New Developments in Galway City
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One other proposal I spotted whilst in the planning office for nearby (top of Flood St. just off the site model above). Its for a site currently being excavated. I believe it’s offices and retail although there was talk in the past of a “Vicar St.” style venue at this location. Looks to be a bit more slick than the usual Galway Developer dross. It was refused in favour of an earlier more standard proposal but is being appealed to ABP – I hope it gets passed.
Forgive the poor image quality – photographed from a computer screen…
Designers: Sean Dockry & Assoc.
3d’s: ProVizObviously not everyone’s tastes are the same 😉
Both these schemes are outside the main historic core of the city centre in somewhat run-down, marginal areas. I personally think that both, particularly the cinema (which I know is probably a bit too avant-garde for many of more conservative tastes) will be very positive contributions to their locations.
The Arthouse building looks quite well and compact in size. Ideally if they could acquire the corner premises and convert it into a mini plaza which could be used in the summer months as an outdoor café. The location of the Arthouse in this part of the city centre is perfect.
The image of the glass office building is indeed somewhat blurred. I personally like glass front buildings as it would mirror the rapid changing Galway bay sky. However an office building in this part of the town could be out of character with rest of the other cultural amenities in it’s vicinity?
The location of the concert hall alongside the cathedral would totally detract from it. I wonder what is the general reaction to it’s location in Galway?
I took a stroll along the Corrib river / Salmon weir last summer and they carrying out a lot of work on the weir itself. Apart from the concert hall proposal what has the city council planned for Nun’s island area?
The cinema is an interesting take on the tower-house and it would read very well as a sculptural shape; the actual cinema theatres seem very small capacity, but perhaps I’m just used to bigger volumes in the big smoke.
The office building – glass-fronted; how original – ho,hum. (What’ll happen when it all falls off in another generation?)CologneMike,
Not sure if you mean the little vernacular building on the corner in front of the newbuild in the image you’ve reproduced – It’s actually part of the scheme and houses the box office and admin for the Cinema. From the plans it looks like you can enter the scheme from either the main road side (up the ramp) or through the old carriage arch into a tiny courtyard between old and new where there’s a choice of entering directly to the cinema foyer or up an external staircase directly into the bar area (charmingly named “sitting room” in the plans!). One unfortunate element of the scheme is that the big picture window overlooking the main road at first floor levels just misses catching a view between the city museum and the buildings across the road towards the Claddagh – instead it’ll be staring directly at a particularly nasty apartment block.The new office builfing is fairly suited to its location as Merchant’s Road is all large scale office blocks creating a bit of a canyon of a street. I really do think that the ground floor and basement (if there is one) would be a great spot for a bar/venue that might compliment the emerging cultural quarter. It’s down as retail in the plans but i can’t really imagine people coming to shop here so far from the main core of Shop St / High St. As for it being glass fronted johnglas, not sure how familiar you are with Galway but the fact that it’s not some lumpen, punched-windowed post modern nightmare comes as a bit of a relief! Some decent quality well executed corporate style design wouldnt do this particular location any harm at all!
To be honest I wouldnt be too worried about anything detracting from the Cathedral in Galway, it’s already enough of a monstrosity! I do however think that whatever goes on the Fisheries Field should be a little lower key and be more connected to it’s site than an “object” iconic building. Nuns Island is the great forgotten area of Galway. its got lovely character in places but some utterly revolting new developments either in planning or completed. Its an exciting area, a lot of sites are either about to be released or are coming up for decision on. The Bish school wish to move out of town, the NUIG engineering school is relocating from it’s agglomeration of old industrial buildings to the main campus, the cathedral carpark has huge potential. The whole area could be transformed with a bit of forward thinking – my personal vision would be to make it the cultural core of the city (somewhat at odds with what’s happening at Flood St), to create better linkage back to the Shop St area via a footbridge and thus create a whole new route from shop st, via nun’s island to the cathedral, university and on to the hospital. Sort of an “institutional spine”. It’s the thing about Galway that sometimes frustrates me – so much potential, so little vision…
BTH: thanks for the comment; good local knowledge always outweighs armchair critique. Is the Bish school the one near St Nicholas’s (a spectacularly ugly lump, I recall – the school that is)? If it is its removal would allow for a building less alien to the (medieval?) street pattern and allow for a good modern infill.
