well what about the developments popping up in the shannonside ?

[backspace]

the 'strange building' is a block or two behind the old barringtons Hospital and facing onto the road that comes off the newish bridge beside Baals bridge.
Haven t seen it in the flesh recently but i think it's a mixum-gatherum apartment -office -shop stack em high sell em low affair with incredible hulk of parking peering out from behind. have no idea what the steel prow is all about

[GrahamH]

Maybe they forgot to finish it.

Barrington House looks rather good all right from that picture, as well as fitting into its context well.
Any chance of enlarging your pics a bit Dave if possible? - bit tricky seeing the detail of the projects.
Thanks for posting though.

[Tuborg]

Its true a lot of new developments popping up in limerick(and indeed countrywide) lack a bit of ambition,its a real pity,most of the new structures tend to be quite boring,some try to use striking colours to distract from their banality,-never really works,unfortunately we're also seeing the use of cheaper materials become more and more common.I've been pleasantly surprised though by the riverpoint building i must say,its turned out better than i imagined,the reflective glass facade makes it look quite imposing,according to the limerick leader it will be completed in the next month and get this all but one of the floors have been bought up,i felt it would be a huge gamble, but its obviously paid off,i wonder how many chose to relocate because of its landmark status.Anyway 1 thing we can say for sure is that limerick is almost unrecognisable from the city that was basically falling apart in the mid to late eighties!, theres actually a funny story of a planner from bilbao who was advising the city council on redevelopment plans in the early eighties, he commented that limerick seemed to have suffered a lot of damage during the war!..

[Tuborg]

From the Limerick Leader 11 june 2005

Ugliest building in city is to be demolished
By BARRY DUGGAN

WHAT is regarded by many as the ugliest building in the city is just weeks away from being demolished.

Munchins' House located at Bishop's Quay is to be completely levelled by developer Michael Daly as the city continues its multi-million euro transformation along the riverfront.

The Department of Agriculture are moving out of the building.

Mr Daly, Managing Director of Fordmount Properties is behind a €200m development at a number of city centre sites.

He has plans to build 95 apartments, a 100-bed hotel and 14 shop units over four floors at the three-quarter-acre site of the old Savoy cinema.

The total height of the planned Henry Street development is up to 10 storeys, with a number of individual units having their shopping area spread out on four levels from basement to second floor.

The Savoy cinema at Henry Street/Bedford Row had a 70-year entertainment history in Limerick. It was capable of seating almost 1,500 patrons for live concerts and movies.

The former CBS student is also behind the €75m RiverPoint building project on Bishop's Quay.

The focal city building which is gaining enthusiastic reviews will be home to a bar, restaurant, fitness centre, residential units, a 250 space underground carpark along with 13 floors of offices.

"All but one floor of offices has been taken up. Most of the offices are taken up by people who have offices in the city at the moment. There are over 100 apartments in the building also. When completed, there will be an estimated 1,000 in the building with around 400 people working there. It will help to transform the whole area," commented Mr Daly.

Mr Daly has also bought the €15-million-plus Castletroy Park Hotel with development potential on its lands.

[dave123]

i thought St munchins house was the riverpoint building?
i stolled around limerick on saturday , and there is a lot of changes happening,
but O'connells street is a real pain in thee butt

[dave123]

The development will consist of the redevelopment of the existing site and buildings for mixed retail/commercial park and includes the construction of the following:- (1) 8 no. retail warehouse units (including 1 no. outdoor garden centre of 1,170 sq. m. totalling 12,065 sq.m. (2) A 465 sq.m. motor showroom. (3) A 447 no. space surface car park. (4) Improvements to Ennis Road to provide turning lanes to the approved link road from Ennis Road to Clonmacken Road approved under planning register reference no. 02/1215 serving the redevelopment of the Caherdavin Centre. (5) The construction of a roundabout junction on the approved link road. and all other site development works including boundary treatment, lighting and landscaping on a site measuring 4.84 ha. 4.6 ha. of the development site is located within the administrative area of Limerick City Council. The proposal ranges in height from 5.2m to 9.2m. SEE ATTACHED SCHEDULE Ennis Road, South East of
Ivan's Junction,
Clo

[dave123]

Hollowfield Developments Ltd.
C/O Healy & Partners Architects
Barrow House
Michael Street
Permission for the construction of a mixed development. The development comprises of: Demolition of a five storey over basement infill building and a single storey building at 104 O'Connell Street; Construction of a new five storey over basement infill building at 104 O'Connell Street providing storage in basement, retail on ground floor, and offices on the floors above; Refurbishment, modification and addition to existing four storey over basement infill building at 103 O'Connell Street including a new facade and new fifth floor, providing retail and storage in basement, retail on ground floor and offices on the floors above, all associated services and site works. 103/104 O'Connell Street
Limerick

just a few developments that are likely to get permission.

