Tuborg
Forum Replies Created
- Posts
Seen as a huge portion of Limerick city centre has been destroyed over the last 40 years, its probably a minor miracle that so much of the Georgian buildings around the Crescent and the upper part of O Connell street are still standing! Such a pity that lower O Connell wasn’t safeguarded to the same extent.
There is an application before the city council at the moment which proposes a “lightweight structure†on the roof of the former Limerick County Council offices “to provide separated additional office accommodation over No’s 80, 81 and 82 O’Connell Street and to provide an apartment over No.’s 83 and 84 O’Connell Street.†I presume this will be similar to the structure on top of O’Gorman solicitors in CologneMikes post, (who by the way have done an excellent job refurbishing their premises!) There has definitely been an increase in the number of Georgian buildings undergoing refurbishment lately, lets hope this continues as there are plenty in a bad way around the city!
Speaking of Limerick County Council , I see they are due a €5 ½ million windfall in development contributions for the Parkes Properties development adjacent to the Parkway retail park. Limerick City Council on the other hand have only been awarded €1,000 as the only part of the development that falls within its admin area is… a mast sign, ouch! 😮
I actually cant believe the progress thats been made on the Hilton, when you consider that they only moved onto the site just before last Christmas, it seems remarkable that the building is basically externally complete, Id imagine its going to open early in the new year!
The Materials do look pretty drab to be honest, it also looks quite different to the original drawings and from the distance in the photo you could be forgiven for thinking they’ve included some 1960s curtain walling aswell!
Also an bord pleanala’s ruling on the opera centre is due by thursday of this week!
To be honest it was always likely that this project would run into problems, given its location. This is an extremely substandard section of the N18 with numerous median breaks, the road has been opperating well over its design capacity for years and unfortunately there are no plans to upgrade it!..
Obviously once the ring road is complete there should be a significant reduction in traffic levels on the section from cratloe castle into the city, but this only represents a small part of the substandard section which stretches from the coonagh r/about to the upgraded section just south of Shannon Airport. Unbelievably the NRA have decided to install 2 rounabouts near the radisson hotel, near to where the new N7 will interchange with the N18! This sets a fairly disasterous precedent i think!, Intechanges are needed on this road not f****** roundabouts. Add in the fact that Limerick County Council gave the go-ahead for a major shopping complex on this stretch(between the coonagh r/bout and 1 of the proposed r/bouts). Also there will be a significant percentage of traffic who will continue to use the old road to avoid paying the toll, a serious balls up altogether!
This is a real sorry saga, the delay in constructing a new stadium has been a disgrace, first of all it was supposed to be built in the old racecourse site which would’ve been an ideal location however that fell through and then this site was selected. Surely Bord Na Gcon did some research on the area to identify any possible problems with planning etc, obviously not! Limerick really needs a new greyhound stadium as its fallen way behind other cities and towns who have excellent modern facilities!:(
Barrington’s hospital had been extended a couple of years ago so are they now extending along Mary Street ? I think dave123 posted these two artists impressions (thumbnail size) of the new extension last year.
Barringtons House was originally built as a stand alone project, it was to house offices, a bar and restaurant(s),the take up was pretty slow and it has been empty for almost three years. However an application was submitted recently for a change of use to a clinic, a bit of a pity really as it would be nice to see another pub or restaurant along georges quay along with the locke and moll darby’s. It’s a very pleasant area (especially in the summer) with the mature trees and riverside setting!
The new building looks to be a huge disappointment, nowhere near the standard of Barringtons house which intregrates very well with the original hospital, this new structure looks like a return to mediocrity, with the latest in urban wallpaper. Barringtons is a protected Structure, so surely they could have been a bit more sensitive, hopefully it’ll look better in reality, although I couldn’t see it!
@CologneMike wrote:
Seen these photos on: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=52115670&postcount=12
Look’s like the hotel has been built on the Sir Harry’s Mall road!
Is the through road permanently closed?
Can anybody confirm this?
Which hotel group will move in?
Anybody with an artist’s impression of the hotel?In the second image I see a building crane alongside the new hotel. Could this be the start of the Kenrite’s Construction development?
Depending on how recent that image is, i would guess that the crane is connected to the development beside barringtons hospital! A new private health facility is being constructed on this site, clearance works started on the site earlier this year and the facility is due to be completed in late 2007, this will double the capacity of the hospital!
