Development of Dun Laoghaire seafront

[Ciaran Cuffe]

All a bit over the top if you ask me.

Let's just put a decent, modest baths with a childrens pool and a cafe on the site.

Here's my blog post:

http://cuffestreet.blogspot.com/2008/03/dn-laoghaire-baths-update.html

Ciarán Cuffe

[alonso]

I think dealing with the moratorium on developing Sandyford Cherrywood etc requires prioritisation over this, but I still like elements of the plans (except why the hell does an area served by the 46A and the DART need 500 parking spaces - where are the bike racks?). Once the private sector element was removed we were never gonna get more than a "modest" proposal built. I actually like Newtownsmith as it is anyway.

I regularly despair at this ludicrous excuse for a County Council.

The litany of travesties goes on:
Blackrock Baths
DL Baths
Sandyford
Monkstown Ring Road
Cherrywood...

[CC105]

Hey Alonso

I am with you on this - I live in this councils area - - 500 parking spaces, muppets. DL is a dying town, ask anybody who owns a shop there and any of the young people in the area what their views are on DL. One main problem is traffic and the lack of access to the centre, council still not able to decide on best approach. Now they are hell bent on completing the charging for parking around Dart stations leading to even less reason to go or visit there. Perhaps the council will control the 500 spots and use them as a means to generate revenue -again:mad:

Rant over -I like this proposal but have my doubts on how clean the water will be in the beach area, what about the rats who live along the pier?, also this area is prone to large waves coming in from the HSS.

Ciaran - I am sure I read that you said Sandycove is not Barcelona - - it never will be with your total lack of vision. For a few months of the year Barcelona has a superior climate to ours but that should be all. Dublin is in direct competion with cities such as Barcelona. Wake up!!

[Maud]

I was in Barcelona at the start of January and it was very warm (sometimes hot) like summer weather. There is a big difference between the Irish climate and Barcelona. Ireland: Grey, miserable. Barcelona: Bright, dry.

[johnglas]

Maud: try B in mid-july - hot, sticky, dusty and oppressive (and full of pickpockets and wide-boys)!

[KerryBog2]

All a bit over the top if you ask me.

Why not continue the discussion here?
http://www.archiseek.com/content/showthread.php?t=6092

.

[Maskhadov]

knock the whole thing down. it looks pathetic on google maps/earth

[alonso]

knock the whole thing down. it looks pathetic on google maps/earth

thankfully most of us judge the aesthetics of our urban areas from ground level rather than from space.

[Maskhadov]

round a corner up a hill... say no more

[mollox]

The detailed drawings, including cross-sections, for the two concepts are now on display in Dun laoghaire Town Hall until 16th May.

Concept A, which includes the Lagoon Beach, is costed at €126.5m.
Concept B, which features an open-to-sea beach at Newtownsmith, comes in at €92m.

Unsurprisingly, I favour Concept A, as the Lagoon Beach element most closely resembles my original “Dun Laoghaire Plage” proposal.

BUT
Concept A implementation is proposed in 4 distinct phases.
Phases 1 & 2, which include the 500 space underground car-park, are collectively priced @ €76m.
The Lagoon Beach is only Phase 3, which is priced @ €32m.

However, given that Minister Dermot Ahern (?) recently announced that there isn’t a red cent available to build a new hospital in Navan, it’s hard to see central Govt providing major funding for either of these concepts.

It’ll be interesting to see if any elements of either concept ever get beyond the display stands in the Town Hall.

Meanwhile, local socialist Richard Boyd Barrett was holding a public meeting in the Kingston Hotel tonight (Mon 14th) which I was unable to attend. I await media reports with limited interest.

[lostexpectation]

what buildings are involved in that plan, are there going to there apartments just outside it?

its hard to tell with a downlooking map

what htis i can't find any

teir website don't work any more

http://www.saveourseafront.ie/


ps is 2s being shelved again?
http://www.herald.ie/national-news/city-news/on-yer-bike-councillors-reject-plans-for-a-cutprice-alternative-to-expensive-coastal-cycleway-1390100.html

[lostexpectation]

is that detailed info not online mollox?

[lostexpectation]

http://www.herald.ie/national-news/city-news/now-planners-move-to-safer-waters-over--dun-laoghaire-baths-1402738.html
so they going to choose the simpler plan b


ps

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/developers-of-harbour-tower-never-applied-for-planning-1379082.html
developer never applied for planning permission for the big tower in dun laoghaire harbour despite appearing to be working on the plan for four years.


does this article somehow suggest sos is against practical sea related developments at the harbour i hope it doesn't, i would be all in favour of boat yard etc,was it howth harbour where a company had difficulty getting planning for boat servicing place too? industry yes fancy apartments no.

[SunnyDub]

I think if you look from the ground, as well as space, you'll see that the baths site is in an awful state, as is Blackrock Baths. Why the Council can't just build something is beyond me, they should sell the site if they can't get agreement from the Councillors, the whole thing is too political at this stage.

