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A LOCAL ACCOUNTANCY firm and An Taisce have lodged objections to plans to build a major new four-star hotel in Cork city.
Developer BAM was granted permission to build on the former government building site on Sullivan’s Quay in the city in 2008, but the plan was hit the economic downturn.
Re-submitted plans last year proposed demolishing the current structure and building a 220-bedroom hotel. That number was revised down in November to 193.
The plan asks for permission to build over 22,000 square metres of hotel and office space with accesses from a central courtyard. The building would vary in height, going from six storeys with a set back fifth floor to Cove Street to a 12-storey cylindrical tower on the corner of Sullivan’s Quay and Meade Street.
There would be two basement parking floors, with a gym on the ninth floor and bar on the 11th.
However, the plan has drawn objections in the locality.
Tommy O’Connor from Carey O’Connor Accountants on nearby Drinan Street makes a number of points in an objection letter to Cork City Council. He writes that his company is concerned at the level of noise and vibration involved with demolishing the building, saying it could damage his premises. He also says that he is worried that the construction of a basement car park would cause damage to the foundations of his building or structural damage to the rest of the building.
The letter goes on to say that the proposal is “over development” and asks for monitoring points to be added to his own building and that vibration monitoring be put in place.
A letter from the owner of the nearby Arch building, Deirdre Condon, says that she has received no further information on how her building will be impacted. She adds that she would like protections put in place to allow students and residents of the street be minimally impacted.
An Taisce’s appeal focuses on the tower aspect of the design. It accepts that Cork needs hotel beds, but says that the tower should not reach the proposed 48 metre height.
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How in the name of god did New York City build near 100 storey skyscrapers back in the 1930′s like the Chrysler building and the Empire State?
100 years later and we’re afraid of anything taller than a big house!
@Franklin Roosevelt: New York has the size and scale to handle skyscrapers because of town planning, we don’t in Ireland, our towns were planned for horse & carts, a few pubs, courthouse and a church. Do you want to walk the streets in darkness with towers everywhere if there was no regulations?
@Franklin Roosevelt: bam are screwing around with the proposed event centre demanding more money again. It’s probably a spiteful objection and I can’t blame them! Enda turned the sod on it nearly two years ago for a photo op and nothing’s happened since.
@Stevie Doran: but we still allow terrible planning. No consideration is ever given to how a place looks to those forced to live there. Miles of little boxes and a happy exteriors. Ugly buildings that take no heed of the surrounding. I know an apartment block by the sea that faces the occupants away from the view – clearly designed for another space entirely.
Is it corruption? Is it ‘business’ and aesthetics aren’t valued?
I’d love a few beautiful skyscrapers in Dublin – we clearly need them for office and quality apartment space.
@Stevie Doran: funny… Those skyscrapers in other cities don’t completely blot out the sun.
@Franklin Roosevelt: if someone said I’m worried about vibrations or the impact on students having to cross the road to walk pasted they probably just laughed them out of the building
@Martin Byrne: It might depend on the aspect of the development, current planning laws forbid North facing Windows for example I think.
@Franklin Roosevelt: Lol, the lack of understanding of the urban landscape of Cork is funny, but shocking also. Clueless people who casually compare a US skyscraper to Cork’s classical design ……..
The yoke they propose to demolish is like a multi storey car park with Windows., surely one of the ugliest buildings in Cork. It’s proposed replacement looks half decent.
While the old Tax building badly needs to be replaced I’d be worried about BAM doing the job considering their track record in Cork.
<>
…Convention Centre…
@BlueSkyThinking: Good point , our non event centre has gone beyond a joke.
@Eamonn Duggan: it used to be the old Revenue & Fas offices not a multi story car park
@Veronica: no one said it was a car park….they said “it looks like one with windows”
@Veronica: good girl Veronica, nice to see you up and at it !!
@Eamonn Duggan: Lol “half decent” – I can see you have ultra-high standards of excellence for new development in Cork! It is homogeneous soulless glass commercial development seen in every city from Manchester to Melbourne. Complete failure to pick up on the local characteristics of Cork City.
why am I never surprised to see an Taisce and objection in the same sentence
An Taisce job is to object to everything and anything that’s their remit. It might sound odd but it’s basically a safeguard in the planning system. I’d be worried if An Taisce didn’t have anything to say.
@BlueSkyThinking: That’s an absurd point. They shouldn’t waste everyone’s money objecting unless there is a very valid reason.
