Letterkenny Town Centre

Standard 19th C Town … with a lot of large warehouse shops around the perimeter… similar to galway in that respect..

it is not the town centre, that is the square at the main street. It is another example of profit driven development in letterkenny and in fact is detrimental to the town centre as it will draw people away from the main street. The business owners on the main street have been complaining for months about the fact the main street is dying because of other development on the perimiter of the town Tesco Argos etc taking people away from the main street. Letterkenny is a shambles and a a perfect example of bad town planning, anyone coming to letterkenny by car should be able to park their car and be able toaccess most of the shops but in fact you can not access the shops and services you need in letterkenny without a car. This building reminds me more of a corner in the city centre of a large modern city rather tha a provincial town.

sorry but has this ment to heve any architectural merit? this looks ridicilous. I can’t see where this is ment to be -port road possibly or up oliver plunket st.? the building looks over scaled and banal to say the least. and -very much bad commercial architecture of about 10/15 years ago and the render is verry dated looking as well to say the least -not that I have anything against watercolour ,stephen holl does great ones ,But the only thing that tells me this has been done reciently is the mini convertable in the foreground!! I think whoever came up with this should reexamine this project for sure and maybe go look at some good contempory architecture in the mean time. Imagine presenting this at a crit in college !!!! I’m sorry if this all seems harsh but I think It had to be said . I feel embarased for you.

@section4 wrote:

it is not the town centre, that is the square at the main street. It is another example of profit driven development in letterkenny and in fact is detrimental to the town centre as it will draw people away from the main street. The business owners on the main street have been complaining for months about the fact the main street is dying because of other development on the perimiter of the town Tesco Argos etc taking people away from the main street. Letterkenny is a shambles and a a perfect example of bad town planning, anyone coming to letterkenny by car should be able to park their car and be able toaccess most of the shops but in fact you can not access the shops and services you need in letterkenny without a car. This building reminds me more of a corner in the city centre of a large modern city rather tha a provincial town.

On one level I’m all in favour of this development. The traditional town centre is changing and this development is a reflection of that fact. Retailers want bigger units than those available in the traditional TC and so more development of this nature along the Pearse Road is to be encouraged. If it doesn’t happen then people will simply park at the edge of town retail park already in existence and the new one (19unit/15acre) that has just been granted planning permission on the Blaney road and ignore the town completely.

Of course the architecture might be uninspiring but take one look at the monstrosities all over the town and you’ll see aesthetic merit has never been that important to planners in LK anyway……..

@lexington wrote:

Opinions???

In the covered bridge coming from the right hand side of the drawing into the proposed building there seems to be a car. Is this the way into a car park from some other building? If so, does this mean thee is another section of the proposal out of view? If not, what is going on?

Thanks

Phil

Ah out comes the copper like clockwork – it’s become the new polished granite 🙂
The corner glazing is interesting, but that flat pararpet is as boring as I don’t know what, and is reminiscent of the worst 1990s apartment schemes in Dublin.

It reminds me of a bigger version of a “thing” that was built in Stoneybatter recently – just larger, brasher and tackier.

High Tack Architecture

@phil wrote:

In the covered bridge coming from the right hand side of the drawing into the proposed building there seems to be a car. Is this the way into a car park from some other building? If so, does this mean thee is another section of the proposal out of view? If not, what is going on?

Thanks

Phil

Yep, there is a NINE storey section to the right hand side.
The bottom 5 levels are composed of car parking that links up across the road to another car park behind the building you can see in the picture. Then on top of the 5 levels are 4 storeys comprised of shops, office and town houses at the very top – unfortunately there is no picture of this section.
Further details at http://www.letterkennytc.com

To cap it all there is a garage to the right opposite the building in the picture which now looks completely out f place.

Thanks for that J Walker. The artists impression makes more sense in the context of that homepage that you posted a link to!

Very nice development I think. The scale is just about right for a town of Letterkennys size, would be nice to see more of this type of bright, modern architecture in ireland, it shows some ambition.
But of course all it gets from you lot is negativity, just like any new proposed development outside of Dublin.
Would not like to invite you all to a party, you would be the most pesamistic, depression bunch of people there. Show some enthuiasm, exuse my spelling!

Hahaha, Its horrible though, you see that‘s the problem. Completely out of proportion in my opinion, would need about 3 or 4 more stories on top for the bottom window to look right.

This is the other part of the development. It is linked to the part in the picture via a vehicular bridge currently under construction.

@J Walker wrote:

This is the other part of the development. It is linked to the part in the picture via a vehicular bridge currently under construction.

Much nicer than the first part shown.

Has anyone seen this monstrosity now that it’s almost finished?
There’s a nine storey section totally out of scale that dominates the town and is one of the ugliest structures to be erected in a provincial town that I have ever seen.
The architects should be ashamed and the planners fired.

the nine storey building looks more like a jail , it atrocious

Agreed

I had high hopes for this development at the start but now that it’s up the 9 storey section is nothing short of shocking.

There seems to be absolutely no masterplan for the town with a sprawling uneven retail offering allowed by incompetent planners who have subjected us to dreadful architecture for generations to come.

As a resident it’s depressing to look around at what’s being constructed. I agree the planners should be fired, they’ve neglected their duty to enforce a high standard of urban design.

At least Donegal Town developers seem to have learned from LK’s mistakes
(see attached)
http://www.donegaltimes.com/2005/06_2/frontpage.html

Any chance of some pictures you illustrate you views? Thanks.

http://www.letterkennyguide.com/letterkenny1.asp