well what about the developments popping up in the shannonside ?
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have to say i think the 20 story handbag looks good. I think it would fit with the Clarion and Riverpoint. A view from the other side would be good. Heard rumour of a high rise tower if the Arthurs Quay/Liddy St project gets the go ahead.Anyone hear anymore about the status of that project especially with Debenhams taking over Roches?
I think if the new skyscraper goes ahead it will have to have the nickname “The Handbag” similar to the way Londoner’s named the Swiss Re Building “The Gherkin”
Have any repairs been made to Clancy’s Strand since the main drainage scheme was completed? Perhaps the new landscaping will be implemented when the area is cleaned up. The little green that juts out into the river along that stretch is a very pleasent spot on a sunny day. It would be nice to see it extended the entire distance between the bridges.
Personally i cant get my head this “get rid of the docks attitude”, its not as simple as that, first of all jobs are going to be lost, fair enough a 1000 or more will supposedly be created but i dont think you’ll find the dock workers taking up employment in the new offices and shops that are going to spring up in the next 10 years!
Limerick has been a port city for as long as its existed, wanting to build more gerneric apartment blocks isnt a good enough reason to kill off an industry thats been going in some shape or form for hundreds of years! Obviously the wider docklands area is vastly underutilised and has great potential but we must remember that this is a massive area, stretching from the clarion hotel right down to the tunnel crossing at bunlicky lake, it also takes in the old racecourse and many brownfield sites along both sides of the dock road. The actual port itself is relatively small and so takes up only a fraction of the greater docklands area, there is absolutely no reason why a working port could not be part of the masterplan! Amazingly no concrete plan exists for greenpark racecourse despite its proximity to the docks, its been lying idle now for the best park of 6 years!
A great opportunity exists here to rejuvenate the city even further and its vital that the planners get it right, what we dont want is conservative architectural practices designing mediocre low rise box type structures, there should be a significant high rise element included in the overall project and by high rise i dont mean 10 storeys, an indoor arena (as has been rumoured) would be a great asset for Limerick, things seem to have gone a bit quiet on that front at the moment but hopefully its still on the agenda. At the moment everyone with an interest in the docks seems to be clashing over what exactly the masterplan should consist of! Hopefully we’ll see some exciting developments in the near future!
BTW has there been any more on the pie in the sky plans for the wetlands across the river?
@PoxyShamrock wrote:
Boo! Get Rid of The Docks!!!
Why? There’s still nothing concrete about this proposal, I’d like to see a proper pro and con list to keeping the docks in Limerick, as opposed to building superport in Foynes, it’s not good enough to say I want high buildings, or I want to keep a 1,000 year port open, whats the benefits to either plan?
To be honest, I’m a lot more interesting in the plans for King’s Island around the Court House/Potato Market on the link Shane posted. It’s nothing outlandish but could really improve the area. The Island is such a waste of the city, it should be a beautiful part of town but instead it’s completely given over to thugs from the Island field. Indeed, I would love to see the Island Field itself transformed from an urban ghetto (which it effectively is) to an urban living space. It’s situated on a beautiful stretch of river, with marvellous views of the Clares Hills and is walking distance from town, it should be a deserable place to live, but instead, it’s a disaster area. (And frankly, it hasn’t improved anywhere near enough in the last 10 years).
As a riverside city, we should have an enjoyable riverwalk all along the Shannon, hopefully this development will be the next step in providing that facility.
@justnotbothered wrote:
Why? There’s still nothing concrete about this proposal, I’d like to see a proper pro and con list to keeping the docks in Limerick, as opposed to building superport in Foynes, it’s not good enough to say I want high buildings, or I want to keep a 1,000 year port open, whats the benefits to either plan?
Would you care to make a start?
REVEALED: DOCKLAND DREAM OF THE FUTURE – By DONAL O’REGAN
FOLLOWING months of rumour the Limerick Leader can this weekend reveal the billion-euro plans for the city docks put forward by the Shannon Foynes Port Authority.
They include an “iconic building”, 1,000 new jobs and a €50 million annual boost to the local economy.
A national convention centre and a cultural centre for the arts have also been proposed by developers in the plans.
The Port Authority, which owns the 44-acre site next to Steamboat Quay, is currently at an advanced stage of considering “expressions of interest” from developers.
Brian Byrne, chief executive, says a clear picture is already beginning to emerge of a dynamic commercial centre, on a smaller scale to the IFSC in Dublin, being developed at the site.
“To lose out on this opportunity would be economical recklessness on a grand scale for city, region and county,” he declared. However, many people are totally against the plans, which they say will leave Limerick without a port and make over 200 people redundant.
Mr Byrne said that claims of 200 job losses as a result of the potential sale of the port were unfounded and that the commercial centre will drive both the city and the region’s economy.
“A common thread in the expressions of interest is the retention of a strong maritime theme, with berthing for boats and motor-cruisers to the front of what will by a dynamic commercial centre that will give Limerick a new
impetus,” says Mr Byrne.
The Port Company believes it has the practical solutions worked out to address the concerns of the existing port users in Limerick by planning for greatly enhanced facilities down-river to be brought on at the same time as
any reduction in capacity occurs at Limerick docks.
But the Limerick Port Users Group also have their own plans for the docklands, announced this Thursday.
As well as keeping the port open their plans include a maritime museum, a port park, a clock tower, a marine services park, a business park and a
business innovation centre. They say that business is up 20 per cent on last year and with the planned tunnel, they expect further increases in the years
to come.
Mr Byrne said he empathised with what he termed the emotional arguments being presented by opponents to the redevelopment on the grounds that Limerick has a long tradition of port activity.