[dave123]

04531 John Moloney Motors,
Punches Cross,
Limerick.

to build a showroom to the front of premises and seek permission to RETAIN, with proposed minor alterations, the existing showroom and offices at premises Punch's Cross,
Limerick.


04536 Damesfield Ltd.,
Seville House,
New Dock Street,
Galway.
Permission for a mixed use development comprising: (1) 157 no. apartments in four blocks (4-7 storeys). (2) 184 no. bedroom hotel in a 6-8 storey block to include leisure centre, bar and restaurant, conference centre/function room, meeting rooms. (3) 350 car parking spaces and 40 bicycle parking spaces in two levels below ground. (4) 3 no. retail units and residential concierge at ground floor of Block A. (5) Bin and residential storage units at basement levels. SEE ATTACHED SCHEDULE FOR MORE DETAILS O' Callaghans Strand,
Ennis Road,
Limerick.

04559 Development Partnership Ltd., Limerick Enterprise
Limerick Enterprise Development
Park, Childers Road,
Roxborough, Limerick.
The development will consist of the demolition of 7 existing detached and 2 semi-detached dwellings and ancillary structures including garages and boundary walls to the John Craew Park Link Road and Childers Road/Southern Ring Road . The construction of the following: (i) a new entrance (ii) new boundary walls and landscaping (iii) a 4-storey 161 bedroom hotel with basement consisting of 73 two bedroom and 2 one bedroom hotel suites and 13 bedrooms, conferencing facilities and meeting rooms, bar and gym on the ground floor with restaurant on the first floor and basement with 123 carparking spaces, swimming pool, changing facilities (iv) 6 retail units one of which is an off-licence at ground floor level and restaurant with take-away at first floor level (v) plant room, bin storage yard, 143 surface carparking spaces (vi) relocation of 14 carparking spaces and drop off area for the creche SEE ATTACHED SCHEDULE FOR DETAILS

[Tuborg]

Munchins house is that horrific concrete and plastic structure that has "welcomed" visitors to the city over the shannon bridge for far too long(think since the late 60s), thankfully its going to be demolished in august,i was getting worried they were going to reclad it!, first it was meant to go in 2003 then 2004 but now its finally goin to bite the dust!

I've also enclosed a few pics of the savoy cinema thats going to be demolished shortly to make way for a new hotel and retail development,i think everyone will agree it'll be no loss!, the only interesting part of the site is the former bedford row maternity hospital that was used as an office supplies store for the last 10 years or so

[dave123]

thanks for that Turborg,

it realy does look awful, what is going in there now , i heard it was a 13 storey building i could be wrong but its simular height to the standing building anyway ,

The time Frank Mcdonald the Irish Times editor was doing arcitecture of the regional cities he mentioned that there was a 12 storey and 15 (riverpoint building) which is near completion im a bit confused...
a decent high rise building would be perfect there as a it will form a real urban quater . it will fit in nicely as the the area is high density with the clarion and riverpoint already pointing towards the sky!

im a fan of high rises, live in Dub and i really think the Riverpoit building is one of the most outstanding high rises in ireland , i would par it against the Georges office block in Dublin

it will be interesting to see how they will develop the savoy?there is still a few pockets in Limerick that need ambitious ideas to come up with sometihng interesting because a lot of the bnew dev. are all simular and been built at a pheonamal rate

[Tuborg]

Munchins house actually looks worse in them photos than id ever imagined,never gave it a second glance usually because of its sheer ugliness,i think this is a classic example of how not to build an office block, kinda looks like the kgb headquarters,it has that kind of look to it!. Judging by the digital image of riverpoint it looks like the second phase of riverpoint which replaces munchins house will be around 14 storeys(this will be the apartment block),its slightly taller than munchins. The whole project includes 25,000 sq ft of office space,100 apartments, 8,000 sq ft of retail,restaurants and bars facing the river, a leisure centre and 225 underground car parking spaces. As for the savoy ,i saw a plan of it in the local press,its going to be quite a tall structure,parts of it are twice the size of the present savoy complex,the hotel will be facing onto henry street and the majority of the retail units will be facing onto bedford row,these retail units will be fairly exclusive offering space over 4 floors,obviously aiming at the higher end of the market, i'll try and find some photos of the plans as well as the plans for the former jurys site on the ennis road. I suppose the part of henry street that is looking a bit left out is the esb site,maybe we'll see some action there soon enough, there are big plans for the top end of the street aswell,the area at the back of the old council offices is due for redevelopment very soon,i'll try and dig out the plans for that also.

