Cork developments

Love these drone vids. Sounds like the core of the Sextant site building will top out pretty quickly. One continuous pour? Cripes. 😲

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https://www.corkbeo.ie/news/local-news/watch-tallest-building-ireland-taking-33681543

I just assumed the Obel tower in Belfast would remain as the tallest because its 27 floors versus 25 for the Railyard building …

Beamish Counting House is due to become the new central library for Cork!

https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/munster/arid-41843181.html

Not gonna lie, this is the best possible outcome in my eyes. The building is there, it’s brand new, huge and effectively an empty canvas. And putting the library there will bring some much needed activity into that part of South Main Street!

Just do yourselves a favour and don’t check the Facebook comments under the articles. The ones most in need of a library’s services seem to be the ones least receptive to them 🤯

That's literally the tenor of some of those comments 😤

Permanent. The Counting House will be the new library, with vastly improved facilities. The current building will be repurposed, though the exact nature of that new purpose is as of yet unclear.

The new library will be the old library by the time they build the event center.

Well it is a state-of-the-art office building that is already kitted out with HVAC, lifts, electrical, and all the other stuff you'd expect. That was never going to be cheap. It's still a whole lot cheaper than a new build.

Also, whilst some changes will need to be made to create special climate-controlled areas for the reference section to house historic books, manuscripts, etc., and the glass facades will likely need to be modified to prevent UV bleaching of books, those changes should be comparatively minor. It won't be overnight, I'd say we're looking at 2-3 years until the new library opens, but it's a hell of a lot faster than having to find a sight, acquire it, decide on the architectural features, get planning permission and deal with the inevitable backlash and get it built, which would probably take upwards of five, possibly up to ten years.

I know. The plans have gotta go through public consultation first though, this being a public project. So that's gonna have an effect on the timescale, and not in a good way. To be frank with you, any large public project of that scale that starts now and opens before 2030 is a major win in my book.