St. Patrick s Street Development Brief Bardas Chorcai Cork Corporation August 2001
Contents Introduction and background The Development Brief Area Protected and valuable buildings Urban context Objectives and options Objectives Options and opportunities Guidelines Land use Urban grain/urban design Building heights Architecture Traffic Public Realm Appendix i) Pedestrian links/public spaces ii) Protected and valuable structures 3 4 5 6 7 7 7 8 8 8 8 9 10 10 11 12 14 1
St. Patrick s Street Development Brief Introduction and background The City Council wishes to enable Cork City Centre to maintain its role as the primary location for comparison-shopping in the region. Variation of The City Development Plan Objective of the Development Brief On the 29 th January 2001 the City Council varied the City Development plan, in regard to an area between Academy Street, Emmett Place/Drawbridge Street and St. Patrick s Street as an area of renewal. The main objective of this development brief is to facilitate redevelopment for higher order retail, especially comparison shopping, in this area. Location of the area The heart of the City centre shopping area The area in question is located very centrally in the heart of the City centre shopping area. In the immediate vicinity are located Paul Street Shopping Centre and Merchants Quay Shopping Centre as well as a number of large retailers Brown Thomas, Roche s Stores and specialist retailers such as Meadows & Byrne and Easons. Leisure, Entertainment and Arts also have a focus in the area with Cork Opera House, Crawford Municipal Gallery, nightclubs, pubs and restaurants located nearby. In essence this is a prime location for retail activity within Cork City Centre, and the Greater Cork area. 106-110 St. Patrick s St 102-105 St. Patrick s St 92-101 St. Patrick s St 105-92 St. Patrick s St 2
The area covers 4 blocks, 2-5 storeys high, divided by 3 laneways The Development Brief area The area for the development brief is made up of 3 blocks plus a part of a 4 th divided by a series of three lane ways. The buildings are generally 3 and 4 stories in height. At the Emmett Place/Drawbridge Street side the buildings are 2-3 storeys high. At the St. Patrick s Street side the buildings are 3-5 storeys high. The Savoy building, formerly a cinema, is conspicuous due to its height and bulk. It has a large gable onto William Street, one of the aforementioned laneways. Usage Building quality Public Realm The current uses are a mix of retail, offices and other commercial and some residential. There is also some vacancy and a good deal of storage particularly on 2 nd and 3 rd floors. The quality of buildings in the area is good with a number of protected structures and other buildings with heritage value. The Savoy building was recently refurbished. The public realm has been much improved with large-scale improvements completed in Emmett Place. These pedestrian areas at Crawford Municipal Gallery and Cork Opera House represent an attractive urban environment. 3
Protected structures at Emmett Place and St. Patrick s Street Valuable buildings Protected and valuable buildings The area contains several, very valuable buildings, of which some are listed in the City Development Plan as protected structures:- Emmett Place no. 11; St. Patrick s Street nos. 92-93 and no. 101. A number of buildings are considered valuable, although not listed. The retention of these buildings, described in the attached appendix, will contribute to the overall quality of the urban environment and every effort should be made to retain and incorporate them in any development. Protected structures and valuable facades and buildings 11 Emmett Place Irish Examiner building 92-93 St. Patrick s St. 99-101 St. Patrick s St. 4
Urban context The main shopping districts of the city are located adjacent to an east west axis from Merchant s Quay to North Main Street/Grand Parade and including Oliver Plunkett Street, St. Patrick s Street and Castle Street-Paul Street and St. Patrick s Street. The Development Brief area is located at the centre of this area. Surrounding this core are significant parking facilities particularly multi-storey car parks. Given this location pedestrian access plays a crucial role in movement within the area. The fact that the Development Brief area is located adjacent to two of the most important cultural institutions of the city, the Crawford Municipal Gallery and Cork Opera House at Emmett Place, underlines the importance of providing adequate pedestrian movement. The presence of several protected structures within the area indicates the historic and architectural significance of this area. Academy Street 9-11 Emmett Place Academy Street 5
