https://twitter.com/JTPHealy/status/1751240147838894327?t=zhZjc7rZzSM8E8VAMdZwmA&s=19
BAM had to have dedicated staff with all the protective gear to clean up all the used needles out of that site and Horgan's Quay, the council put them under pressure to demolish it as it was Junkie-town and they were starting fires too. Anybody who actually lives there would have been happy to see it gone.
Some people have such a selective memory, I'm sure that guy on twitter is happy to object to the flood relief scheme in the city center too as it wont look nice from his house outside of the areas that get flooded 10 times a year 🙄
What's the story with the building in the foreground of that photo ?
Every time I'm in Cork I pass and think both the building and location are ripe for development. Would be amazing to shift Marina Market over to there.
Site will be sold soon according to a poster on skyscraper city
I don't know why you are talking about Horgan's Quay 🤷
That sounds like a made up story to me. That building was in use with security for years. There were no junkies in the building or car park. I know, I was in it lots of times. There used to be gatherings of people on the footpaths outside the building, in public areas. You don't demolish a building because people congregate outside it!
Now, it is possible that after they evicted all the artists, prior to demolition that junkies moved in but that building functioned extremely well for years providing much needed arts space in the city. Nothing selective about my memory regarding that building, at all!
I'm not going to address yours flood relief whataboutry. It's not relevant.
Thats the old bonded warehouses. There's an on again/off again big development plan for that site, which once included a 40 story tower!
Took me all of 3 mins to find this and I've seen the survey photos of what the inside looked like before demolition so 🤷♂️
A building becoming derilict and it's owners not securing it is not the fault of the building nor a reason to demolish it. There could be all sorts of legitimate reasons to demolish a building but this certainly isn't one of them.
If city hall fell into disuse and became a home for addicts, would your solution be to demolish the building? What about Saint Finbarr's?
There was no problem with unwanted people in the building when it was in use. The building wasn't the problem, its deriliction was. Does that really need explaining?
I'm normally pretty good at seeing both sides of an argument but I honestly have no idea what you are trying to argue and it seems you have delved into the realms of ridiculousness to try and make some case, maybe you should ask the government who moved their tax office out of it instead of "saving" it, the council who gave BAM permission to demolish it or the home owners who are happy not to be living next to Junkie-town anymore?
I'm pretty sure there is a strong Venn diagram of "People who objected to BAMs original plans for the site holding up development until it became nonviable" and "People who are now giving out about the site not being used"
I'm going to leave it here as I've genuinely no clue what you are on about, either.
My only point was that, I liked the building and it was well used for years. It's just an opinion.
I think the point some postets are making is that the "tax office" on sulluvans quay had 3 phases, government offices - followed by art studios - followed by dereliction ,
It was demolished because it was derelict - it was derelict because the building was closed and security staff gotten rid of .
For BAM it suited them to demolish the building and have an empty site - they took steps to get to that ..
Okay well that's a fair enough point but BAM never had any plans other than to demolish it as far as I know, they were the ones who let it be used as an art studio while planning went through and it didn't actually suit them to demolish it at the time as it was costing them nothing to leave it sitting there until they were ready to finance the new build, it was the council and fire brigade who wanted it gone.
Cant really blame BAM for not wanting to fork over thousands a year for full site security to an empty building when they had the perimeter secured and lads kept breaking in anyway, there are junkies and homeless all over the city streets that no-one seems to be able to stop either so it wasn't some grand conspiracy to get rid of it even though I know in the past there have been some suspicious fires around Cork such as St Kevins that made it potentially a lot easier for a developer to buy up and move in as most of the historic elements were gone!
Some nice drone footage of progress at Camden place
I had no grá for that building at all, but it seems to me that it was better for everyone when it was in-use as an art space than it is now, demolished. There seems to be a big desire by some developers to demolish sites quickly and not progress development. If I were a suspicious person, I would suspect that vacant property rates could be more expensive than a derelict site with no property. We need more fines for this type of white collar antisocial behaviour IMO.
Okay but it was Revenue that sold it to BAM all the way back in 2006 so id guess they paid top money for that site and leaving it idle for so long is bad business for BAM too.
I get people liked it, for me it was run down building that wasn't even interesting enough for the most boring of professions - tax collectors - to be worth trying to refurbish it.
I'm sure the council could have gotten a good deal on it from Revenue but didn't want it either and were more than happy to grant permission for it to be demolished. I never stepped foot inside it when BAM let it be used as an art space but I cant imagine it was close to complying with modern fire or building regulations and would have not been cheap to heat.
Lets be honest if the building was in good condition BAM would have just refurbished it into offices or apartments, was probably full of asbestos too.
So yeah I wouldn't consider waiting over 10 years to demolish it as being "quickly" and lets be clear BAM had full planning permission to knock it as and when they pleased.
I mean if people are going to get up in arms about sites not being used id focus that on your tax payer funded public bodies, HSE let St Kevin's sit there since 2002!
And who would you expect to pick up the costs of running/maintaining the building as an art centre
The city council suspends rates for these buildings, arts grants from city and national arts bodies cover some of the running costs and the rest need to be generated by the artists themselves, that's how these have run previously. The National Sculpture factory runs this way, "Camden Palace" ran this way and lots of other do too. The building stays in ownership of the developer, and unfortunately they obviously need to appoint a building manager, so that is a cost on them for sure.
Oh it's not either/or for me, don't get me wrong: St Kevins is/was terrible.
A county one that I pass regularly is Coláiste Losagáin in Ballyvourney, it's a real disgrace that it's being left to ruin. We need to increase vacant property and building rates, try and encourage better use of spaces like these.
I'm not for a second arguing that the Fás building should have been kept: I found it ugly personally. I just hate that so much of the city centre is vacant lots, where previous buildings were demolished.
SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh it is.
They’ve started clearing the ground of the old nemo site recently. Hopefully the foxes got out ok
Since we"re on site clearing and (supervalu) pairc ui caoimhe , is the site where the marquee used to be just being cleaned up and cleared , or is it the start of development?
Start of development according to local media.
Great video by Dronehawk on the background to the R&H Hall building
Excellent, thanks for posting.
Has the ESB ever mentioned what they intend to do with the marina power-station site , i doubt they'll ever use it again ,
Its an imposing building, but i assume the clean up of both the building and the site could be fairly complex,
It'd open up the quays all the way to the marina though ....
After seeing what Diageo did with their small plant, in the James's site, I'd really love that building kept.
Orders of magnitude size difference but it could be a fantastic job
People love the arts and arts festivals but at the same time expect artists to work for peanuts from their parents house...not take up valuable property space, and have a "proper job" as well..
Apparently the internals of the building dont really suit , its a lattice of re- enforced concrete internally supporting the building.. kinda like a milk crate ,
Who-ever said that could be way off ,
Cork's Battersea😎
Supposedly ESB were in talks with LDA for use for housing.
https://lda.ie/uploads/documents/230323_LDA_Ministers-Report-on-Relevant-Public-Land_high-res-resized_2023-03-28-105049_jooh.pdf
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