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@Angry Rebel wrote:
My point was that not everyone has to go to Togher or Little Island, there are still sub offices. In any event, I agree with Pug that the sorting office would not be a better alternative, and on your point about joined up thinking, I don’t see to be honest what that thinking is/could be?! If An Post contined to occupy prime city centre land for a task that can be done anywhere within 20 miles of the city we’d be complaining about how inefficient they are…:D
It’s pretty simple, if the council want people not to use cars, they need to ensure the necessary services are available & convenient for those without cars. (In this case, either an An Post presence around the city centre – there are plenty of brownfield sites in the docklands!!) or at least on a frequent bus route.
If they don’t, then all the plans, goals, hopes, desires, wishes are just pissing into the wind.
@Angry Rebel wrote:
That’s not quite true as there are sub offices throughout the city, for instance the Ballintemple/Ballinlough area has one next to the Silver Quay. Admitedly they are trying to shut it though…..:rolleyes:
Any packages not accepted at the front door can (obviously) only be collected at one location. For me, that’s in Togher industrial estate (for others in the city, it’s in Little Island!).
@Pug wrote:
are you joking? you would rather a drab green 1 storey building in a prime site in the centre of the city for the convenience of collecting packages? give me a break. The elysian isnt the most architecturally stunning building in the world but it beats having An Post there hands down. There was absolutely nothing stopping An Post taking a retail unit in the Elysian there so people could still collect their packages so you will have to give out about An Post on that one
Kind of joking.. 😉
No, I’m not lamenting the undervalued architectural gem that was the An Post sorting office. Not even close! The loss of the sorting office, and the lack of joined-up thinking bugs the living hell out of me though.
@Pug wrote:
certainly beats having a giant sorting office there.
:p On this point, I beg to differ.
Now, to collect a package, anyone living in the city centre has to travel out to Togher industrial estate to collect a package. If you’re trying to be sensible by not owning a car, it means a 20 euro taxi ride out there and back to collect a package that might be worth a fraction of that.
It’s an absolute clusterfuck of a decision, and shows the lack of joined-up thinking in this country. “Let’s make it as difficult and expensive as possible to own a car in the city, then lets spread the facilities around the outskirts of the city so they’re tough to get to”.
It’s a tough balance Pug, it sounds too much to me like the current US environment: capitalising profit & socialising loss.
@Devin wrote:
What happened to the fine old buildings adjoining South Gate Bridge?
Interesting, and is that a clock-tower peering over the top of those buildings too – part of Beamish & Crawford?
Whatever about the buildings, look at the state of the bridge and quay walls in those two photos. Pretty depressing.
Ha! I know what you mean Leesider, thought it was cooool. (I know the lighting was probably a bit kitsch, but I still like it).
The roof colour changes over time, and the spire lighting is animated. Guess it was a “dry” run for the official launch?
@green_jesus wrote:
Also I saw on the Howard Holdings website that they plan to develop those sorry looking warehouses on Albert quay turning them into 11,150 sq.m of high spec office / retail accommodation.
Anybody have any more information on this scheme? Will they bulldoze the lot or are they planning to use some of the stone work?http://www.howardholdingsplc.com/index.php/development/project/albert-quay-cork/
Hopefully they’ll retain the stone work, it’ll add some ‘texture’ to otherwise bland glass ‘n’ cladding buildings. It will be interesting to see what goes up there, knowing how lovey-dovey Howard Holdings and OCP are, it’ll be a 15 story monolith, just to block all views from the Elysian! 🙂
At the moment, those buildings are being used to house huge pumps, presumably for water extraction from the OCP site?
@green_jesus wrote:
That can’t be it can it? That toothpick spire looks nothing like the original designs…
Maybe it’s just the first piece of it or the support for the real one. (Hopefully):confused:
Doubt it, looks like the final thing. It is tiny – in comparison with the 17m barge pole being put up on the top of the Ascon development (Government buildings on O’Sullivan’s Quay).
I received the same letter opus, might go along as well.
Could end up being an archiseek meet-up! 🙂
By the way, did a ‘walk by” the Elysian the other day – I like the wine-coloured tiles on the Northern section of the building. Nice break from the awful gray tower and all the white/cream of the lower building.