I wonder if the accountant firm that objected to vibrations are also worried about competition moving into the new office space that would be created
This development is badly needed. The old tax office is a complete eyesore plus we need both the hotel beds and the employment and economic activity m that it will generate. Drive on and get it done lads.
@mcgoo: the main thing is whether this proposal is better than the tax office. Because the tax office only had an entrance on Sullivan’s Quay, it killed Drinan St, Meade St and Cove St, by creating a useless wall on one side of each street. It would be good if this proposal had entrances to offices and residential space, and preferably even retail space on those streets.
While that old Tax office is a terrible eyesore in the city centre my 2 considerations are :
1. BAM shouldn’t be allowed another brick in Cork until the Event Centre is either scraped or sorted.
2. An underground car back next to the river lee in the city centre. CORK FLOODS. Some genius really thought that one through. Or more likely it’s a requirement for new builds so let the car insurers deal with it. Ah FFS
@Zossima: even in the really bad floods in 2009 Lapp’s Quay car park didn’t flood. If you know you’re in a vulnerable place, it’s not that hard to avoid getting flooded through a combination of raised and sealable entrances.
My concern with the parking is more whether cars should be getting invited into that part of the city at all. It’s all narrow medieval streets around there.
@Zossima: The Hotel opposite the City hall has an underground car park which is next to the river Lee, used it several times without any problems.
@Leonard Barry: Leonard, you do know that flooded so bad the previous owners had to sell it to the current owners? Loads of cars totally written off then. Anyone saying don’t build an underground carpark that close to the river in Cork are 100% correct, especially with increased storms and sea level rise, which whether you believe in Climate Change or not is happening, it’s a stupid idea to build an underground car park that close to the Lee, as stupid as UCC putting expensive paintings in the basement in the Glucksman. Cork City WILL flood badly, it’s a matter of how bad and when, not IF.
@Tony O’Regan: Sorry Leonard, misread that as COUNTY HALL, agh, wish I could delete comment!
In London recently and the centre is turning into a hotch potch of mismatched skyscrapers. If you look at modern cities with lots of skyscrapers they all look the same. Would prefer to see the skyscrapers in one area in Cork near the Elysian and preserve the character of the centre of the city. This location is very visible all the way down the Grand Parade and near the Beamish and Crawford site with its recently discovered Viking settlement.
@carodeer: fair point but what’s proposed isn’t high. It only seems high because Cork, along with the rest of Ireland, is ridiculously low rise so anything higher than 10 floods stands out. That’ll have to change to prevent urban sprawl.
I agree the current yoke of a building is awful. Could the not build something beautiful?
What’s the deal with an Taisce? Do they all suffer from acrophobia or what? All they seem to do is object to tall modern buildings. What a bunch of losers.
@Dj: Tall building buildings aren’t allowed in historic classical cities. Simple as. Venice doesn’t allow them. Cork doesn’t either. Well done An Taisce.
An Taisce should be run out of this country
@Flip off: Wow, the lack of understanding in this comments section is spectacular. It’s just one ido1t after the next going ‘build a skyscraper in the middle of Cork!’
All the idiotic bits of scrap metal that have been put up on Grand Parade have destroyed it anyway. This tower looks good to me. Didn’t Cork County Council break the mould itself with County Hall, Ireland’s tallest building.
@John Considine: Cork County Hall is not (southern) Ireland’s tallest building, The Elysian is the tallest.
@Leonard Barry: it was at the time they built it and for a long time afterwards.
@John Considine: The metal mast lights are supposed to evoke the sails of the ships that once sailed up the street.
This proposal, combined with the convention centre (if it ever happens) are totally wrong for the location and risk turning this historic are of the city into the globalised “concglass boxes “ and traffic that people travel to get away from in search of something unique .
Move this and the convention centre down the river where they belong and would add value. Then build on the unique ‘big town’ feel that people like about Cork city centre by doing what the recent grand parade development did so well.
P.S just because what is there is really bad doesn’t mean we have to settle for slightly better architectural vandalism.
The lack of development and leaving a large building/site unoccupied for so long has attracted antisocial behaviour. The building has had several fires recently. Something has to be done with it, the nimbiest approach doesn’t help.
More ridiculous objections to progress
Shxthole
Not sure why people say the current building is an eyesore. It’s not any worse than other buildings in the centre. It looks half decent. Just not used.
The flight options into and out of Cork are so shit there is no need for more hotel rooms
Of course
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