• WATERFORD CITY CENTRE REGENERATION

Waterford is the principal and largest urban centre in Irelandʼs south-east and the fifth largest city in the State. Project Ireland 2040 National Planning Framework (NPF) sets out a number of key growth enablers for Waterford City which include the delivery of the North Quays regeneration project, public realm and urban amenity projects, focused on streets and public spaces in the city centre; provision of Citywide public transport and strategic cycleway networks; and the extension of the Waterford greenway to link WIT to the City Centre. When delivered these growth enablers will build on the already considerable work undertaken by the City and County Council in reimagining the city centre.

In May 2020, WCCC collaborated with WIT in proposing a project to the URDF (Urban Regeneration Development Fund) which has now attracted nearly 28M of government funding into the heart of Waterford. Our proposal is focussed on transforming the historic city centre.

The proposal brings together a number of partners with match funding including the Dept of the Housing, Local Government & Heritage, the NTA, WIT and the private sector. WCCC will contribute nearly 2.5M. Nearly E50 M of total investment will be generated.

Michael Quinn, Director of Services, Economic Development & Planning at WCCC said that “Waterford stands at a step change in its development which will act to position the City as a model for people centred, environmentally sustainable urban design. The City is continually changing and can be the agent of learning and progress through a coming together of artistic creativity, leading edge technology and high quality architecture. We believe that Waterford can be an exemplar micro city, and it has already the highest proportion of upgraded public realm relative to its size anywhere in the country. With the completion of the new bridge at the Clock Tower, the retail spine will reach an unprecedented 1km of pedestrian friendly high quality public realm. Building on its reputation for high quality design, engineering and innovation, this proposal will build in resilience to combat vulnerability to shifts in global economic trends, be sustainable into future & attract private investment”.

Vice President for Strategy at WIT, Dr Richard Hayes, said: "WIT greatly welcomes the funding awarded through the URDF and looks forward to playing its part in the various projects. The funding endorses very strongly the proposition that Waterford can be Ireland's Innovation Capital and in the shape of the Smart Cities hub and the Creative Industries Incubation Lab, with which WIT is most closely associated, we see great additions to the infrastructure in the city to create high-tech, high-value employment and economic activity."

The proposal comprises 22 diverse projects including parks and gardens, new and upgraded streets, mixed tenure residential, studio and galleries, co-working spaces, innovation hubs and community facilities.

Through a series of thoughtful interventions, the project will deliver a thriving and sustainable city centre, with healthy, happy and more inclusive communities. The project will fill voids in the existing urban form, developing underutilised, vacant and derelict properties, vacant sites and unlock back lands. It will build on the significant work already completed in the Viking Triangle, Cultural Quarter and city centre public realm. Over the last 4 years, WCCC has secured nearly 150M under the Project Ireland 2040.

Rupert Maddock, Senior Architect, said “Our vision is to return to a people centric city based on its ancient streets and spaces, to become ʻThe most liveable city in Irelandʼ, one where people are empowered to have a stake in their city and local community. The city core will be returned to its previous role as an environment in which to live, work and play, like the city used to be for 100ʼs of years. However, the proposal does not mark a nostalgic effort to recover what has been lost from Waterfordʼs past but for it to be re-imagined as a 15 minute vibrant city where all your needs including shopping, work, and amenities all in close proximity. A sustainable, dynamic and resourceful City where people will seek to live, work, invest, experience and socialize, as a matter of choice. The City evolved and exists to support its citizens, and as Irelandʼs oldest city we have drawn on the story of our past to help shape our future”.

Waterford will soon be the centre of a green transformation connecting the City to its region by a network of 3 major greenways. The city centre will be terminus of these greenways, a ʻWalkableʼ city at the heart of a sustainable network. The public realm is the ʻliving roomʼ of the City, shared by all and open to a dynamic range of uses including ease of mobility, events and creative displays.

The project aims to create a resilient economy based on innovation, creativity and a knowledge intensive base that can empower its citizens. Smart Cities and Communities initiatives involves exploiting the most advanced communication technologies—in particular in the areas of energy, transport and ICT - to support added-value services for the city, community and citizen. The City will position itself as a centre for experimentation in new forms of business and enterprise, retail, creative activity, community, working and living.

This development will mobilise the citizenry in support of innovative, transformational change, the City becomes a test bed for new technologies. The Cultural Quarter, as the intersection of creativity and technology, will encourage the best of both worlds working together and mutually

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supporting one another. The public realm is conceived of as an open creative space, a kind of office without walls.

We are concentrating our projects on two of the cityʼs quarters: the Viking Triangle and Cultural Quarter. Substantial work has already been carried out in the Viking Triangle and the Cultural Quarter is at an earlier stage of its evolution. The city retail spine which separates these two quarters will benefit by their economic revival.

All projects are bound together and given meaning by improved public realm. Exciting schemes for OʼConnell Street and the Beach Tower anchor the Cultural Quarter projects. Likewise, a new Friary Square and linear park along Spring Garden Alley form the basis for the Viking Triangle projects. A lost street, ʻJenkins Laneʼ, will be re-instated and a major new plaza will bring life back to the south quays. In addition, pocket parks will orient activity at the scale of the fine urban grain.

The projects are mixed use and create new nodes. In the Cultural Quarter, a cluster around the proposed Beach Tower Plaza and OʼConnell St. brings smart data alongside the Chamber of Commerce, new artisan studios, workshops and education spaces adjacent to Garter Lane Art Centre. Not to forget the side streets, an art studio with residential accommodation, digital co-working studios and a pocket park will be created. Finally, around Hanover Street, an amalgam of 3rd level education and incubation spaces is proposed to catalyse jobs.

In the Viking Triangle, the Parade Quay development and the Central Arts/OPW buildings ring Friary Square. These bring back housing and give improved commercial at street level. Offices will provide accommodation for adjacent museums and an upgraded performing arts building will interlock with the existing Theatre Royal. Finally, a new linear park along Spring Garden Alley reveals the medieval city wall and connects 3 projects that build on the previous public realm improvement to the historic Lady Lane. These projects aim to provide mixed tenure residential accommodation and support what is one of the few existing residential communities in the city centre along Spring Garden Alley.

Some individual projects:

•Upgraded of OʼConnell St public realm, the Beach Tower and Hanover St hub. •Works to the Granary which will better address adjacent streets. •Refurbishment of 3 and 4 Georges St to form the GOVLAB, Smart City HQ in collaboration with WIT •No 7 Tomas Street to be a gallery, artist in residence and residential. •16,18 Barker Place to be a ground community space. •Re-imagining of Jenkins Lane •A gateway plaza on the south quays. •Friary Square and the development of residential and commercial units on Parade Quay. •Transformation of Spring Garden Alley as an extension to the Viking triangle. •Re-purpose of the former Menʼs Hostel.