Why isn’t the carpark behind (in front of?) the Cathedral developed? The parking could go underground and you could create a ‘cathedral close’ and get some sense of enclosure round the bldg. The Cathedral is a bit of a fright, but is now old enough to be a part of the landscape and you would never think of knocking it, but the landscaping needs rethought and I seem to remember that the interior has been messed about a bit, and not for the better.@BTH wrote:
Not sure if you mean the little vernacular building on the corner in front of the new build in the image you’ve reproduced – It’s actually part of the scheme and houses the box office and admin for the Cinema. From the plans it looks like you can enter the scheme from either the main road side (up the ramp) or through the old carriage arch into a tiny courtyard between old and new where there’s a choice of entering directly to the cinema foyer or up an external staircase directly into the bar area (charmingly named “sitting room” in the plans!).
Yes I was indeed referring to the small corner building with the old carriage arch. Looks like as if the corner building had to be retained to keep the same height with the rest of Flood Street? But do the two building types complement to each other?
Well really it’s being retained because it’s very old and because it’s part of the little fragment of streetscape that is Flood St. It’s not because of any inherent architectural quality – although it is a very simple, unadorned, elemental structure just like the new tower rising behind. In a way it reminds me of the group of buildings housing The Kings Head pub on High street. There a very simple vernacular street frontage conceals the significant remains of a massive tower house which was buried within the city block. This image of Speeds Pictoral Map of Galway 1651 taken from the King’s Head Website has the structure I mean highlighted.
In a way the proposed cinema is a bit like as if the new main road has exposed the face of one of these old mid-block tower houses. Or maybe I’m just reading too much into it…!
Johnglas, the Bish is the monstrosity that you come upon as you follow the one way system from the cathedral carpark, between the big old engineering buildings onto Nun’s island proper. There is another rather more elegant modern building facing the cathedral which is also a part of the Engineering department. I’d love to see the Cathedral carpark become something more urban – you could imagine an almost Florentine experience, wandering through narrow streets with little glimpses of the massive dome looming overhead. Ive heard that there could be issues as the ground was possibly used to bury prisoners from the Gaol which previously occupied the site. Surely though something could be done that could respect this as well as developing the places potential.
Nuns Island / Cathedral carpark
Here’s a few pics of the area we’re discussing –
1: Looking towards Nuns Island from Cathedral carpark – NUIG Engineering Department and County Library visible
2: Back through carpark to uninspiring “backside” of Cathedral
3: From Nuns Island towards Cathedral – reasonably elegant 1960s engineering building on right
4: Nuns Island with Bish school on left and old Bish on right.
It’s a very interesting area – lots of potential.
You probably posted the most flattering view of that newish development on the left. The other side is horrendous with all that green cladding tacked on. it is quite possibly one of the worst devlopments in Galway imo. I lived in the devlopment on the far right with the stone cladding up until last year
That little tower/museum thing also hides some of the most awful apartments you will ever see (possibly 1960’s/1970’s) in the middle of that block.Just my opinion though!