[GrahamH]

How old is the Savoy Tuborg? 7 years? 10 years? Unfortunate to see such a comparitively new building being torn down - on a number of levels.

Agreed about Munchins House though - what a ghastly building, esp as seen in that second image. The only good thing about it is the name
Should be preserved for the new development.

[anto]

The Savoy as it now stands was rebuilt around 89/90 I think. It's a real pity not to have a cinema in the city centre I think from a cultural point of view.

A lot of the action in Limerick now seems to be in the Castletroy or Dooradoyle/Raheen suburbs. All suburban sprawl. Limerick Count Council have their HQ in Dooradoyle, good building too from what I hear, but I'm sure it's in their interest to promote the suburbs that are in their jurisdiction at the expense of the city. The Cirty are always looking for an extention to its boundary but I think their should be one authority covering Limerick city and county and probably Clare aswell. A mis west authority if you like,

[jimg]

The commercial rates in Limerick are apparently very high. The rates outside the small city boundary presumably are much much lower. A perfectly tuned situation to reward suburbanisation at the expense of city development.

Most of the recent development in the city has been apartments, office space and hotels - very little of it is retail. Until the city boundary expands, most retail development will happen in the suburbs. This is a pity because the low quality of the retail experience in the city is damaging and creates a vicious cycle; less and less retail businesses set up in the city so the council is forced to increase rates which further exacerbates the problem.

As to the Savoy, while it's a terrible waste to see a relatively large development pulled down after just 10 years or whatever it is, its replacement will hopefully provide something better than a blank wall facing Henry Street. This really killed Henry Street in terms of attracting footfall. It should be a prime city street given it's location and size.

[dave123]

I can;t wait to see the the design of the the St munchins develpment !!!

the boundary extention feud! is really causing havock!!!! the county councils want the monopoly of the city which is very greedy! when nearly half of the entire population of the city is in Clare and couunty limerick
its even causing cofusion to investors and multnationals who come to ireland think Limerick is unaatractive judging by its labour market , pop, rates , etc.....

i think its one of the highest rates outside Dublin or its even higher? even the suburbs are paying big bucks for retail park devlopments too.

there is a lot of derelict buildings been pulled down in the city centre , which is good but as Jimg said there is no major retail shops goin in just apartments mostly, which explains why retail rents are far lower the cork where as Patrick street is 3 times the price of criuses street.

Does anyone know if there are brownfields site up for new developments at the docks whats goin up?
threre is up to 250acres of land there 40 acres for dockland dev.
which is for commercial residential and other uses inclu. upgrade of the docks etc.
the the dockland company were planning to move some of it works further down stream to foynes etc.
anyone have more information il try get some info in the meantime

devlopment around cobert station should be thought about as its a major gateway into that side of the city
some parts is rough and run down!

[dave123]

foto of the docklands
newtoen perry sq
grannary
treaty stone

[dave123]

and nicolas street it has changed not much since 1200! medivel times

[dave123]

here is a few mor pics , couldnt wait to post them !

[Tuborg]

I wouldnt be too sympathetic towards the savoy, to be honest even though it was basically rebuilt in the late 80s it was never really finished to a high standard, to be honest i always hated it with its dull facade and horrible roof,the blank wall facing on to henry street just topped it off. Hopefully demolition will start in the next few weeks cos i think its replacement could be quite exciting. Meanwhile I've found a map of the boundary proposal and i think its pretty reasonable, the present situation is a pure joke, limerick city and its suburbs has a total population of around 100 or 110,000 yet only 52,000 live inside the city bounds!, castletroy has a population of 25,000 with a similar number living in raheen/dooradoyle and its plain to see how much development has taken place there in the last 10 years, a huge complex is to be built in castletroy, a similar one at coonagh cross and at the moment the crescent are extending again, this will bring its size up to around 100 units. All of this is bleeding the city dry, o connell st needs a serious revamp to bring it back to the prosperous street it was 40,50 years ago, it looks better in them old photos i posted than it does now!, there are a lot of trashy shop on the street at the moment, magic shops,tacky cheap shops and fast food outlets, a proper strategy needs to be put in place now. William street is also in need of attention, it has serious potential, we should get rid of the bus stops on the street and also the trailer trash that always seem to hang around outside the sports shops. Also I think it would help enormously if arthurs quay park was sold off for development, at the moment it is underused and only a loitering area for scumbags, it would certainly add a nice new quarter to the city centre.