I agree that a modest development could easily be built but why so modest? Why not somewhere in between original apartment plans and modest?

Down with this sort of thing!

[1soanes]

If anyone is interested, I took some photos from inside the Dun Laoghaire Baths the other day, thought it would good to get some photos before any new developments take place....It's by far the creepiest place I've ever explored!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/1soanes/sets/72157604200112683/

[ctesiphon]

Wow.

I have such vivid memories of the place in its '80s heyday. These are indeed creepy photos. Blackrock Baths must be in a similar state these days, if not worse. I remember exploring them on the way home from school years ago (back when the 113 & 114 buses first appeared!).

(By an odd coincidence, just before opening this thread I put on Michael Nyman's Decay Music. )

[lostexpectation]

http://www.herald.ie/national-news/city-news/locals-submit-peoples-plan-for-seafront-1472336.html
Locals submit 'people's plan' for seafront
can anyone find their plan,


Seafront group pitches their idea for baths site
http://www.dublinpeople.com/content/view/942/57/

while the council’s plans appeared to provide some public amenity, he believed they were, in fact, proposals to demolish the baths and replace them with car parks and other commercially orientated buildings on the seafront.
“At best the council options are a stalling tactic to drag the issue out until the public gets so fed up it will accept anything,” he claimed. “At worst, if the council is serious, the baths will be demolished to make way for money making car parks, shops and breakwaters and then the public will be told the beach elements are not possible or will cost too much.”

[alonso]

Boyd Barrett is a deluded crank who needs a job - He will hitch up at any oul campaign in order to get the right wingers of Dun Laoghaire to vote for his socialist twaddle that most of us left behind in our respective JCRs. He wants housing but no rezonings, he wants redevelopment of the seafront but no private involvement - all he really wants is a place in a chamber and he was dangerously close to achieveing this last year at Ciaran Cuffe's expense. Will the well-heeled locals fall for his crap again next year? You bet they will. develop the seafront by all means but jaysus do it sensibly and make it great!

[alonso]

oh yeh I forgot
"Won't someone please think of the children!!!!"
Shops? Oh My God Shops? In a town centre???? f**k - damn you capitalism!!! And Richard, car parks only make money if the people use them - yes. The people. your people.

[CC105]

[quote="alonso"]Boyd Barrett is a deluded crank who needs a job - He will hitch up at any oul campaign



Couldnt agree more Alonso - -but I am sure I read he is from a wealthy family so probably doesnt need that job. Would be nice to see him sweeping the streets or similar.

[alonso]

yep CC - a champagne socialist of the highest order. What sort of lefty hops on upper class bandwagons to prevent housing being built in an area where the locals have been priced out by, among other things, total development inertia.

Anyway back on topic with us....

The substance of the plan may actually be good. Previous ideas for this site have been overblown nonsense. The town needs leadership, the town needs governance and the town needs a massive boot up the hole. I'd almost, ALMOST, like to see a Sean Dunne type to buy the shopping centre and start throwing sense to the wind and get some sort of debate going about this once gem of a seaside settlement, now a rotting suburban corpse.

For now i'd settle for a decision.A final decision. And the same for Blackrock.

[lostexpectation]

because of it was rrb who let the thing rot of course alon (anything will do ) so,

you went on about this on politics.ie and smuggly chided both sides you didn't suggest how to break the deadlock, now you think you need a sean dunne, you think that'll win you votes?

[CC105]

[QUyou think that'll win you votes?[/QUOTE]


Shouldnt it be about what works best for the area and not votes for the boys!

Does anybody know why a new design / demolition of DL Shopping centre has not been proposed, Must be one of the worst looking buildings around.

[alonso]

because of it was rrb who let the thing rot of course alon (anything will do ) so,

you went on about this on politics.ie and smuggly chided both sides you didn't suggest how to break the deadlock, now you think you need a sean dunne, you think that'll win you votes?

Well any reasonable reader of either site will conclude that my Sean Dunne comment may not have been entirely serious. Hence the almost ALMOST in the post

To break the deadlock you make a bloody decision, stick to it, and build the damn thing. The Dunne element of my comment is that the town requires the type of shock that Ballsbridge has received in order to drag it out of the malaise and stasis it has been let slip into in recent decades by Nimbyism and brutal leadership.

Dun laoghaire town, one of Ireland's most prosperous, a gateway seaport with magnificent natural amenities on it's doorstep and in the areas around, LOST population in the 02-06 period. No one can stand over that statistic with anything but shame. It's not about winning votes. It's about proper urban governance.

[johnglas]

Amen,alonso; I'm just back from Cork and the parallel with DL (esp. seen in Cobh) is that the maritime seascape is wonderful and there should be no excuse for neglect, even in the current blip. I did not get the impression that civic governanance was exactly on the ball, judged by the general appearance of the townscape anyway.