Objectives and Options Objectives The main objectives for this area are:- To facilitate redevelopment for higher order retail, especially comparison shopping To create a new retail precinct facilitating improved pedestrian movement within the area and through the area, linking the Emmett Place cultural district with the city s main shopping precinct at St. Patrick s Street. To retain and reinforce the existing framework of lanes and blocks. To strengthen pedestrian links between St. Patrick s Street and Emmett Place/Drawbridge Street To retain protected structures and other buildings considered to be important parts the urban environment To ensure that new buildings are compatible with the architectural character in this part of the city in regard to height and design. To encourage positive contribution to the urban qualities in this part of the city Development opportunities Options and opportunities Except for the constraints given by the presence of protected structures and valuable buildings and the urban framework, any site within the area suitable is suitable for renewal or redevelopment. Many buildings within the area are of a high technical and/or architectural quality and can very well be reused for different purposes or simply retained as they are. The diagrams below show, in principle, some different options for creating public spaces and improved pedestrian movement within/through the area. To the left, a wider pedestrian street (Faulkner s Lane) provides new public space. To the right, a new square between two existing lanes provides a new public space. Pedestrian movement and public places 6
Guidelines The following guidelines will apply for development and change of land-use within the Development Brief area. Land-use The objective is to facilitate redevelopment for higher order retail purposes (i.e. department stores) and to retain/achieve live frontages and active uses on main streets and laneways at ground floor level. Cafés and restaurants and other special retail outlets could be located mainly onto the lanes. The preferred categories of use are: Higher order retail purposes, especially comparison-shopping. Cafés and restaurants Entertainment, cultural purposes Offices, excluding ground floors Urban Grain / Urban Design In principle the present subdivision of the area into four blocks and three streets/lanes should be retained. New structures facing St. Patrick s Street, Academy Street, Emmett Place/Drawbridge and Faulkner s Lane should be compatible with existing, adjacent structures in regard to heights and detailing of the façades. An opportunity should be taken to provide public open space in the area, for instance by widening Faulkner s Lane or creating a new square within the area. Provision should be made for east-west pedestrian movement either by new laneways or internal routes through buildings. Building heights Building heights should be compatible with adjacent buildings New buildings should generally be built to a height as indicated on the map below. 7
Architecture Façades onto St. Patrick s Street and the lanes should generally be modulated/subdivided at intervals of maximum 5-10 metres. Wider frontages could be considered for certain sites fronting Academy Street and Emmett Place. Existing building lines should generally be continuous along St. Patrick s Street and Academy Street. The window to wall ratio should be compatible with the existing façades onto St. Patrick s Street and Academy Street. External finishes should reflect traditional painted plaster finishes Façades should be detailed/compatible with a pedestrian scale. Plant rooms and lifts should not appear above roofline and should be designed into the roof space. Special effort should be addressed to designing roof profiles. 8
Pedestrian and vehicular movement Traffic The main traffic routes will be St. Patrick s Street and Academy Street. The laneways will be mainly for pedestrian use, but delivery will be facilitated during restricted hours. A comprehensive management strategy for deliveries and servicing will be a requirement of any development proposals. This should provide for off peak deliveries and servicing in vehicles of a size suitable for the narrow streets/lanes. Large articulated trucks would not be compatible with this objective. Parking A considerable amount of parking spaces is available within a 5 min. walking distance of the Development Brief area. New car parks within the area are not considered compatible with the vision for the pedestrian flow in the area. Public Realm The central part of the city has conspicuous urban qualities and offers a wide range of facilities, services and activities and has great potential for further development and improvements. The architecture and urban design standards in St. Patrick s Street, Academy Street and Emmett Place are essential parts of this high quality urban environment. The recent improvements of Emmett Place and the planned repairing of St. Patrick s Street set high standards for public realm finishes in this area. The same standards should apply for new development and public realm finishes. Emmett Place 9