“However, due to the ever increasing size of vessels and restricted access, Limerick Port is simply no longer competitive in a national context,” said Mr Byrne.25 August 2006
If they ever have a petition whether to keep the docks or develop it, i would be first to sign it to redevelop.
@justnotbothered wrote:
The Island is such a waste of the city, it should be a beautiful part of town but instead it’s completely given over to thugs from the Island field.
Every young fellow growing up in Limerick, including myself, has experienced this rite of passage: escaping the Island Field thugs. They should be protected with some kind of grant.
@justnotbothered wrote:
To be honest, I’m a lot more interesting in the plans for King’s Island around the Court House/Potato Market on the link Shane posted. It’s nothing outlandish but could really improve the area. The Island is such a waste of the city, it should be a beautiful part of town but instead it’s completely given over to thugs from the Island field. Indeed, I would love to see the Island Field itself transformed from an urban ghetto (which it effectively is) to an urban living space. It’s situated on a beautiful stretch of river, with marvellous views of the Clares Hills and is walking distance from town, it should be a deserable place to live, but instead, it’s a disaster area. (And frankly, it hasn’t improved anywhere near enough in the last 10 years).
King’s Island
Sorry but I found the tone of your post on the Island Field to be somewhat unfair, it gives the impression that there are only thugs living there, god only knows the crap and intimidation the residents of the island field have to put up with on a daily basis from our infamous “family-feud-saga†and a handful of dysfunctional families! The people of the island field are sound. I don’t want to start a discussion on the social ills of some our council estates in Limerick, as the Archiseek-forum’s emphasis is on architecture.
However you could be right in saying that the negative news emanating from there, could be holding back the redevelopment of the King’s Island as a cultural and tourist amenity.
Sadly the old Abbey area seems to be gone and is now been rejuvenated by new hotels, apartments etc. etc. Hope the new residents will put some new lease of life back into the old sandmall.
@PoxyShamrock wrote:
Limerick is the scum-hole of Ireland and there’s no point denying it!
Inappropriate contribution
Hey PoxyShamrock don’t descend the thread to such a low level! 😮 Always be proud of your city man, warts ‘n’ all.
@CologneMike wrote:
Inappropriate contribution
Hey PoxyShamrock don’t descend the thread to such a low level! 😮 Always be proud of your city man, warts ‘n’ all.
Exactly, a pretty ridiculous comment in fairness, its no wonder an air of negativity hangs over this place at times, thoughtless statements like that dont exactly help do they?
Unfortunately the “scumbag” element is very much in evidence in almost every meaningful centre of population in this country nowadays!
I was on Bedford Row today and already one of the new bench things is broken, Some of the Maternity Hospital Artwork has been ripped down. I’ve been proud of my city for fourteen years of my life and now im starting to see diffrent. there are alot of people in Limerick that dont care, alot more than in Dublin, Galway and Cork, they can install modern sculptures and landscape streets and the majority of it doesn’t get touched. Limerick is worse i have to admit and we are the generation that have to put a stop to it, before it we start planning big Shopping Centres, new streets, statues and sculptures etc.
@CologneMike wrote:
King’s Island
Sorry but I found the tone of your post on the Island Field to be somewhat unfair, it gives the impression that there are only thugs living there, god only knows the crap and intimidation the residents of the island field have to put up with on a daily basis from our infamous “family-feud-saga†and a handful of dysfunctional families! The people of the island field are sound. I don’t want to start a discussion on the social ills of some our council estates in Limerick, as the Archiseek-forum’s emphasis is on architecture.
However you could be right in saying that the negative news emanating from there, could be holding back the redevelopment of the King’s Island as a cultural and tourist amenity.
Sadly the old Abbey area seems to be gone and is now been rejuvenated by new hotels, apartments etc. etc. Hope the new residents will put some new lease of life back into the old sandmall.
With respect, I think you’ve missed my point. My point isn’t that the Island field is wholly populated by thugs, but rather, this entire quarter of town is allowed be ruined by thugs. 15 years ago Thomondgate and Ballynanty would have been seen as pretty rough areas but they’ve been steadily improved (by both the residents and the city council), imo, the Island field hasn’t really seen any such improvement.
Poxy, I think your comments on Limerick are both unfair and misguided. All last week the papers were discussing drug dealing on the Liffey boardwalk, sadly, every city in Ireland, Dublin, Cork, Limerick or Galway has it’s share of social problems, one need only look at the dirt in Eyre Sq. to see Limerick isn’t alone in having it’s amenities vandalised. However, we need to be relentless in tackling this in Limerick, becuase Limerick’s repuatation is so much worse than that of the other small Irish cities.
On the Docks project, I think it’s fair to say I’m cynical of any plans to make developers rich. I’d much rather hear why the Shannon Port Company feel it’s wise to sell a profitable docks becuase they (through their own incompetance) have landed themselves in 20 million euro debt. It’s asset stripping disguised as development, though in this instance, I feel we have yet to hear the full story.
I think Limerick should be proud of the progress that has been made over the past 15 years or so; there are of course problems that need to be tackled on a multi-agency basis such as crime, litter etc but to dwell exclusively on the negative is to forget that proven models exist to solve these problems once the will is there to resource to people charged with carrying out the necessary works.
Glasgow has 40,000 heroin addicts yet it hasn’t put off developers and architects coming up with some of the most innovative projects in Europe.
I think silly random comments like those made by PoxyShamrock almost defeats the whole purpose of this thread, i was set up to highlight the positive developments that are taking place here, something that is very rarely focused upon! Obviously not everything here is perfect, it’d be foolish to deny there are problems but you have to be realistic, there are problems in every other city in this country as was alluded to earlier, even our untouchable capital city is the subject of some unwanted headlines!:eek:
Slating this place has been a hobby of too many ignorant people for too long, we could do without some of our own jumping on the bandwagon aswell!
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