The Monument of Light

" ...this is a brave and uncompromising beacon, re-affirming the status of O'Connell Street as Ireland's principal urban thoroughfare... It will in effect reinvent the cultural dimension of the urban space of O'Connell Street."

Ian Ritchie Architects, London are the winners of the O'Connell Street Monument competition. The competition was organised for Dublin City Council by The Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland. The winners received a prize of £10,000.

The new monument is a pivotal element of O'Connell Street Integrated Area Plan and will become a symbol of Dublin in the 21st Century. The area zoned for this monument is the former site of the Nelson Monument at the junction of Upper and Lower O'Connell Street on the north-south axis, and Henry Street and North Earl Street on the east-west axis.

The winning design was chosen from an original international field of 205 entries. The majority of the entries were from Ireland but were also received from Europe, America and even Iran. The field was shortlisted to three, Jonathan Bennett, Dublin based architect, Ian Ritchie Architects of London and Hunt McGarry, Architects, also based in London.

The panel of assessors were the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Clllr. Senator Joe Doyle, Joan O'Connor, Architect and Chairperson Jim Barrett, Dublin City Architect, Henri Ciriani, Parisian based architect, Dick Gleeson, Dublin City Council, Tom Rae, Dublin Chamber of Commerce, Vivenne Roche, Sculptor.

The proposed new monument is to be located on O'Connell Street at the junction with Henry Street and North Earl Street in the position formerly occupied by Nelson's Pillar. The new monument will comprise a conical spire of rolled stainless steel plate which tapers from 3 metres in diameter at the base to a 0.1 metre pointed pinnacle at a height of 120 metres. The top 12 metres of the structure will be illuminated from within and the top 500 mm of the structure will be made of conically cast optical glass. The structure will be founded on reinforced concrete piles. The structure requires a soil excavation of approximately 8 metres diameter by 5 metres depth and this will involve the excavation and removal of 750 tonnes of material. The support piles will be installed using specialist-drilling rigs that will drill down into the underlying rock. A 7-metre diameter circular base of bronze will be laid at the base of the monument that will be flush with the surrounding paved area. There will be an underground access and maintenance chamber to accommodate electrical supplies and drainage equipment. All excavation works and construction of the foundations will be undertaken within a construction compound that will be fenced off.

Design and Technical Summary

Light During daylight, the light of Ireland's sky over Dublin, the streetscape and its people will be softly reflected in the stainless steel surface of the cone monument. From its base up to about 4m, the stainless steel will be polished in an abstract design to provide a slightly higher reflective surface than the remainder of the cone. From dusk, the lower two thirds of the monument's stainless steel surface will be softly lit. The tip of the monument will also be illuminated.

Height and Elegance The stainless steel cone will be 120 metres high from ground level and 3 metres in diameter at its base.

Reflecting the Climate The upper part of the monument's will gentle sway in direct response to the wind reflecting the character of its climate, landscape and people. The monument's tip will sway up to a maximum of 2.5m under 30 year return extreme wind loading.

The Monument The Light Monument is a cone 120 metres high made of rolled stainless steel sheet. The stainless steel is shot peened to give a surface that will reflect, softly, the changing light of the sky, and be maintenance free. (The shot peening is a two stage process - the first pass with stainless steel beads, and the second pass with 1mm glass beads).

The Tip of the Monument The luminous tip of the monument is 12 metres in length. The material will be a specially patterned perforation of stainless steel illuminated by a 2kw searchlight within the cone, located 50 metres above ground level. The lamp is accessible for maintenance. The last 500mm of the tip will be made of optical glass.

The Base of the Monument The Light Monument cone will pass through a 7 metre diameter circular base of Kilkenny black marble. The change from white Wicklow granite to the black marble was made in order to better present reflections and the pulsed mercury, and to give the monument a visually stronger base. This will incorporate a raised Celtic spiral machined into the marble surface. This spiral will be hand drawn and transferred as a template to the stonemasons. Mercury will be pulsed onto the surface of the marble from the perimeter, and will flow towards the cone. There will be five zones corresponding to the protective glass joints above the marble.

The Synergy between the Tip, the Cone and the Base The luminous tip, the refelctive stainless steel of the cone, the pulse and reflection of mercury will embrace light as the essence of the monument.

Human Relationship and Street Landscape The integration with the surrounding streetscape will be through the design of its base. The human scale relationship to the monument will be achieved by people and their reflections, the fascination of watching pulsed mercury flowing over the black marble.

O'Connell Street and the North Ward in which it is situated are relatively late in date, having been reclaimed from the tidal flats from the seventeenth century onwards. Most of the archaeological investigations within the area have produced post-medieval finds and features, and the relative dearth of material suggests that it is unlikely that extensive archaeological remains survive in the area around the pillar site or in the area to be developed as a public space. The EIS carried out in advance of the new monument and public space proposed for O'Connell Street has established that it is likely that the foundations of Nelson's Pillar are preserved below ground, and as the foundations of the new Spire are a similar size to the pillar's, that these will have to be removed and recorded before the construction of the new monument.