Re: Re: well what about the developments popping up in the shannonside ?
@CologneMike wrote:
Urban renewal at what price?
The Richmond Court Apartments 🙁 (1998) with it’s window views to Mount Kenneth Place, Dock Road and to a lesser extent Windmill Lane/Street have a decent enough quality to it’s façade.
However the inner views of this development onto a two storey car park must be a very depressing sight indeed for the people living there! (see attachments below) Worse still in my opinion are the apartments at the very rear facing towards Henry Street. I wonder do they get to see much day light at all due to the nearness of the office buildings on the Henry Street side? Did the developers (Lochside Properties Galway who went into liquidation in 2001) ever contemplate that people would desire to live there long term, especially after when the tax-goodies expire? Had the city council a lack of self belief at the time that the urban renewal schemes for the dock road area would not be successful and therefore gave these developers a free hand because of it’s sheer large scale?
If the Richmond Court were an office development then one could easier overlook the present courtyard mess and one could hope that block ownership would remain in the hands of a handful of investors. Which in turn could facilitate an eventual redevelopment. Alas as jimg rightly points out in the case of apartments (see thread An apartment block is forever), once they are sold to many individual buyers, it makes it practically impossible to correct such mistakes from the original development.
I’ve actually had the misfortune of being in the Richmond Court apartments, they’re fairly depressing on the inside aswell, very cramped and stuffy. Theres a real air of gloom surrounding the place, light is at a premium, theres no window in the bathroom, the hallway is dark and the heavy doors that are impossible to keep open make the place seem more like a high security institution rather than a place to live!
The exterior of the building is filthy & despite being only 9/10 years the whole development has a fairly neglected feel to it. Its a scary prospect to think about what it will look like in another 10 years! I couldnt see how anyone would want to live here long term, is this sustainable development? I think not! They look more like the ghettos of the future to me!:mad:
As vitruvius says, the City Council simply isnt learning from these shambolic mistakes, take a look at Mahon House next time you’re around the Upper William Street area, more cheap, legoland-like muck, check out the aluminium sheeting, classy!:(
