Architects oppose bypass route affecting NUIG

Architects have come out against plans to route the new city bypass through the campus of NUI Galway.

Representatives of seven architects firms who were involved in the design of buildings at NUIG and a ‘master plan’ for its future expansion, have opposed another bridge and road through the campus.

They argue that the existing Quincentenary Bridge already dominates and splits the centre of the campus. “To introduce another would do irreparable damage,” they warn.

In an open letter, the architects ask the National Roads Authority, and Galway County Council, to “consider the importance of the university to the city and the region, and take stock of the enormously negative effects the road options will pose to the built infrastructure of the university and its context.”

The letter is signed by Tony Reddy and Rob Keane of Reddy Architecture and Urbanism; Denis Brereton of RKD Architects; David Clarke of Moloney O’Beirne Architects; Gar Holohan of Aura Holohan Group; Paul Mannion and Scott Tallon of Walker Architects; Eamon McCarney of Taylor Architects; and Edel Tobin of Simon J. Kelly and Partners Architects.

“An elevated dual carriageway through the NUIG campus would be catastrophic. The university has an outstanding landscape setting and is essentially linear in nature, spread along 3km of the River Corrib from the Cathedral to Dangan.

“This also makes it particularly vulnerable and the ring road would divide the university into two parts while also creating a sterile urban environment. We consider that visual and pedestrian connectivity is essential in order to ensure that the university can continue to develop and meet the challenges in the years ahead,” they said.

“The outstanding natural setting of the campus is one of the unique features of NUIG. The river and the historic network of canals and waterways that intersect the campus and form its boundary have influenced the arrangement of buildings, routes and open spaces on the campus.

“The introduction of a significant new multi-lane road and bridge its considerable mass, scale and structural site implications will only negatively affect the setting of the campus. There is no positive precedent in the history of the state for such an intervention.”