WIT & The Grannary

comeraghs

it was mentioned before that with the Museum of Treasures relocating down to The Mall that WIT Architecture Dept was thinking about moving into the Grannary.

All those extra people in the city centre (together with the fact that the new US Cloudy computer jobs will be in the city centre too) will be great for the city centre.

Anybody know if it´s happening.

it´d be an awful shame to have that building empty.

dayshah

For some reason cloudy computing makes me think of people spending all day on the internet smoking hash in their underpants.

But yeah, the more activity in the centre the better. Katty Barry's is in that Allsop auction with a reserve of €175k. Maybe I should make an offer myself

Lawher

comeraghs wrote: »

it was mentioned before that with the Museum of Treasures relocating down to The Mall that WIT Architecture Dept was thinking about moviing down there.

Anybody know if it´s happening.

TBH WIT can't afford to keep the Good Shepherd in good nick and there is no money for basics, so I don't see them buying another old building.

Anybody know if this was another deal KB done before he left office?:eek:

Sully

The Arch Building is up on Cork Road Campus in prefabs. I believe they got planning permission to build on the site but during construction students will use the Grannary. I assume construction will begin in the summer, but maybe not. That was always my understanding.

As for the Good Shepard - it seems mostly an issue with the whole building being a protected structure that has them not taking any interest in it. The attention seems focused on Cork Road and Carriganore.

I think this was always the case, but things just moved slowly.

Facts

Lawher wrote: »

TBH WIT can't afford to keep the Good Shepherd in good nick and there is no money for basics, so I don't see them buying another old building.

Anybody know if this was another deal KB done before he left office?:eek:

Lawher is correct in relation to WIT not being able to keep up with costs of good shepard but I understand negotiations are ongoing with interested parties on this.

The facts are a deal was done by KB on the granary building but it was a great deal, WIT will rent the building at a nominal rate. Credit to City Council again for the foresight on allowing this to happen, the bigger picture of more students spending money etc. was taken into account.

Lawher

Facts wrote: »

The facts are a deal was done by KB on the granary building but it was a great deal, WIT will rent the building at a nominal rate. Credit to City Council again for the foresight on allowing this to happen, the bigger picture of more students spending money etc. was taken into account.

TBH renting it still seems like a bit of waste with all the buildings WIT already has. I also wouldnt fancy being on the quay so far away from the main campus. even the good shepherd has a SU office and parking. After paying for parking on the quay everyday I wouldnt have spending money.

Sully

Lawher wrote: »

TBH renting it still seems like a bit of waste with all the buildings WIT already has. I also wouldnt fancy being on the quay so far away from the main campus. even the good shepherd has a SU office and parking. After paying for parking on the quay everyday I wouldnt have spending money.

We have no buildings, to the best of my knowledge, which can accommodate them.

MitchKoobski

Lawher wrote: »

TBH renting it still seems like a bit of waste with all the buildings WIT already has. I also wouldnt fancy being on the quay so far away from the main campus. even the good shepherd has a SU office and parking. After paying for parking on the quay everyday I wouldnt have spending money.

Current building is completely unsuitable. It's just a couple of Portacabins thrown together and opened out.

dayshah

Lawher wrote: »

TBH renting it still seems like a bit of waste with all the buildings WIT already has. I also wouldnt fancy being on the quay so far away from the main campus. even the good shepherd has a SU office and parking. After paying for parking on the quay everyday I wouldnt have spending money.

Do you live somewhere like Kilmac or Ballyhale that you need to drive?

It sickens me the number of students who drive from places like Hillview to WIT. You'd swear they didn't have legs.

Lawher

MitchKoobski wrote: »

Current building is completely unsuitable. It's just a couple of Portacabins thrown together and opened out.

Unsuitable? We have classes in the chapel and freeze and in the portacabin where mustic students practice in the next room. It does in the head.:(

My friends on the Humanitiees degree said that their course is moving to the industrial estate. WIT has a building right across the road from the main campus. They think it will be better than the good shepherd.

Anybody know exactly how many buildings WIT owns or rents?

Lawher

dayshah wrote: »

Do you live somewhere like Kilmac or Ballyhale that you need to drive?

It sickens me the number of students who drive from places like Hillview to WIT. You'd swear they didn't have legs.

I live out from town. Most students who drive I think have to because they have parttime jobs, family or cant afford to live closer. Cost of petrol keeps driving down.

dayshah

Lawher wrote: »

I live out from town. Most students who drive I think have to because they have parttime jobs, family or cant afford to live closer. Cost of petrol keeps driving down.

Fair enough. I just remember when I was in WIT there was a girl in my class who would drive from Lismore Park to WIT. The lazy bitch!!!

dashboard_hula

I was at the Mature Student Summer School last week (pause while I light yet another candle in aid of being offered a place in July) and even though I live pretty close to WIT, I drove because I've been doing nightwork for the past few weeks freelancing, and I didn't trust myself to wake up in time to walk in...I was right.
But if I do get offered a place (lights another candle) then I'll be walking in definitely. I got stressed out just finding a place to park when the campus was quiet...I'd hate to see what it's like during the height of term time. Also, cars parked *on* the roundabout near Lismore Park? WTF?

