jungle
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@Radioactiveman wrote:
AIB at the other end of the street (adjacent to Waterstones) will close when this one opens. This will leave another vacant store on the Street! Unlike some of the others though, this is of a more attractive size for retailers i’d imagine.
I can see that being demolished and something new built there. A store won’t easily go into an old bank. Also, (from memory) a lot of the building is only one storey.
@A-ha wrote:
wow jungle, impressive picture. how did you manage to get so close? 🙂
It was taken from my camera phone when I was boarding a flight to Amsterdam.
@lexington wrote:
Whoa – check out the rims on that baby! 😀
Thanks jungle – how do you feel about it’s look in the flesh? (Well flesh in the making).
From the outside it looks like so many other airports I’ve seen the world over. It’s not a bad design, but there is little originality.
I can’t imagine that the inside will show any hugely original touches either, but as long as it cleans up the situation where 8 flights are trying to use 2 baggage belts at 9pm on a Friday evening I’ll be pretty happy as one of the airport’s most regular users.
For those of you following the progress at the airport, I managed to get a nice image of some Aer Lingus and Servisair trucks with a glimpse of the new terminal in the background…
@A-ha wrote:
Did I hear some pitter patter about a by-pass being built in Castlematyr. It would be a god send for the commuters to Little Island? Anyone got any details?
It’s in the Cork County Development Plan for the East Cork area. You can see this if you do enough searching on the Cork County Council website.
At present there is a significant kink in the N25 to get the road into Castlemartyr. The bypass will remove this and be a rare example of a bypass which shortens the route.
@Paul Clerkin wrote:
Talking of bypasses….
http://www.p45blogs.net/globaleyes/archives/002229.htmlIf you want to see a dumb bypass, try the Dungarvan one. It has become so built up that it is now faster to drive through the town again…
@A-ha wrote:
I think the last thing that should be brought into the city is a light rail network. Trams would be ideal for the suburbs but look at all the trouble the Luas caused. Drilling, digging and more noise in our newly renovated city centre isn’t very ideal for a transport system. And trolley buses can carry more then a standard bus, even more if it is a double decker trolley bus, and even better, no tracks to lay, more routes available and a clean, reliable form of transportation. Sorry if yeer all sick of listening to me, or reading me whatever, but we really need more varieties of transport in Cork.
There is an alternative that I saw was being trialled (in France I think). It was a trolley bus that charged a battery that could carry it for up to 20km. It meant that the bus wasn’t restricted to where there were cables and it also meant that unsightly cables could be kept out of sensitive areas.
I saw the new Montessori school on the Skehard Road for the first time over the weekend. I quite like it. It seems to rise above the banality that is often associated with educational buildings.
Anyone have any pictures or comments? It was hard to form a full impression when going past it on a crowded bus.
@A-ha wrote:
Everyone must be gone away for the bank holiday week-end, it’s been so quiet on here these last few days. And I know I mentioned it before, but who da f*cking hell do I have to go to about the public transport in this city, or should I say the lack of it. It’s so unbeliveable. I am so serious, the city needs some sort of trolleybus or tram. The buses smell up the city and all a trolleybus would need is a ‘lil old wire. I’ll say it again, monorails would be ideal for Cork, and don’t laugh like the last time I mentioned it, making jokes about the Simpsons, it’s so childish. If anyone can give me any names of who would take note of the bad transportation system in Cork, then let me know. :confused:
I wouldn’t support trolley buses in the city. They have all the disadvantages of trams – inflexibility of route – and none of the advantages – ability to carry a large volume of people. I would fully support the introduction of Light Rail into the city.
At one point there was a thread on the Platform 11 forums about a possible route for Light Rail from the city to Ballincollig. I haven’t visited there since they made the forums only readable by members though.
@securityman wrote:
I see in the Examiner today that Harvey Norman are looking for someone in Cork are they eying up a new store I heard a rumour a while back that they were looking to buy the old Woodies Store??
Noooooo!!!! Does that mean we’ll be getting their ads on local radio too… 🙁
@lexington wrote:
😀 American fashion icons Abercrombie & Fitch are set to roll out an estimated 5 stores across Ireland starting from late 2006/early 2007.
It would be great if someone could look at the retail chains that are likely to open in Ireland in the next few years and try to persuade them to open their Irish admin headquarters in the Cork area. In the near future, I can see companies like Esprit and MediaMarkt establishing a presence in Ireland. Even if they’ll only be providing a handful of jobs, it would be great to see them go to Cork or some other Irish city rather than Dublin.
@ewankennedy wrote:
Ive heard all the jazz about Horgans quay too and though it would be a nice location I think its still too small.
What benefit Horgan’s Quay has in terms of location would be lessened if/when a bridge is built at Water St. It would be a 5-10 minute walk from the train station to the event centre then.
