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Cork Docklands

THE BELLA VITA SAILING FROM KENNEDY QUAY IN CORK

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THIS IS NOT MY YACHT

These images date from May 2022 but I decided to reprocess them using two different AI applications that I am beta testing.

The Bella Vita arrived in Cork on the 12th. May 2022 and departed on Friday 13th.

Built by German manufacturer Lürssen in 2010, the vessel was first owned by Paul Fireman, the founder of Reebok sportswear. Its original name was Solemates.

The current owner is Dwight Schar in 2021 who obtained it in a swap sometime in 2021.

The Bella Vita can sleep up to 12 guests in its six-cabin rooms across three decks, and comes equipped with a number of bars, a jacuzzi bathtub, sit-in shower, flat-screen televisions, a grand piano and a gym.

Dwight Schar is an American businessman. He is the founder of NVR, Inc., a Fortune 500 company that is the third-largest home builder (by revenue) in the United States. He currently serves as the company’s Executive chairman and Chairman of Executive Committee. Schar was also a minority owner of the Washington Commanders of the National Football League from 2003 to 2021, as well as the former financial chairman for the Republican National Committee.

Lürssen is a German shipyard with headquarters in Bremen-Vegesack and shipbuilding facilities in Lemwerder, Berne and Bremen-Fähr-Lobbendorf. Lürssen designs and constructs yachts, naval ships and special vessels. The company described the vessel as follows:

“A spacious luxury yacht delivered in 2010, Bella Vita features sleek, curved lines throughout. The 60-meter vessel, originally christened Solemates, was designed by Espen Øino International. Her interior by Glade Johnson uses clean right angles and strong horizontal lines, balanced by contrasting soft and sensuous natural materials like stone and wood in fluid textural patterns. Guests can enjoy warm and bright areas with ornate classical details and modern elements. Creative solutions include a partially covered gym that doubles as a discotheque at sea after sundown.”

R&H COMPLEX ON KENNEDY QUAY

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PHOTOGRAPHED MAY 2022

These images date from May 2022 but I decided to reprocess them using two different AI applications that I am beta testing

R & H Hall has been the leading supplier to the Irish feed industry of grain and non-grain feed ingredients since 1839.

The tall structure in my photographs has a visual significance beyond its intrinsic utilitarian design as a result of its visibility from many parts of the city. It serves through its height and scale to define the remaining commercial docks area of the city from some distance.

Grain store building, c. 1945, part of R. & H. Hall complex. Mass concrete walls with pilaster detail and flat roof. Metal windows to ground and first floor and to all floors on east elevation.

I visited Cork City in may 2022 and the city had not fully recovered from Covid-19 restrictions and the weather was not the best. When I visited the docklands the general are was bleak and somewhat lonely and much of what to see was in poor condition.

This was my first time to use GEO-Tagging and I also more-or-less limited myself to using a Sigma 24-105 lens as it was weather resistant.

Note: On 31 March 2022 the Health (Preservation and Protection and Other Emergency Measures in the Public Interest) Act 2020 ended. This gave the Minister for Health the power to make regulations and introduce measures to slow down the spread of the virus.

GEOWAVE VOYAGER LATER RENAMED EAGLE EXPLORER IMO 9381299

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AT CUSTOM HOUSE QUAY IN CORK JULY 2016

I photographed this in July 2016 but in November 2018 Oslo-listed seismic acquisition specialist SeaBird took took delivery of the Geowave Voyager seismic vessel, fully rigged with 40 kilometers streamer and dual source. SeaBird had agreed to buy the vessel and equipment from $17 million from CGG.

Geowave Voyager is a 2009-built seismic survey vessel. It has a length of 90 m, a beam of 24 m and a dwt of 2,879 tonnes. It has capacity to tow up to 10 streamers and can undertake 2D, source and niche 3D, and node-laying work.

KENNEDY QUAY SECONDS BEFORE A THUNDER STORM ARRIVED

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EVERY TIME I VISIT CORK IT RAINS

I had planned to visit and photograph Custom House Quay after visiting Kennedy Quay but when I arrived at Kennedy Quay I had to shelter under some industrial equipment for about an hour because of an extreme thunder storm.

During its 400 year history, Kennedy Quay and its associated docklands have been the seat of commerce and trade for the City of Cork however the area has been in decline for many years.

Kennedy Quay still operates commercially and has a number of interesting features including a number of old buildings but there has been a lot of demolition work in the area since I first visited about twelve or thirteen years ago.

Last month Cork developer Brian O’Callaghan announced that a major development in the docklands area will include offices, apartments, healthcare facilities and retail outlets. The plans include the repurposing of the iconic red-brick Odlums building on Kennedy Quay, dating to the 1890s and extended in the 1930s.

OLD PHOTOGRAPHS OF CUSTOM HOUSE QUAY IN CORK

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AS IT WAS IN MAY 2011

The Custom House is located at the eastern extremity of Cork City’s centre island, where the north and south branches of the River Lee reconverge.

As you can see this area could be derelict back in 2011 and unfortunately there was no sign of any improvement when I visited in May 2023.

In March 2021 it was reported that planning permission had been granted for €150 million development incorporating Ireland’s tallest building. The 34-storey tower on the site of the former Port of Cork building on Custom House Quay will include a five star 240 bedroom hotel as well as food and beverage outlets along with a distillery in the accompanying commercial development. The planning decision followed an appeal by three parties of a decision by Cork City Council to grant planning for the project on October 13th 2020.

The Custom House is an early 19th-century building in Cork, Ireland.[7][8] Originally developed as a custom house and opened in 1818, the Cork Harbour Commissioners (later reorganised as the Port of Cork Company) took over the building in 1904. The Port of Cork Company vacated the building in early 2021.[10] The Custom House is, together with a number of other buildings on the same site, listed by Cork City Council on its Record of Protected Structures.

The Custom House is attributed to designs by Abraham Addison Hargrave, the eldest son (and partner in the architectural practice) of Abraham Hargrave the Elder.[12] Built between 1814 and 1818, the building was used initially by the Inland Revenue, having replaced an old custom house on Emmet Place, now part of the Crawford Art Gallery. It was built on “slob” land, which was reclaimed at a cost of £10,000; the building itself cost £70,000. In 1904, it became the headquarters of the Cork Harbour Commissioners, who took over the building on a 999 year lease.

The building was extended in 1906, with additions including a new boardroom, designed by William Price the then Harbour Engineer. This boardroom, with semicircular tables and upholstered chairs, was described in the Irish Examiner as “one of the finest examples of the commercial interior design of the time”. Originally the royal arms were on the building’s pediment, being replaced by the city arms in 1957.

As of 2021, the Harbour Commissioners had vacated the building, and a number of developments were proposed for the site. Aspects of the proposed developments, including the proposal to “largely demolish the Revenue Building” (a protected structure on the Custom House Quay site), have been the subject of some opposition, including by the Irish Georgian Society and An Taisce Corcaigh.

These photographs are old as they date from my 2011 visit to Cork City. I used a Sony NEX-5 which was my very first Mirrorless camera and it was the beginning of my switch over from Canon to Sony. The lens that I used was the 18-200mm supplied with the VG10E camcorder and it was much better than the kit lens supplied with the NEX-5. As a matter of interest I still have the NEX-5 and the VG10 which I still use.

The software available was primitive so I decided to se if the original files could be reprocessed and published online.

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