€700m development proposed to transform Henry Street into ‘Northern Quarter’
RedMum | September 13, 2006Arnotts, a department store in Dublin, is proposing a €700m redevelopment of Henry Street, Liffey Street, O’ Connell Street and Middle Abbey Street into a shopping and residential zone which is being called the ‘Northern Quarter’
Artists impressions of the redevelopment which includes constructing a plaza between Henry Street and Middle Abbey Street, are shown below. The plaza is proposed to contain 47 new shop buildings, 17 cafes, restaurants, bars, apartments and a hotel.
The Evening Herald is reporting that Arnotts has been snapping up properties between Henry Street, the GPO arcade, Middle Abbey Street and Liffey Street in the event their plans are given the go-ahead spending an astonishing €100m. They estimate the works will take place up until 2010.
I have a couple of thoughts on this, while it looks good and sounds exciting, how can a department store decide to redevelop an area this size? Also can we face more works in this area? How many of you remember the ongoing works on Henry Street a few years back where a significant proportion of the street was inaccessible for a pretty long time. Christmas shopping was a nightmare. Or am I just being a kill-joy?
Let us know what you think?
News link: Irish Independent (free subscription required)
    
Arnotts photograph taken by Diarmuid on Flickr
I don’t live in Dublin, you right this project it looks exciting but I think…but is necessery? so big redevelopment? Dunno
Living very near to that area, I think that it would be a nightmare. Isn’t there enough development happening in the Dublin area already? What is the goal of the redevelopment? The area seems nice to me. Well, the part they want to change anyway. I quite like that shopping area. Also, does the city centre really need more restuarants and population density? Isn’t it busy enough and can the area support more restaurants?
I’ve never forgiven Arnotts for demolishing the Lighthouse Cinema. It was a lovely place to go.
I think this is a really neat idea! Dunno why, but it makes me think of something along the lines of the Rockefeller Center in New York! Now, where can we put that ice-rink….
No problem for the photo..I think it is good idea that they are initiating this redevelopment-the area is kinda ugly these days a change for the better I think (even if in the end they are concerned with the bottom line)
[...] This is just wonderful. Via the Dublin Blog, an artists rendering of a proposed development of Dublin’s northside city centre that’s due to be completed in 2010. [...]
Speaking as a northsider, anything that can give the Henry Street area a sprucing up can’t be a bad thing. I’ve always been amazed that somehow, no matter how much they renovate that part of Dublin, it very quickly becomes dirty, ramshackle and just far too functional (in the very worst sense of the term). It’s always seemed to me to be the very poor cousin of Grafton Street, when it came to feelgood factor, even though I understand now that there is more money spent in Henry Street than there is in Grafton St.
Anyhows, speaking of all things developming, did anybody hear about this malarkey some Japanese shower are supposedly intending for Dublin Bay. There’s a promotional video of it here: http://www.dublincoastaldevelopment.com I’ve heard two different things about, the first is that its a spoof (which would seem plausible given they’re banging on at one point about there being a ‘giraffe only zoo’, but by the same token somebody else told me that Charlie Haughey signed off on this about the same time as he lined up the IFSC. Anyone know one way or the other?
Regards,
AE
Hi,
I don’t mean to sound nasty, but I think it’s a stupid idea, there are plenty of Shopping Centres in town, why make it into one BIG huge one? Leave Dublin the way it is and stop trying to make it into “Mini-New York”. We are already losing our European Idenity, now your bull-dozing our landmarks, it’s discusting, there should be a vote on this situation. I mean do Irish people want this Shopping disaster or do Irish people prefer these streets as they are?
It’s all about GREED with these people, it’s obvious they’re doing it for apartments because it’s a good investment for them, WHO CARES what the people THINK!! It’s bad enough with a HUGE hair pin sticking up from the ground of O’Connell Street! I say again “a STUPID idea”!
Regards
Deborah
I cannot believe that they want to replace the beautiful buildings Arnotts occupies now with those concrete lumps shown in the drawings. What an eyesore this would be, not to mention the permanent damage to the landscape of the city.
Why are Dublin City Concil doing this?have they not learnt from the past?Dublin saw the destructuion of hundreds of Both Georgian And Victorian structres rght through from the 1960′s to the 1980′s,where ‘brutalist’ architecture’rampaged its way through the City.This however really accentuates the difference between Fashion And Art,the former comes and goes,the latter remains always beautiful,because there was a differnt underlining Vision present namely ‘simplicity’,Property developers don’t have this in mind nowdays
While i really like Arnotts as a store and as part of the old Dublin the city fathers/majore retailers are under pressure to keep up with out-of-town Dundrum-type developments plus the soon-to-open Victoria Square complex in not very far away any more Belfast (esp at 75p to the €…).
It would also be nice to see the likes of Gap finally opening in the republic at long last etc etc
Dublin has horrible old buildings that are unkept.. I say anything to modernize this place is GOOD!
Seriously some councillers need to get there act together.This isn’t what the City needs at all.It’s being built with the underlining Vision of a Rockafella Centre for Dublin .You can’t embody the atmosphere, vibes and energy of an International city in the guise of a building which is what there trying to do. As for asthetics Look back at Georgian, Victorian and Romanesque Architectue they’re beautiful because they were built with a different underlining vison and they’ve stod the test of time.This will enjoy the same fate as Blanch nd The square and it will be right in the City Centre
I personally think that people should just give up whinging about any new development that has been proposed, it has long become a part of irish culture to unnecessarily deter new development in Ireland. Let developments go ahead, let Ireland become contemporary… the place is stagnant as it is.
Would it really upset you on such a personal level that you feel it wholly and absolutely needless for the “Northern Quarter” to go ahead…