As for the opera centre i definately think that Cait ni Ceallachain has some valid points regarding the development! While i agree that michael street isnt going to be transformed into a major shopping street, certainly not without major redevelopment of the opposite side of the street which in the main is home to offices and apartments, it is dissapointing that the frontage to ellen street is so poor! She is right to the effect that limerick city council have long been promoting the idea of vibrant, living streets, its hard to see how a large blank wall can do much to revitalise ellen street. The opera centre development is potentially a great opportunity to extend the city’s retail core given ellen streets proximity to cruises street!
Its also encouraging to see someone taking an interest in the conservation of the rutland street terrace as this is one of the last remaining georgian terraces in the city! At least she wasnt blinded by all the hype surrounding the project! Last year former mayor diarmuid scully said that we should not let “heritage issues get in the way of whats good for the city” More often than not this basically sums up Limericks attitude to its built heritage, do the planners ever learn? How many times does it have to be said?, all you have to do is take a look at the city centre and you’ll see the scars of some horrific planning decisions over the last 40 years!
There really isnt any reason why the vast majority of the existing georgian buildings cant be retained! They’ve added character to Limerick for the best part of 200 years and I for one wouldnt like to see them replaced with more glass and plastic puke!
The hotel is going to open onto Henry street with the retail units fronting onto Bedford Row, construction work on the hotel is well ahead of the retail part of the complex, which hasnt really started yet, they seem to be just piling at this stage!
The gardens seem to have a really interesting history,these are bits and pieces i came across on the web, they must ‘ve been pretty impressive in their day!
The Hanging gardens were built in 1808 by William Roche Esq., M.P, a Limerick banker, to the rear of his residence at 99 George’s Street – now O’Connell Street at an expense of £15,000. These gardens form a singular ornament to the town; they are raised on ranges of arches of various elevation, from 25 to 40 feet. The vaults thus formed being converted into store-houses for wine, spirits and other goods. On this foundation are elevated terraces, the highest of which has a range of hothouses, with greenhouses at the angles. By means of glass houses, heated by ingenious flues, Roche grew exotic fruits like oranges, grapes and pineapples in one of the gardens. The façade of these gardens extends about 200 feet, and the top of the highest terrace, which is 70 feet above the street, commands a most extensive prospect of the city and the Shannon.
Although his fellow citizens nicknamed the gardens ‘Roche’s Folly’, Roche was a shrewd businessman.
Later he profitably sold the vaults underneath the supporting arches to the Revenue Commissioners as a bonded stores for £10,000 and a rent of £500 per annum. Indeed during the emergency, the Department of Defence, singled out the building as an ideal air raid shelter.A major application has finally been submitted for the former An Post property on Henry Street, An Post vacated their Henry street premises a couple of years ago and its been somewhat underutilised since, Great to see that the original facade of the old Roches Hanging Gardens building is being re-instated! The transformation of Henry street is nearing completion!
Address the former An Post (GPO) complex and Roche’s Hanging Gardens Building, Lower Henry Street, Limerick.
Permission is being sought for the following items: (1) The change of use of the former office accommodation in the Roche’s Hanging garden building to bar and restaurant use. (2) The change of use of the Mercantile building, fronting onto Henry Street from offices to retail/commercial use. (3) The insertion of a bar, restaurant and night-club at ground floor and mezzanine level. (4) The provision of new build office accommodation at 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th floor levels. (5) Reinstatement of the arched fa
@PoxyShamrock wrote:
I’m rather doubtful of the Coonagh Cross development too. Anyone got anything on that?
Site clearance works started a couple of months back so i presume they’re motoring ahead, havent been out that way for a while! I think its parkes properties plans for the area beside the parkway retail park that are looking uncertain, i wonder are they having second thoughts? I dont think another shopping development of this scale is needed in Limerick,it’d be overkill really! In fairness the majority of the retailers they would have earmarked will probably favour the opera centre as its right in the centre of the city!
Well maybe if there wasnt so much secracy surrounding the project people would be in a better position to judge it and their fears might be addressed! The developers havent really provided any concrete information on the project, all we have is a couple of dodgy photographs that appeared in local newspapers, we dont even know for certain how many shops it’ll contain or even what buildings are to be retained? I know the former AIB bank is going along with possibly the 2 adjacent buildings, but who can be certain?, what buildings on Ellen street are to be sacrificed?, pretty vague so far isnt it?
Is the application on display in city hall btw?
