MIC 24 Limerick Landscape Assets (Trees, Lawns and Green Areas

MIC 24 | Limerick Landscape Assets (Trees, Lawns and Green Areas)

Tree Bank / Tree Line

Open Green Space Formal Landscape Area

Masterplan Objective 07 Nurturing Environment

Campus. Where existing trees are lost, due to disease, damage or development, replacement trees should be planted to ensure that natural habitats are maintained. The Campus-wide strategy is to maintain the character of buildings and open parkland and therefore the priority is to continue to upgrade and maintain the tree and woodland stock so as to ensure the future longevity of this parkland landscape.

Open Greens The Limerick Campus retains two large open greens both used now as pitches. These open greens are an asset, not just in terms of sporting facilities but also as a relief to the denser development between the Foundation Building to the West leading to the TARA and Tailteann buildings to the East. These open green spaces along long vista back across the College Campus and provide a sense of space and place within the grounds of the College.

On the Thurles Campus, there is no shortage of open space to the South and West of Campus, as well as a generous open site adjacent to the approach avenue to the North. The full size GAA pitch leads onto open fields stretching back to the College boundary. It should be noted that the lands along the banks of the River Suir are prone to flooding and therefore are most suited to a wetlands landscape solution that adds diversity to the habitats to be found on the College Campus. Formal Landscaped Spaces In addition to the mature tree-stands and open spaces which lend themselves to the ‘parkland campus’ characteristic that defines both the Limerick and Thurles Campuses, both Campuses also feature more formal landscaped spaces. The enclosed square or courtyard is an architectural archetype with a long historical pedigree, originating as the cloister in the medieval monastery and featuring as the enclosed university quadrangle or ‘quad’ . Existing spaces on the Limerick Campus include the Quad behind the Foundation Building, the plaza between the existing Library and the TARA Building and the ‘quad’ to the rear of the John Henry Newman building.

The Development Masterplan envisages further development of such spaces, including the new Library Plaza as envisaged as part of the developed design for the proposed Library & Learning Resource Centre Building and a ‘Presidents Garden’ to be located adjacent to the Chapel in line with An Sli. It also proposes that the car park to the front of the Foundation Building should be redeveloped to present a more formal entrance forecourt extending from the Foundation Building to the South Circular Road.