Wow, that must have been a seriously high tide! Was that taken at the weekend? I was out of the country… I’ve been living here six years and never seen the claddagh basin and the river “joined” like that…
As for that building with the tokenistic use of copper in the background…. To call it hideous is to be charitable. It’s an awful clumsy composition from all angles but when you get up close it’ss possibly the worst detailed modern building in Galway. That whole stretch of riverside could be very interesting but unfortunatly the ball has been dropped badly… Lack of vision yet again.
are there any high rises planned for Galway? I read that Iarnrod eireann plan to double track the Galway line. Too bad that the Western railcorridor will be single track and a section of the line South of Ennis floods constantly, which will lead to a very unreliable service. I can’t tell from their website if they intend for passengers to change at Athenry or have a direct Galway-Limerick service. Anyone any ideas? Either way, double tracking from Athenry to Galway is well needed as that line will be handeling intercity trains from Dublin and Limerick/Waterford as well as Athenry commuter service
Hi Guys also found some sort of Picture of the HOPEFULLY soon to be redeveloped Galway Shopping Centre, its a bit hard to Imagine anything like this in the area at present, hopefully Galway city council will stop dragging there heels and the Developers the NRA and the Council can start cracking on with it,
http://www.harcourtdevelopments.com/ click in shopping centres and Galway Shopping Centre
2 interesting letters in the City Tribune today, concerning the Council’s refusal of the Taaffes development due to the Seveso regulations….
Dear Editor
I am writing in response to the refusal of Galway City Council to allow the development of Ms Una Taaffe’s former shop on William St.
As I understand the situation nobody who owns a business within a certain distance of the oil tanks at the Docks may now alter their premises, redevelop it or God forbid, build on any site nearby. Does this not make the City Centre redundant? If so its a shocking position for Ireland’s third city.
Does the Council not realise that in invoking the Seveso regulations, introduced after the Buncefield Terminal disaster they have practically put their own planning office out of business, or at the very least lessened their workload substantially?
As there have been many questionable initiatives in the past by our good burghers, perhaps the Council could follow the trend and now fund an initiative that would move the entire city north, by say 200 m, and so out of range of any explosion.
This may lessen the damage were our indigenous oil tanks to go the way of their English cousins
Second one:
I am flabbergasted by the recent decision of the Galway City Planning Office to reject the proposed redevelopment of the derelict Taaffe’s Shop on William Street, as outlined in your cover story of the 4th April last. In doing so they have signed a death warrant for the City Centre!
In recent years Galway has fallen behind other cities in Ireland in the quality of retail and the retail experience offered to its residents. Nowhere is this more evident than in what should be the thriving heart of the City. While the City’s medieval streets and buildings may contribute to its charm, retailers find such configurations problematic. This is evidenced to the degree that many retailers have opened and closed in bewildering numbers in recent years, unable to operate or reach financial minimums in shop units more suited to the 17th than the 21st Century. The absence of larger shops has meant the influx of poor quality retailers in the City Centre and the opening of a plethora of phone shops and coffee outlets. This is to be regretted as the basic necessities of comparison shopping that can be expected in any other town are not to be found here.
In the coming years the City Centre is likely to face increasing challenges particularly if proposed retail developments at the Galway Shopping Centre and on the lands surrounding Ceannt Station get the go-ahead. Is it not the duty of the local business community and its myriad of representative bodies and our local officials to foster the economic development of Galway’s heart? Measured and sustainable development in the City Centre should be encouraged. There are few opportunities in Galway for the larger shop units that national and international retailers now demand. As far as I can see Taaffe’s remains the only one that can fulfil this need. Its development would undoubtedly breathe new life into the area and bring increased numbers of people into Galway’s heart. Instead the exodus of Galway’s shopping public to places such as Athlone, Limerick, Sligo and Dublin will continue unabated as choice cannot be found or expected here at home.
The decision by Galway’s planners to effectively sterilise the City Centre, means that Taaffe’s will continue to stand as a crumbling monument to its increasing stagnation.
@rob mc wrote:
oh not more of that green sh*t,its everywhere!!
Yeah that seems to be ubiquitous in Galway. Much more so than anywhere else.
What you dont get a sense of from the sections of the cimema is how spiky the building is inside. de Paor is continuing his current penchant for jagged plans. Looks really interesting to be honest.
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