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