shanekeane
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The problem with Cruises St. is hardly the paving stones! There’s nothing particularly good about red paving stones, but at the very least they tend to be something that doesn’t take from their environment. Oliver Plunkett St. looks absolutely awful. Why was it really necessary to retain that little tarmac road in the middle of it, so that the footpath on one side is reduced to a tacky little sliver? The street is narrow enough to be properly pedestrianized, that’s the point I’m making.
well i’d definitely agree with the remark about the quays. EVERYTHING from St. Patrick’s Bridge right down to the docks needs to be knocked down. It always amazes me how completely awful and empty the quays in Cork are. A lot of development should be carried out to make them foci of city life
I can’t believe the vision that some people have for the cities of Ireland. Some day, the entire country will be a patchwork intricately planned and badly executed redevelopment schemes. Why anybody thinks that Grand Parade and Patrick Street are anything other than abject failures is beyond me. The paving stones are absolutely revolting, and the idiotic pieces of street furniture make the place look like a whore who’s been all gussied up by a retard. Oliver Plunkett Street is similarly revolting; especially given the incomprehensible presence of those silver and neon bollard things. The whole street should have been properly pedestrianized with either Grafton Street style red paving, or golden paving stones like the ones recently installed in Bedford Row in Limerick. What is there now looks cheap and tatty.
I happen to think that the two most interesting features of Washington Street are the Kino and Mannix. They both look kind of out-there and spontaneous in an otherwise awfully drab street. If anything should be demolished it’s all those 19th buildings that look like warehouses. When I refer to Mannix, I particularly refer to the way you can see the outline of the stairs on the building next to it. It’s so completely surreal right in the middle of a city that it looks like a work of art. I think it should stay, just so that Cork has at least one thing that isn’t totally middle of the road blandness.
i’m not sure whether you’re saying the stuff in the photographs above is good, but if you are, you need to get your head examined. The stuff above has made limerick even more drab than it was (if such a thing was possible)
what is the problem with skyscrapers casting shadows? (not that the U2 tower is actually a skyscraper!) compare frankfurt, which is absolutely deadened and made boring by the distance between skyscrapers and empty plazas between them, and new york, which is made utterly fascinating by the proximity of its tall buildings. some parts of wall st. and around grand central station never see the light of day, and yet are absolutely captivating, adding enormously to the energy of the areas.
i dont see what putting new streets is going to do really, the whole place is a train wreck. sometimes i think they should just nuke limerick and start again. considering the amount of development that has taken place around that area recently, why is the abbey river even less central now than it used to be? having constructed an entire quay along the abbey, you’d think they could have bothered to make it a place where people might like to stroll and integrate it into the city centre. it truly had the capacity to be a cosy riverside strip like something in amsterdam
i think the plans for the redevelopment of limerick are the very minimum of what needs to be done to the city. i also think that they are good ideas, every one of them. arthur’s quay sc is a monstrosity, as are the blocks with penny’s and dunnes stores, and cruises street is cheap looking. william street should be renovated to restore something of its georgian character, but i dont see why it should be completely demolished – only on the lower end where all those brown brick buildings make you want to vomit when you look at them. Also, i would suggest that the sarsfield building ought not be knocked down as it’s quite pretty, and arthur’s quay park should remain but be improved in appearance. Consider that if that sarsfield building is knocked down, every block facing onto arthur’s quay park would be demolished, thereby allowing the fronts of all the new buildings to face onto the park. if some of the trees where taken out, and the road eliminated, it would take on the character of a plaza in front of what will, presumably, be showpiece modern buildings for limerick city centre. in particular the site of the dunnes building offers the opportunity for something exceptional. if there if a concern about an excess of retail space, i would suggest that be the location for the science museum which is proposed for dublin. i would also suggest the demolition of the block opposite brown thomas (which should itself either be demolished or improved in appearance), but that nothing be built in its place, so that you would have one of these so-called ‘european’ open spaces right in the centre of town. this square would be flanked by 1. the new buildings currently on bedford row, 2. the improved facade of brown thomas, 3. whatever is built to replace the roches stores block, 4. the franciscan church. seems like a no-brainer to me.
The big problem that remains with O’Connell St. in Dublin is those two buildings at either corner as you approach it from O’Connell Bridge. The one on the left with the Bailey’s ad is dirty and ugly, and the Bailey’s sign makes it look worse. That needs to be revamped in some way. The one on the other side is uglified by all that green decoration for Irish Permanent. O’Connell St. in general has been much improved, but until those buildings are taken care of, it will continue to have a certain grotty appearance.
