Review: Merrion Square 250

Abstract

Merrion Square 250 Irish Architectural Archive, Dublin 24 August–12 October 2012 An exhibition of eighteenth-century maps and survey drawings, Merrion Square 250 , at the Irish Architectural Archive in Dublin, examined the formation of one of the city’s foremost urban spaces. An appraisal of the square, long regarded as the principal ornament of its Georgian past, the display complemented an ongoing revival of popular interest in the city’s historic fabric. Indeed, given that Dublin remains a city whose “everyday” urban character is intimately wedded to its early-modern streetscape, its Georgian squares remain central to its identity: the enclosed figure of Merrion Square is, in fact, a flagship public park, and the individual houses framing it constitute some of the city’s most distinguished office accommodations. Moreover, recent initiatives of the Dublin Civic Trust (Dublin Garden Squares Day), the Irish Architecture Foundation (one-third of the buildings open to the general public during the annual Open House event were built during the eighteenth century), and Failte Ireland, the national tourism development agency (September on the Square), confirm that “Georgian Dublin,” as both a trope and a material reality, is increasingly being made legible to, and mediated for, a broad social demographic. Established in 1976 as a charitable company, the Irish Architectural Archive (IAA) is the principal repository for records relating to Ireland’s historic built environment. Though its gallery is diminutive in area, and is suited only for small-scale displays, the IAA’s exhibit program has been consistently inventive and resourceful. Since moving in 2004 to its present home in the …