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@Blisterman wrote:
That’s good to hear. I’d love to see some world class architects designing it.
We need to put Ireland on the architectural map.
Example
http://www.greatbuildings.com/places/ireland.htmlNot a single building built in the last 200 years.
Of course, Ideally it would be a world class IRISH architect, but unfortunately, there really isn’t any.
We have the Glucksman. Which is one world class building. Are there really no others?
@kite wrote:
Desire for street-cars in Cork
By Eoin English
A COLOURFUL new concept in public transport was unveiled in Cork yesterday.Bus Éireann took gardaÃ, city and county officials on a test drive on board a sleek lilac street-car it hopes to introduce in the city soon.
The striking articulated vehicle, which is described as a tram on wheels, is already in use in York and Leeds in England.
There are also several on order for introduction in Las Vegas in the near future.
Bus Éireann said they hope to introduce the vehicle on a green route in the city on a pilot basis soon.
It is hoped that under the Government’s Transport 21 investment programme, that several more will be ordered for use in Cork.
The street-car can carry up to 118 passengers and is fully wheelchair accessible.
It is a cross between a light rail system and is designed to be able to run on roads or on a guided bus system.
It has a diesel engine but can be easily converted to run on bio-fuels.
The diesel version pulled up outside City Hall yesterday morning where senior city officials and senior gardaà jumped on board.
It then travelled out the link road, negotiated the Kinsale Road roundabout and travelled out to County Hall to collect county officials.
Another short test drive followed before the street car returned to City Hall.
Bus Éireann area manager Joe Fitzgerald said the vehicle, manufactured by Wrights in Ballymena, negotiated some of the city’s narrowest streets with ease.
“It’s a new concept in public transport that’s designed to encourage people out of their cars and into public transport,†he said.
The street car will visit Limerick today and Galway tomorrow for more test drives.
Tram on wheels? I saw that and it looked 90% bus to me. Its just been given a fancy title to make it seen more progressive and exciting.
Aren’t trams on wheels anyway?
I read in the Irish Examiner that the CPO for the Showgrounds site went through. It also said that there were five sites in all procured for this park. One of those, I think, was the site where the Marquee was held last year. What were the others though?
That Docklands supplement in the Examiner today was a waste of paper. It had umpteen pictures of Howard Holding’s Lapps Quay development and not a lot else. Just some people saying how nice it would be; how great it will be; how it will be etc. Cue a load of overused phrases
@A-ha wrote:
Heard there’s going to be a new contol tower built at the airport. Only word of mouth at the moment, but it seems to make sense if the old terminal is to be knocked. Was out there the other day, looks to be busy constantly but it’s a shame we haven’t had a new route announcement in months. Starbucks make the airport, there should be another one open up in the city.
As far as I know a new control tower was part of the original plans for the airport upgrade. It was to be situated across the runway opposite the terminal. I think that that was on the model in the old terminal
By God.
Mahon point getting the win in a sad reflection of the appreciation of architecture in Ireland. I would have thought that The Glucksman would be dead set to win that poll. And how did the north main street car pakr get ahead of the county hall? Who actually likes a car park?
You’re easily amused….:rolleyes:
Whatever about the place at night the plase is soooo inconcivebly dull in the daytime. Its just big slabs of cheap looking grnite on even cheaper looking paving. Could they not have reserved at least one spot for a tree or a flowerbed? I dont really understand the point of those polished steel lumps on the granite lumps. They seem to imply that only one person may sit on any side of the stone. I’ld prefer it they werent there.
I heard recently that the Mitchelstown Bypass, which was due to begin construction sometime at the start of 2007 has been put off for two years or so due to difficulties related to funding. Great.
I would greatly doubt that Ryanair would buid their own airport. It totally goes against their low-cost ethos. The cost of such a development would be, and I cant really give anything near an accurate estimate, huge – the aquisition of large tracts of land( the old aredrome alone site will not be of much use I imagine as it probably only ever took up the space used to land small one and two seater planes), bribes for councillers, building a runway and a cheap ‘terminal’. And I doubt the poeple of Killeah would like to live next to an international airport. They’re gonna fight it tooth and nail if this really happens.
Someone sugggested getting some sort of an open air market going in Fitzgerald Park. I’d prefer somthing closer to the cith center. With the new Grand Parade there’l be a big pedestrian area to the east side of the street. You could put two rows of stalls facing each other down the lenght of it. You could also possibly put a canopy over the area between them also to protect people against the irish weather.
Visitor attractions:
::Some plazas in the new docklands would be very nice indeed for performing arts and all that stuff. If a new theater was built there and perhaps a comtempoary art gallery that would be great, especially if the gallery was really striking and got some paintings by some well known artists in it.
