Re: Re: well what about the developments popping up in the shannonside ?

Thanks for the comments on the proopsals for Georgian Limerick. I actually did a masters degree on the whole idea of ‘how to successfullly manage an Architectural Conservation Area without sucking the life out of it’ at UCD ten years ago. It was before the 1999 Bill was published and my concern at the time was that, unless carefully managed, there was a danger that legislating to conserve buildings could actually make things worse. As it happens (and I not usually one to say ‘I told you so’) I was right. Especially about Limerick.

I have to stress as well that I’m no genius. Most of the ideas I was pushing in my thesis (repeated in the Dispatch) are just rehashed versions of the systems applied in New York, Boston and parts of Germany.

Regarding the Charlotte’s Quay car park, I don’t know where to begin. To understand how these things happen, you have to spend some time working within the local authority system to discover how ‘unjoined’ up everything is. And how chronically political. There are some very well meaning people in these places, but eventually they get ground down…

I can’t see any worthwhile solution for the Charlotte’s Quay site which doesn’t first involve demolishing the car park. Not as radical as it first sounds. Notwithstanding the penthouse additions, carparks are not highly serviced buildlings – easy to build, easy to pull down. No doubt some ultra Green people will complain about the ’embodied energy’, etc. but I’m sure we can buy oen of these carbon off-et thingies.

Btw, this is an absolutely fantastic forum. How come the contributors to this debate are not actually making the decisions for how Limerick should be developed? An argument for directly elected mayors with executive function and politically appointed cabinet if ever there was one.

Garry