Re: Re: well what about the developments popping up in the shannonside ?
Very difficult to find anything on the Roches Stores renovations, is the whole store getting a complete overhaul i wonder?, it badly needs one but given Roches reluctance to invest seriously in their Limerick store over the years you really would have to wonder, apart from some “papering over of the cracks” the whole store is a throwback to the 1960s or beyond. Roches Stores in Cork is spacious and well laid out while its Limerick counterpart has a claustrophobic and cluttered feel to it and the decor is drab and extremely dated. Looking at the drawings it seems that the main shop is to be extending into the adjoining building, i think this currently houses the nursery department!, i havent seen any plans for the liddy st side(if in fact there is any!), at the moment the 2 storey buildings on liddy street are used for storage with the garden centre directly behind,these neglected buildings present a very drab face to this area of town and there is ample space for Roches to develop the kind of department store the city centre needs and deserves!.
As for the design itself I think its a bit awkward and bulky looking, the sarsfield street frontage integrates very uncomfortably with the permanent tsb building, in fact i think it completely overshadows it, the O Connell st facade is also a bit dissapointing, consisting of the usual tiling and glass feature,seriously mundane, although in fairness its still better than the dour penneys next door and the monstrosity that is Brown Thomas.
I remember seeing that image of the savoy hotel in the leader last year, afaik its still the only available drawing of the development,all i remembered was it had a huge glass facade!,good to get a look at it again, thanks to CologneMike for that. Again there is very limited information on completion dates or anything else, all we know is its a 4 star hotel with the usual conferencing and leisure facilities,it also incorporates apartments and 14 retail units.The image is pretty deceptive with the henry st frontage planned to be up to 10 storeys in height!, along with the harveys quay/dunnes stores building across the street, this part of town is going to have a pretty imposing feel about it with 2 such large structures facing each other! It really is nice to see a bit of life being breathed back into this area, the pace of change in the henry st area over the last few years has been phenomenal and great news aswell that the yard behind the old county council offices is finally going to be cleaned up:)