:: A maritime musuem. Obvious given the cities location. It would be great if there was a few ships lined up along the quayside like the Jeanie Johnson and the Asgard.
::An observation tower. Cork dosn’t really have any vantage points. And theres plenty to be seen if you’ve ever looked down on the city from lofty Montenotte or culturally not-very-lofty Gurranabraher. There are a few solutions to this.
1. Build a new, striking tower somewhere. Where, I’m not sure. It would want to be close to the city centre but not intrude on the low character of the city centre. I’m thinking somewhere near the bus station. It could also create a new landmark for the city. Twas done in london with the London Eye Observation Wheel
2. Build a land based observation place on the northside hillside. It would be cheaper but would however, give a lesser view.
3. Moor a balloon somewhere. I’ve been on the one in Parc Andre Citroen in Paris. It was great fun and gave a great view. There was plans to do this in Dublins Temple bar but I’m not sure where this got
4. Use Eglington street tower or some possibly upcoming docklands tower. I’m not sure if Eglington street could be used as it is a residential toweran the occupants may not like this. If there are other towers to be built..who knows? The County hall already functions as an observatory of sort. It has leased the top flooor to a catering company for parties and the likes.
5. Build a replica Eifell Tower a few feet shorter than the original and call it ‘The worlds tallest model of the Eifell Tower’. Two attractions for the price of one!What would be equally silly would be to rename the city Leprechaun City and thus fill the place with naieve but hopefull and wealthy Americans. Hire a few midgets and we’ll be raking in the cash. With rakes.
I need less alcohol.
I agree. I only realised that that Dunnes was there two or three years ago. I always seemed to float past it and not really notice it. The first time I saw it i looked in and it wasn’t very busy but on my way back to the bus stop I looked into the Merchants Quay one and twas packed. I dont it does much buisness.
@kite wrote:
😎 Nothing, the site is to stay as is, which is a HUGE improvement on what was there before.
Selling the site to Mr. K. was a great idea, the way it was carried through by the city manager and sold for 1euro is a scandal for the city and a huge (unnecessary) embarrassment for the buyer.Who is Mr Keohane and why did he get hold of that building for just one euro?
Yes the Odlums building reminds me of the OXO tower building in London. It wouldnt be bad idea to preserve a little of what is in the docklands to remind people of it’s formor purpose.
I’m not as keen to hold on to the R&H Hall silos. I’ld rather destroy them and build similar sized buildings in their place. I also dont like them as I had a dream recently in which the silos were the Ministries in the book 1984 by George Orwell which I was reading at the time. I was taken in to the silo and had my eyebrows shaved and they replaced my teeth with popcorn. So If it means that those dreams wont re-occur i’m all for destruction of them
Originally Posted by THE_Chris
I’m no engineer, but I’ve thought a fair bit about how to make that roundabout freeflow without modifying the tunnel much.All you have to do is take the current east-west N25 run and put THAT in a tunnel underneath the current roundabout. Then you could get rid of the roundabout and put freeflow slips everywhere to solve the current problems.
THe traffic lights were a stopgap.
It will get bad again.Opening the Kinsale Road flyover will jam the tunnel up like mad.
Opening the 694 house development in Glanmire will make it worse.
Opening the north ring will make it even worse.Yes, we’re talking Red Cow Of The South with that roundabout. I dont think people realise just how bad its going to be in a few years time.
Alternately you could tunnel under the roundabout north-south and not have to destroy the existing flyover. But like THE_Chris said I’m no engineer and would that destabilise the flyover above? Also the problem of lack of tunnel capacity would hardly be rectified. Then again that might not be so much of an issue as the delays at the interchange.
A problem I experienced while trying to get to the marquee a few days ago was [Not being to used to using buses in the city] that there is two number two buses. One going north to Knocknaheeny and one going south to Mahon. What was worse was that the woman in the bus station gave me a timetable for the northbound bus. I can understand why tourists hate our public transport system [Ireland in general with the exception of the luas] when a city has two number two busses going in two different directions.
Jack Lynch Tunel: Apparently the tunnel is running well over the projected daily usage of 2012 [Somthing like that at least] which shows just how wrong the planners get it wrong. The most effective but most expensive solution, in my opinion at least, would be to build two tunnels parallell to the outsides of the current tunnel, go under the interchange and bring you up onto the N8. It would probably be very difficult to get it out given the rail track and road near the Ibis Hotel so its a bit of a dream. Or one could do the opposite and build a sunspension bridge which would be even more spectacular and farfetched. Ah well, I can dream cant I?
Theres going to be a new road built along the northern edge of the Eglington Street developement in Cork to the best of my Knowledge.
