Waterford eye sores

magick

Well i can add my old house its the rats nest beside the Aldi in the Glen, when they knock it, id hate to people living around it.

Now this is not to mock the city, but to just point out glaring eye sores that would be better off never leaving the paper of the city planners desk.

But anyway heres mine........ 1

The Space Odyssey monolith (in the movie it attracted monkeys, the same way the one in Waterford attracted scumbags ). Now i do love fountains, i think they really add something to a city but this one, i honestly dont know what its for or what they were thinking of when they put it up.

2 Sam McCauleys Metal Bus stop thing, I really dont see the point in this, if anything i find it clogs up the street, now i think it was ment for info for people visiting the town, but isnt that what a tourist info center is for?

3 The brewery as ur coming over the bridge, i dont know about any of you, but if you have ever seen a modded pc case with a window in it, this is exactly what it looks like. Personally i think they could have done better.

Xyo

Jury/Ard ri.

Those grain silos near Jurys/Ard ri.

The train station is pretty ugly too.

JohnC.

I don't mind the brewery.

That monstrosity on the North Quays needs disposing of though.

magick

Kahless wrote: »

I don't mind the brewery.

That monstrosity on the North Quays needs disposing of though.

if u mean the grain silos, when they knock it i hope the locals have invested in a lot of rat traps

johnnyq

Hmm...
1. Train Station
2. North Quay Mills
3. New Shopping Centre beyond Ferrybank jutting out onto the road
4. The Grattan
5. Red Iron
6. Bus Station
7. Old Crane on the Quay
8. Half Finished Appartment Block on GraceDieu Ring Road
9. Old Esso Garage opposite Riverside Apartments
10. Brown Glass Factory Building

There's more... But I do like the rest of the city I sware

JohnC.

What's The Grattan?

Aquos76

opposite the bridge hotel(days hotel)

fricatus

magick wrote: »

2 Sam McCauleys Metal Bus stop thing, I really dont see the point in this, if anything i find it clogs up the street, now i think it was ment for info for people visiting the town, but isnt that what a tourist info center is for?

Waste of space, waste of money, and it destroys the view down Broad St, John Roberts Square and Barronstrand St.

magick wrote: »

3 The brewery as ur coming over the bridge, i dont know about any of you, but if you have ever seen a modded pc case with a window in it, this is exactly what it looks like. Personally i think they could have done better.

You're speaking my language. This monstrosity is also at one of the very most sensitive sites in the city, and it looks ugly and industrial - two things we're really trying to leave behind. Worse, it belches out loads of steam, and while that may be quite clean, it looks absolutely horrible to have that in the city centre. And we want to market ourselves as a tourist destination?

A mate of mine from Dublin had occasion to be in Waterford on business recently, and while he's been here more times since and really warmed to the place, he was very scathing on his first visit, describing it as "sorry man, but it's a f***ing kip". And the things he pointed out were the industrial decay around Bilberry, the brewery and the pylons.

mike65

I think those grain silos are there for good. Wasn't there something about the sheer weight of concrete being a hazzard if they tried to bring them down?

Mike.

Cabaal

Old Crane on the Quay has been done up recently and the council would be foolish to knock it down, its part of history and should be cept, the brewery when your coming over the bridge ain't that bad looking....in fairness its a industrial area and it could look much much worse.

Waterford would do well do bury the esb lines and remove the pylons and redevolpe the train station as well as all the old scrap yards down past the brewery

Jor

Kahless I don't mind the brewery.

The brewery is OK itself.
However, CIE want to put in a nearly identical building as the new railway station. That would be unforgivable.

BBM77

The old ESB building on The Mall is the biggest eye sore in Waterford by far. Not so much the building but its placement. Allowing it to be built there was an act of vandalism on a historical Georgian street. It is way out of scale with the street and generally just unsuitable. Shame on the planner who gave it permission. :mad:

magick

Cabaal wrote: »

Old Crane on the Quay has been done up recently and the council would be foolish to knock it down, its part of history and should be cept, the brewery when your coming over the bridge ain't that bad looking....in fairness its a industrial area and it could look much much worse.

Waterford would do well do bury the esb lines and remove the pylons and redevolpe the train station as well as all the old scrap yards down past the brewery

agreed, id keep the crane as it is part of the history of the quay, however the proposed trainstation building looks more like an enemies base from Halo than a train station, if only they could do something along the lines of the old station we used to have.

The Pox

In general I think all the car parks are pretty ugly along the quay, I was coing up with an architectural masterstroke a while ago to build a new level above the existing carparks (effectively making them underground) and have a really long park/gardens/seating most of the way along the quay! There are several reasons why that will never happen both political and engineering.
I used to drive people down from Dublin airport nearly every week (mos tof whom were from UK or further afield and it always suprised how many of them thought the view down the quay at night was really pretty and loved that first view of Waterford as ya come over the bridge.
Don't know how anyone else hasn't mentioned it already but almost every housing estate in Waterford is ugly. No individuality and no personality and stupid names on the streets.

Cabaal

Ballybrickenman wrote: »

The old ESB building on The Mall is the biggest eye sore in Waterford by far. Not so much the building but its placement. Allowing it to be built there was an act of vandalism on a historical Georgian street. It is way out of scale with the street and generally just unsuitable. Shame on the planner who gave it permission. :mad:

But it was "progress" in much the same the train station was (replacing a much nicer building) and the same as railway square is now along with many other "progressive" building projects :rolleyes:

There being built for the "modern" waterford....