Finnbar01

dayshah wrote: »

Fair enough. I just remember when I was in WIT there was a girl in my class who would drive from Lismore Park to WIT. The lazy bitch!!!

They still do this. It's not a student thing . Overall I've seen parents pull out from Larchville, Lisduggan and Lismore to drop kids off at St Paul's College. And no, the weather was fine and they weren't going to be late.

Cabaal

Though not specifically WIT i think the shortist distance ive seen a student drive was 60metres.

From her house to where she did the course, could never understand how somebody could be so bloody lazy!!

Lawher

I met a man in town today who works at WIT and when I asked he said he knows all about the grannary deal. According to your man it is going to cost over half a million to make the grannary suitable. I said that is a lot of dosh for one year for the new building to go up and he said that they r going to keep it for postgrads. He said a architect in Newtown drew up the plans.

TBH I think rumours are taking legs. I cant see a school of architecture hiring an architect to draw up plans for the grannary lol

Anybody heard anything about it?

Sully

Cant seem them asking a student to do the design, to be fair!

Bards

Sully wrote: »

Cant seem them asking a student to do the design, to be fair!

surely the lecturers must be qualified architects?

Guramoogah

Bards wrote: »

surely the lecturers must be qualified architects?

Oh, they're qualified architects, alright, and their own private businesses are operating out of the city centre, close to the Granary. Double-jobbing bastards.

Lawher

Guramoogah wrote: »

Oh, they're qualified architects, alright, and their own private businesses are operating out of the city centre, close to the Granary. Double-jobbing bastards.

Can lecturers double job? I think some lecturer over in Galway got caught double jobbing and lost both jobs. I dont remember if he was an architect I just remember hearing about the two jobs in two universities and him also being a captain of a golf club.

took awhile but I found article from 2007. lecture worked 8 years at both Athlone & Galway http://www.independent.ie/national-news/lecturer-caught-working-fulltime-for-two-colleges-1245515.html

comeraghs

so can anyone confirm whether this is happening? hope so

ToxicPaddy

Sully wrote: »

Cant seem them asking a student to do the design, to be fair!

A qualified and registered architect must be used when building or renovating buildings and has to sign off on the works at the end of the project to say they are in accordance with the original plans, building regulations in materials used, specifications submitted to the planning authority, cover all areas of safety, fire regulations etc..

So even if the lecturers were qualified architects, they have to be registered with their governing body to be allowed sign off on projects like this.

Yes I agree it could be seen as a bit of a money making racket but an institution like WIT could get into serious trouble if they did it on the cheap and not by the letter of the law. If anything happened with the building later on, their insurance could be invalidated and they could find themselves in some very very serious trouble.

So unfortunately, its just another bitter pill for the tax payer to swallow.. :rolleyes:

merlante

There are pros and cons to inner city locations for college buildings. The cons are that there is no parking. The pros are that in many cases there is no need to buy a car, to live in the middle of nowhere (in order to be able to walk to the building), and the ability to study in the same place that you want to live and socialise.

I assume most students don't have cars. Maybe I'm wrong and all the students have already forked out their parents money to buy cars and would be outraged if they could not park on front of the steps of the building. But assuming that there are any poor students left, inner city locations are going to be on national, regional and local bus routes and the train lines, and therefore are going to be more convenient. The granary is ideal from this point of view.

I think it's a fantastic location and building for the architecture department, which would be closer to the city's significant architectural heritage. There are plenty of universities in inner cities with no parking by the way. Then again, we're getting ridiculously car dependent in this country and very bolshy about people telling us we can't bring our car somewhere or that we might have to pay for parking...

dayshah

I reckon it'd be handy for a student to rent on O'Connell street. They could almost use the wifi from the granary.

Lawher

ToxicPaddy wrote: »

A qualified and registered architect must be used when building or renovating buildings and has to sign off on the works at the end of the project to say they are in accordance with the original plans, building regulations in materials used, specifications submitted to the planning authority, cover all areas of safety, fire regulations etc..

So even if the lecturers were qualified architects, they have to be registered with their governing body to be allowed sign off on projects like this.

If WIT needs planning permission I checked the city planning webpage and could find nothing except something on the main campus.

jamietyoung

It is going ahead. Work has started.
As for the details, I'm not sure. Though the option of having students and then postgrads seems the most likely.
Apart from possible issues with costing, it seems like a great idea. City centre needs as much life as possible.
And the Newtown architect? Probably CJ Falconers, who are based in the Newtown area. They get a lot of government / institutional work.

dayshah

My first preference would be for WIT to by the W Crystal site, and have everything together. However, I think the granary is a good 2nd best. I'd rather be there than out in Carriganore.