I'll try and find out some more about the docklands, as far as i know the plans are fairly wide ranging,shops,apartments,museum(s),financial services centre etc.

ps I think the actual map is a bit old but the proposed extension is correct

[anto]

I wouldnt be too sympathetic towards the savoy, to be honest even though it was basically rebuilt in the late 80s it was never really finished to a high standard, to be honest i always hated it with its dull facade and horrible roof,the blank wall facing on to henry street just topped it off. Hopefully demolition will start in the next few weeks cos i think its replacement could be quite exciting. Meanwhile I've found a map of the boundary proposal and i think its pretty reasonable, the present situation is a pure joke, limerick city and its suburbs has a total population of around 100 or 110,000 yet only 52,000 live inside the city bounds!, castletroy has a population of 25,000 with a similar number living in raheen/dooradoyle and its plain to see how much development has taken place there in the last 10 years, a huge complex is to be built in castletroy, a similar one at coonagh cross and at the moment the crescent are extending again, this will bring its size up to around 100 units. All of this is bleeding the city dry, o connell st needs a serious revamp to bring it back to the prosperous street it was 40,50 years ago, it looks better in them old photos i posted than it does now!, there are a lot of trashy shop on the street at the moment, magic shops,tacky cheap shops and fast food outlets, a proper strategy needs to be put in place now. William street is also in need of attention, it has serious potential, we should get rid of the bus stops on the street and also the trailer trash that always seem to hang around outside the sports shops. Also I think it would help enormously if arthurs quay park was sold off for development, at the moment it is underused and only a loitering area for scumbags, it would certainly add a nice new quarter to the city centre.

I'll try and find out some more about the docklands, as far as i know the plans are fairly wide ranging,shops,apartments,museum(s),financial services centre etc.

ps I think the actual map is a bit old but the proposed extension is correct

That park has never worked. Big mistake planting those trees and screening off views of the Shannon. Still people never like to lose parks so might be difficult.

That new building near Tait's clock, what's the verdict? Haven't seen it myself not too sure about it though. I was in Limerick recently and I noticed the corner beside the Lock bar is derilict. This seems a great pity such a prominent corner in an are that has been improved. I think the Bar seems to be using it for storage. Also notice that there's big bottle back just outside St, Mary's Cathedral. I'm all for recycling but this is crazy.

[dave123]

i agree with you Anto about the arthurs quay park, such a amazing 360 view is really sheltered ???from the centre of the park you can see feck all i haven't been there for a few years myself

the new building near Taits clock , is a real splendid design of a building!!!
not only is it different and cutting edge it also fits really well with the old buildings too

you have to go see it for yourself , and you'll see the resemblance, well thats my verdict
and its quite different to most new buildings built in the city or others new dev in other cities.
the pavement in even brings out the building further i think (almost forgot)

its a real pity the cresent didnt build upwards ? realisitc there is no land for anymore dev. practically
they could of come up with two levels at the old sections of the SC where the ceilings are very low and would make more of a balance throughout the entire Sc as the new Units have very high ceilings like liffy Valley.


there are some real derilict buildings that were rfine in thier old days but pity they are to ruins , even on some major throughfares and courners in the city

[dave123]

i got a pic of the dev. of royal georges site (not sure )
havent a clue of the rest of them
all are high quality design
taits courner (mistake) its not taits courner just came up when i ssved iteml.ie architects

[dave123]

second 1 is sarfields bridge.

[jimg]

That park has never worked.

Yeah it's been an absolute failure. It's hard to say this about a park I'd rather see it built over. This is especially weird for me because the design of the park, from what I recall, isn't too bad and the tourist center is an interesting building. Unfortunately it's location means it was always cut off from the city; it is bounded by the river and a three lane street/road and there is nothing to attract footfall anywhere near it. Even the buildings across the road from it are effectively dead; you have a multistory car park and the back of the run-down Dunnes shopping centre (discussed earlier).

If it were to be built over, it would represent a great opportunity to create a new quarter in the city centre. You could have Bars/resteraunts/cafes and shops opening onto the quayside path/walk that's there. The risk is that very little proper thinking would go into its redevelopment and Limerick would end up with more lowish-grade apartment blocks like many of those around the docks area.

By the way dave123, where are you getting the pictures you post? Most of them are frustratingly tiny and it's impossible to get any sort of an impression of the buildings they contain.

[Tuborg]

Ah dave please say they're taking the piss with the royal george site, remember this is O CONNELL STREET, the city's main thoroughfare and this is the best they can do, i feel sick looking at it. It basically looks like a mediocre apartment block, or a modern version of the penneys and brown thomas disasters, is there no limit to our desire to destroy this city! What is going on in the city council?, how could they approve a building like this, i was hoping for a classical design,perhaps something georgian to fit the character of the city centre(or whats left of it). This is another of aidan brooks developments, i mean fair play for having the courage and ambition to develop these sites but the architecture on many of his projects has been questionable to say the least!, i think it leaves a lot to be desired!...