Cabaal

The Pox wrote: »

In general I think all the car parks are pretty ugly along the quay, I was coing up with an architectural masterstroke a while ago to build a new level above the existing carparks (effectively making them underground) and have a really long park/gardens/seating most of the way along the quay! There are several reasons why that will never happen both political and engineering.
I used to drive people down from Dublin airport nearly every week (mos tof whom were from UK or further afield and it always suprised how many of them thought the view down the quay at night was really pretty and loved

At night as your coming from the Limerick/Kilkenny road side the view of Waterford as your coming upto trhe bridge is pretty nice to be honest....its well lite.

However the carparks on the quays look awful and messy, I'd have to agree that garden areas with small kiosk like units that could sell coffee, newspapers etc would look much nicer and would make the area much more pleasant as well as providing services to people.

Of course the problem with this is the number of cars and where do you put them, so until that is solved or much better public transport can cut down on numbers then this isn't going to happen :mad:

magick

Cabaal wrote: »

At night as your coming from the Limerick/Kilkenny road side the view of Waterford as your coming upto trhe bridge is pretty nice to be honest....its well lite.

However the carparks on the quays look awful and messy, I'd have to agree that garden areas with small kiosk like units that could sell coffee, newspapers etc would look much nicer and would make the area much more pleasant as well as providing services to people.

Of course the problem with this is the number of cars and where do you put them, so until that is solved or much better public transport can cut down on numbers then this isn't going to happen :mad:

it would be a nice idea, except for a few things.............

1 money, if it doesnt generate money i dont think they will build it

2 the Waterford Soviet planners, anything and i mean anything that makes it from the city planners desk to the city ends up looking like something from the Soviet Union within an hour of its completion.

3 Waterford suffers from a really bad case of the "ahh Fcuk it!" syndrome, dont know what im talking about? let me explain

1 They built a roundabout that couldnt support large trucks , the builders said "ahh fcuk it!"

2 the multi story car park that was built too small for cars too pass each other "ahh fcuk it!"

3 Our lovely "new" bridge that was completed then collapsed into the river, the collective population shouted......"ahh fcuk it"

i could name other examlples, however waterford is not the only city with this condition, remember the port tunnel ?

Cabaal

magick wrote: »

3 Our lovely "new" bridge that was completed then collapsed into the river, the collective population shouted......"ahh fcuk it"

i could name other examlples, however waterford is not the only city with this condition, remember the port tunnel ?

Which "new" bridge?

mike65

The current bridge, a section (the left hand side I think, (as you leave town)) ended up in the Suir.

The old bridge had character.

Mike.

magick

Cabaal wrote: »

Which "new" bridge?

the existing bridge we have at the moment, short time after its completion, a part of it collapsed into the river

Roen

It wasn't in place at the time, it just fell off the barge/crane as it was being lifted into place.
I remember seeing all the sections of it sail past me down the junior side of De La Salle as they shipped them upstream to the construction site.

JohnC.

I remember seeing it in the river. It wasn't complete at the time, but being lifted into place during construction.

greatgoal

ahh fcuk it

road_high

The old one defo had class:

http://www.051.ie/forum/viewtopic.php?start=0&t=63

Bit like London Tower Bridge in a way. Should have been left in place and second bridge been built upstream as per what is being built right now.

blue-army

That place next to Statoil on the Dunmore Road...

The old Maxoil by Ballinakill Downs..

Freddie59

Roen wrote: »

It wasn't in place at the time, it just fell off the barge/crane as it was being lifted into place.
I remember seeing all the sections of it sail past me down the junior side of De La Salle as they shipped them upstream to the construction site.

Spot on. No health & safety in the mid-80s. One of the four steel hausers snapped. It could have taken the heads off people. At the time the Barge Crane which carried out the work also tore down two of the ESB cables going between the Mount Misery pylons, blacking out half the city and plunging them into the river. He sailed with the jib still up.

Regarding the character of the old bridge it was falling to pieces. I know. I worked under it. It was terryfing to see up close. IT would have been next in the river if it hadn't been replaced.

KingLoser

Tis a shame it wasn't restored instead of replaced though.

Crazy about the wire, how long before they had ye back workin again after that?

brendansmith

blue-army wrote: »

That place next to Statoil on the Dunmore Road...

Waterford Agricultural Salvage,

I like that being there, alot of memories!

JMcL

Ballybrickenman wrote: »

The old ESB building on The Mall is the biggest eye sore in Waterford by far. Not so much the building but its placement. Allowing it to be built there was an act of vandalism on a historical Georgian street. It is way out of scale with the street and generally just unsuitable. Shame on the planner who gave it permission. :mad:

Welcome to the world of the 1950's/60's Civil Service planning permissions. Errr... sorry, they didn't actually need any, which is why the most ugly buildings around the country tend to be Eircom exchanges of that era, followed closely by anything built by the ESB. Environmental Impact Statement, pshaw... they weren't even gleams in anybody's eye when those bunkers were built.

JMcL

magick wrote: »

the existing bridge we have at the moment, short time after its completion, a part of it collapsed into the river

I recently saw some photos of the concrete piles under the flyover heading from the roundabout at the end of the bridge out to the N9 over the railway track, and they're in a really shocking state. I presume (hope?) that from an engineering point of view they're still sound enough, but scary nonetheless!

blue-army

brendansmith wrote: »

Waterford Agricultural Salvage,

I like that being there, alot of memories!

Yeah, but the place is literally falling down...Looks out of place..