I think the white cylinder is actually being either painted or clad at the moment, I don’t think it’s remaining white. Thank God.
It’s funny, but probably the worst part of the building are its two most prominent features, the tower and the ‘mini tower’ at the North East corner.
The rest of the building isn’t bad, at least it’s better than I expected. I know people here hate balconies, but on the East and West sides they add a bit of contour and shadow to what would otherwise be very bland elevations. Plus, the South side is much better than I expected. There’s a very tall ground floor (retail?) with a large terraced area on top, behind that are a few balconies with what looks to be wood. Not bad at all!
From today’s examiner – it appears a PR firm is being hired to publicise the Docklands generation. Given the size of the development, I wouldn’t have thought “tens of thousands of euros” would exactly entice any big-name marketing firms!
03 July 2008
PR contract for docklands: Firm ‘chosen’
By Eoin English
CORK CITY COUNCIL is poised to award a lucrative contract to a PR firm to brand and market its multi-billion docklands regeneration project.The council remained tightlipped last night on who has landed the contract or on how much it is worth.
The initial phase could be worth tens of thousands of euro to the successful public relations firm.
But the company could be working on the project, which will involve branding, marketing and advertising, for at least a decade as the council oversees the estimated €10 billion regeneration of the extensive docklands region as a new waterfront quarter.
The news emerged yesterday as the largest landowner of docklands real estate put the first phase of its ambitious €2bn development on public display in City Hall.
Origin Enterprises, a subsidiary of the IAWS milling group, owns 32 acres of docklands.
It is seeking planning permission initially for a two acre waterfront site on Kennedy Quay and Victoria Road.
The first phase of its Port Quarter project is valued at about €200 million.
It will have 165 large apartments, and 24,600sq m of offices, in buildings ranging from eight to 11 storeys tall, with basement parking, shops and a creche.
No building will be taller than IAWS’s existing grain silos — for example at the R&H Hall site — all of which are set for demolition.
The only building to be retained is the red-brick Odlums building, dating back to the 1890s, which will most likely be used for cultural purposes.
Origin describes Port Quarter as an 18 to 20-year plan and believes the first phase could be delivered in late 2010.
This planning application follows the lodging of plans by Howard Holdings in March for its €1bn Atlantic Quarter project further downstream in the docklands, near Páirc Uà Chaoimh.
Now that redevelopment plans are rolling in, City Hall wants to hire public relations experts to advise how it should brand and market its vision for docklands.
Up to 50 firms pitched for the contract and they were shortlisted down to five.
Representatives of each of the shortlisters made presentations to a panel last Friday and it is understood that a firm has been chosen.
But city manager Joe Gavin has to sign off on the contract first — a process that is expected to take several weeks.
@shweeney wrote:
If we could build the Metro for a billion (how much did Madrid’s cost??) then fine, but 6 billion is outrageous and not justifiable for a project that only serves a small area of the city.
Add to that the fact that we all know it won’t get done even for 6 billion.
Speaking of “contaminated land”….;)
Did anyone else hear that there was a panic earlier when developers at the Elysian received a quantity of topsoil bought from one of the army barracks (don’t know which one), complete with an unexploded shell!
Was someone yanking my leg?
@bosco wrote:
That works wonders for our city doesn’t it? In the absence of having anything resembling adequate public transport in and out of the city centre, we build large business parks on the edge of the city and loads of apartments in the city centre. Instead of creating demand and justifying a decent public transport system to bring workers and shoppers from suburban centres of population into the city, we try to encourage people to live in city centre apartments and commute out to semi-rural business parks.
I think this is a bit wide of the mark.
A lot of people work & study in the city centre (a LOT), and if the docklands ever take off even more so; meaning there needs to be a lot of people living within walking distance of the city centre or people will be commuting in from Douglas/Rochestown/Passage/Glanmire into the city centre & docklands and adding greatly to the congestion. There desperately needs to be a significant (but balanced) residential element to the docklands.
Incidentally, if you check out the application here, you can see mock-ups of the development from almost every angle imaginable. The towers will make some impression on the city skyline!