The rumours of the lynch group closing the south court hotel all seem to have come from a small piece that the Limerick Post ran a couple of weeks ago, something that they were forced to publish an apology for the very next week!:o They suggested that the hotel would be sold and an apartment complex built on the site!, a bit of sloppy journalism really and not for the 1st time from that paper!
There isnt really anything to suggest that the hotel isnt performing well, its been extended twice since it opened and remains a popular location for conferences and the like, Lynch hotels also stated publicly that occupancy rates are consistently high!
Speaking of the George, i only recently saw it with the scaffolding removed and i was pretty shocked by the scale of it, looking up from as far away as the Patrick street side it completely dominates the O Connell street skyline, a full 3 floors taller than the neighbouring buildings! The first thing you notice is this huge wall of white cladding, totally out of proportion but then again you cant really blame the developers for this, its the planners who saw nothing wrong with it!:confused:
Hotel looks to be nearing completion although the retail space on O Connell street still has a bit to go!
@CologneMike wrote:
Indeed the Mill on the corner of Shannon / Henry Street is a model example of good conservation. I hope it does not become too dwarfed in size by the new Hotel. What a pity a similar Mill on the corner of Cecil / Henry Street collapsed during the redevelopment of the Carlton cinema block.
Here is the alternative result of the collapse.
https://archiseek.com/content/attachment.php?attachmentid=2403&stc=1&d=1150593845
Ya it was a real pity about that building, it used to house the Henry cecil pub, Aidan Brooks bought it up as part of his Shannon st/henry st development, it was planned to restore it for retail use however it collapsed in november 2003 during piling works on the Bank of scotland site. Not sure was any action ever taken over it but surely more precautions should have been taken! Apparently the building dated back to the late 18th Century! It added a bit of character to cecil street in a street seriously lacking in character, definately one of the more neglected city centre streets. Unfortunately the loss of interesting buildings has been an all too familiar occurance in Limerick over the years!
https://archiseek.com/content/showpost.php?p=38660&postcount=269
CologneMike wrote:Indeed the Mill on the corner of Shannon / Henry Street is a model example of good conservation. I hope it does not become too dwarfed in size by the new Hotel. What a pity a similar Mill on the corner of Cecil / Henry Street collapsed during the redevelopment of the Carlton cinema block.Here is the alternative result of the collapse.
https://archiseek.com/content/attachment.php?attachmentid=2403&stc=1&d=1150593845
Ya it was a real pity about that building, it used to house the Henry cecil pub, Aidan Brooks bought it up as part of his Shannon st/henry st development, it was planned to restore it for retail use however it collapsed in november 2003 during piling works on the Bank of scotland site. Not sure was any action ever taken over it but surely more precautions should have been taken! Apparently the building dated back to the late 18th Century! It added a bit of character to cecil street in a street seriously lacking in character, definately one of the more neglected city centre streets. Unfortunately the loss of interesting buildings has been an all too familiar occurance in Limerick over the years!
Well at least its good to see that SFPA are finally taking stock instead of rushing into a proposed sale however this delay really does highlight what a shambles this whole process has been so far! I know its a hugely important project for Limerick but isnt this even more of a reason why a detailed plan needs to be drawn up, at the moment there isnt even a local area plan for the docklands area!
No doubt SFPA will kick up a fuss over this delay and in fairness any delay is regrettable but they should really have known better, of course there was going to be opposition to the project and the aggressive way they have gone about it seems to have backfired, they surely didnt believe they could go ahead without even consulting all those bodies with an interest in the scheme!
In would be great to see Bannatynes mill getting a new lease of life,its such an interesting building but has been pretty forlorn looking for quite a while now,it should definately be central to the new developments that will inevitably spring up in the docklands over the next couple of years. The future of Ranks Silo is less clear, this is the large tower type structure near bannatynes mill, the city council have indicated that ideally they would like to see the building preserved although their call has got a fairly luke warm response, especially from developers as they say the number of potential uses for the building is quite limited. Apparently its one of only 3 such structures remaining in this country, im not sure how true that is! No doubt we’ll be hearing a lot more of this!
Incidentally a restoration project was carried out on a similar building to Bannatynes mill a couple of years back, this is the old corn mill on shannon street, next to the savoy development!
Not exactly!, i think he was talking about the island area and yes he’s quite right to point out that it is a disaster, the oldest part of the city given over to a council estate is pretty tragic!, he didnt say limerick is “the scum hole of Ireland”
Look! it dosent matter who made the comment, it was childish and unwarranted, anaway enough of this, theres more important things to be talking about!
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!
@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!
@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?
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?