Appendices 10
Improved pedestrian link: Faulkner s Lane connecting the cultural district at Emmett Place to the St. Patrick s Street retail precinct. i) Pedestrian links/public spaces Renewal and redevelopment in this area provides an opportunity to create improved pedestrian links and public spaces. This can be achieved by widening existing lanes or by creating courtyards between the lanes. The following sketches illustrates a new urban space created by widening Faulkner s Lane, thus improving the pedestrian link from Cork Opera House to St. Patrick s Street. Renewal and redevelopment in the area provides an opportunity to create an attractive urban space as an entrance to new shopping facilities. 11
View through Faulkner s Lane from the south towards Crawford Art Galley: New buildings with shops and cafés in both sides of the street (here approx. 10 metres wide). A new street profile could provide a pleasant urban environment with trees and activities like cafés, entertainment etc. Faulkner s Lane represents a natural extension of the pedestrian areas at Emmett Place. 12
ii) Protected structures and valuable buildings Protected structures 11 Emmett Place 92-93 St. Patrick Street 99-101 St. Patrick Street Protected structures (listed buildings) Brick-fronted house with pedimented central bays, windows with moulded limestone cills, and high pitched roof. It is typical of its period, dating from the very early eighteenth century. The building is listed for protection in the 1998 City Development Plan. Pair of four-storey houses merchants houses, built in the mid to late eighteenthcentury before the river channel was culverted and filled in. The main entrance to the houses are on the first floor, accessed by stone steps, with the entrance to the former stores underneath. The buildings are listed for protection in the 1998 City Development Plan. Three Bow fronted four-storey commercial buildings dating from the late eighteenth-century. This house type is typical of Cork, but very unusual elsewhere in Ireland. No. 101 has been altered and now gives access to the ground and first floor of the former Methodist Church on Bowling Green Street that has been linked into the shop fronting St. Patrick s Street. No. 101 is listed for protection in the 1998 City Development Plan. 13
iii) Valuable buildings (Buildings of Architectural Merit) Valuable buildings 15 Emmett Place Three-storey pub forming the corner between Emmett Place and Bowling Green St. Simple but attractive building with timber sash windows, plastered façade and slated roof. Gable-fronted stone warehouse, Emmett Place Emmett Place/Academy Street Irish Examiner Buildings, Academy Street Attractive stone façade, typical of the smaller industrial and warehouse buildings of Cork, and an important part of the setting of no. 11 Emmett Place. Mid-twentieth-century classical commercial building in decorative cast concrete, of two-storeys, with shops at street level and one floor of storage or commercial use above. The façade is attractive and unusual for Cork, but is let down by the inappropriate, later, canopy and shopfronts along Academy St. The scale and composition of its façade provide an appropriate setting for the important house at no. 11 Emmett Place. Twentieth-century three-storey building with unusual brick-facade with roundheaded windows to second floor with attractive mosaic panels. Adjoining it is a later five-storey building in a modern style, dating from the 1950s or 60s. Both facades are of interest for their architectural merit and for their different but complementary architectural styles. 14
94-95 St. Patrick Street This is a three-storey three bay building, in its present form dating from the middle of the nineteenth-century, when it was where the Examiner newspaper was founded. 98 St. Patrick Street Restrained late Georgian building, typical of its time, of four-storeys with camberheaded window openings set in a plain plastered façade. 102-105 St. Patrick Street Attractive and lively plastered façades, dating from various periods, eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth-centuries, varied but complementary, now fronting a largely reconstructed single department store. 106-107 St. Patrick Street Attractive pair of late nineteenth-century commercial buildings now forming Quill s drapery shop. There are decorative plaster window surrounds, string courses and cornices on façades, typical of the Victorian and Edwardian architecture of the time, and in contrast to the restraint of the Georgian period as shown by 98 St. Patrick St. 108 St. Patrick Street, former Savoy Cinema Striking terracotta art deco façade, to a large former cinema, stretching between St. Patrick St., William St. and Drawbridge St. It was built in the 1930s of terracotta, copper-clad canopy and originally with steel-framed windows. It is now a shopping and entertainment complex. 15