@jungle wrote:
As for architecture in Cork, does anyone have any decent pictures of the GPO in Cork?
After asking that, I find a picture on this site. I don’t thing the picture really does the building justice, but it would take some seriously expensive camera equipement to take the shot I’d like to see.
I was thinking about what constitutes a successful park and realised it is quite hard to define. If you look at Dublin, St. Steven’s Green would count as a successful park based on the footfall there. However, to my mind, it is nowhere near as nice as a park as The Iveagh Gardens, which are just around the corner on Harcourt St.
One of the things I like in a park is the ability to get out of the bustle and particularly the traffic noise of the city. Ironically, on this basis, the more successful a park is at attracting visitors, the less desirable it is to go there.
Of course, these observations only really apply to city centre parks. Given it’s location, the Kinsale Rd landfill park will be more of a suburban park along the lines of Phoenix Park or Richmond Park in London [OK probably not as grand as either of them]. Knowing Cork City Council, they’ll cover it in soccer and GAA pitches and won’t leave any scope for a park.
As it was a quarry that was turned into a rubbish dump and finally turned into a park, the Parc des Buttes Chaumonts in the north-east of Paris may be interesting.
A few pics from the net
I believe one of Madrid’s city parks is also a former rubbish dump.
I don’t think it is allowed to plant trees on a former rubbish dump for some time after closure now because it can increase the risk of groundwater pollution.
@Devin wrote:
I have no doubt this is true, Jungle. I would just worry about certain views on the LADSOCL thread. I can’t obviously comment on individual streets / developments because I don’t know what’s going on there on a daily basis and don’t have the same intimate knowledge of the city that the Cork contributors have. But I know that An Taisce Cork have been very good and have carefully monitored development in Cork over the past number of years, and prevented some over scaled and/or poor quality proposals, which, if permitted, would have damaged the historic character of the city centre. Naturally if you want anything and everything to fly through the planning system you’re going to have a problem with this.
I certainly don’t want to see everything fly through the planning system. Some of the newer buildings east of Parnell Place have been pretty rotten – Penrose Wharf, the Simon building. Both of these buildings should have been stopped on aesthetic grounds, but I guess they were built in the early 90s when the city council were glad to see any money going into the area.
However, much of the area consists of semi-derilict warehousing and warehousing that has been converted to light industrial use. I don’t feel that the level of planning sensitivity required here is the same as in the western end of the city centre where how a new building fits into the existing built area must be taken into account.
@lexington wrote:
I wouldn’t entirely agree with that. I have agreed and even assisted An Taisce (yes, it is a miracle) with some of their more recent objections regarding some completely unsatisfactory developments within the city. But they have also taken the mickey themselves on a number of occassions and have acted quite negatively (eg City Quarter sculpture) toward developments which they have sinced u-turned on.
Was the objection to the City Quarter sculpture from An Taisce or from an individual who happened to be a member of An Taisce?
As for architecture in Cork, does anyone have any decent pictures of the GPO in Cork? I think it is an elegant and underappreciated building. This is probably because it’s hard to stand in a position where you can take in the whole facade because of the narrow streets around it. I looked for pics on the web, but only found ones where you could see part of the building and Oliver Plunkett St was flooded, so Ithought they probably didn’t do it justice 😀
It’s very disappointing to learn that the Buckley’s shopfront is to be remodelled. It’s very distinctive and a lot more interesting than the twee reproduction shopfronts that are being encouraged by the corporation.
My own view on development in Cork is that there should be a line drawn through the city centre at Parnell Place. There are few old buildings of merit east of that line – perhaps the harbour commissioners offices and a few warehouses. It can support larger developments along the lines of Lapp’s Quay. West of it is a more sensitive area that should be reserved for refurbishments and infills with the exception of a few sites that are suitable for development – Guys, anything that hides the North Main St multi-storey.
Looking at the pictures of the houses on Grenville Place (Bachelor’s Quay) could make you fearful for the future. The houses are definitely in need of some TLC, and it would be tragic to see them becoming derelict and knocked for development. As well as their architectural merit, they also have significance because one of them was George Boole’s house.
@Pug wrote:
is it true that a 32 storey building was granted permission at hueston in dublin?
Passing along Tower St over the weekend, I saw a light engineering yard with a ‘For Sale – Development Opportunity’ sign covered by a ‘Sold’ one. Does anyone know what the plans are for this site? It was on the right hand side of the section of Tower St between Friar’s Walk and Barrack St if you are walking towards Barrack St.
@Pana01 wrote:
I read that there is a long term plan to include a dual-carriageway from Midleton to Youghal – anyone else hear of this??
In terms of the cost of this, would it not be better to look at reopening the Midleton-Youghal railway line? Dual-carriageway is expensive to build and would require large CPOs, whereas the railway line, although in need of significant repair, is already there and the land is in state hands.
