2. Cultural Quarter

Vision

The area around the railway station and down through Carlow College will undergo a significant visual transformation. Transport is fundamental to connecting people, businesses and services and improving the integration of the public transport network with Carlow will result in significant benefits for the Town. Carlow College has a number of locational advantages in terms of recreational, cultural and civic amenities such as VISUAL, the Courthouse, Carlow Cathedral and sports grounds within its campus. The use of the grounds at Carlow College as a connection point will allow the area to be embraced as a cultural quarter of the Town.

This Intervention ensures the optimum use of underutilised spaces and connections while integrating the existing social, educational, cultural and historic assets of the Town. The greater exposure of these assets will build civic pride and promote local appreciation for the betterment of all. The opportunity exists to utilise publicly owned buildings, such as the library, for potential reuse as a cultural hub and act as a connection point between the Town Centre and the College campus.

Furthermore, the natural environment is a key asset in any urban area and the location of Carlow College in the Town offers a unique asset which can be optimised through well-designed upgrades to play a role in an expanded open space network. Its sylvan qualities and linkage capability provides a special opportunity to link the Train Station to the Town Centre in a direct manner along a route of interest and beauty, supporting the greening of Carlow and its aim to become more sustainable. The connection to the Civic Spine in relation to the Barrow Track is an important opportunity which can be explored in conjunction with the College and allow for a major east-west connection across the Town and would provide greater accessibility to the River Barrow.

Public transport is hugely important for connecting people to opportunities, getting residents to work, education and training, connecting businesses with suppliers and customers, as well as providing easy access for tourists and visitors to get to events, leisure activities and shopping. Therefore, the focus on integrating the rail station with the Town Centre will provide huge economic benefits to the Town with a well-connected, integrated and attractive transportation system, where people will choose Carlow as a place to live, study in, invest in, and set up a business or visit.

The projects within this Intervention will not only be of interest to visitors but will engage the Town’s residents and bring greater utilisation of the area as part of the wider network of activity routes proposed around the Town Centre. By delivering this Intervention, the amenity for everyone will be greatly improved. It has the potential to be recognised as an exemplar for connectivity between a Town’s public transport node, an educational campus and a revamped urban centre. The opportunity to link these key urban components will have cumulative benefits to not only the Town but Carlow College and the train station in terms of attractiveness, convenience and accessibility.

Carlow College is at the centrepiece of the overall strategy of regeneration in Carlow Town and promotes healthy, innovative, culturally rich and socially connected community activity. The main design feature of this Intervention, the connection between the campus and St. Joseph’s Road, will require collaboration with St. Catherine’s Community Services Centre and St. Leo’s College.

Key Projects

• Project Linkages
  • Key Development Interventions
    • Development of a multi-use site at entrance to Carlow College at Old Dublin Road
    • Upgraded planting, paving and seating solutions throughout
  • Key Linkage Interventions
    • Link to Carlow Railway Station onto St. Joseph’s Road from Carlow College Campus
    • Link to ‘Civic Spine’ connection point with the Barrow Track site
• Key Features
  • Promotion of civic and cultural uses
  • Facilitates the creation of a sense of place
  • Increased connectivity with backland areas
• Key Physical Changes
  • The creation of a pedestrian friendly space through the use of hard and soft landscaping and the provision of urban furniture
  • Provision of wayfinding signage to direct visitors and residents
  • Provision of formal walking routes
  • Improvements to pedestrian and cycling infrastructure

Outcomes

The interventions outlined above should deliver the following;

• The creation of a public realm area which would act as a focal point of the Civic Spine and contribute to the development of a cultural quarter
• The reintegration of the campus grounds into the town by way of improved connectivity to the Town Centre and River Barrow, via College Street and the Civic Spine respectively.
• Greater usage of Carlow Railway Station with the growth of additional connection points. An overall improved planting, paving and seating arrangement.
• A programme of enhancement and improvement works to the Carlow College campus.

Project Summary

The projects listed in this Intervention can be brought about and developed either on their own or as part of a wider development process, e.g. funding applications, public and private ventures. It is important that the major design features outlined in this Strategy are developed in line with the relevant health and wellbeing principles as well as other potential environmental benefits that could be delivered as part of the process.

An Exemplar

The key feature of this Intervention is the Railway Link through Carlow College. The site topography and characteristics as well as the fact that the proposal relates to the provision of new links though an existing campus setting make the identification of an exemplar for comparable costs difficult.

Carlow College in terms of position can be compared to Trinity College, as a historical third level institute that forms an integral part of the built fabric of an urban area. In this regard Trinity College has also faced issues with the enclosed nature of its campus, specifically the lack of integration with Pearse Street. This issue is being addressed through the new €80 million Trinity Business School onto Pearse Street that delivers a pedestrian entrance and the €62 million Printing House Square development, which provides student accommodation and a new public gateway into a new “public city square”.

While this exemplar does not provide costings that can be directly applied to the Railway Link through Carlow College it does demonstrate how another historic third level institute in a similar position is addressing the issue of a segregated campus. With regard to funding, of note is the fact that most of the new construction activity at Trinity College is funded exclusively from borrowing, philanthropy and private income generated by international students and other sources.

Trinity is making these investments in its campus based on demographic trends that indicate that numbers in higher education will increase by around 20 per cent over the coming decade. Improved facilities will not only be required to accommodate this growth but to attract students to the University in a sector where choice and competition are ever increasing. If Carlow College is to expand as part of the Technological University for the South-East, grow its student population and become a leader in new fields such as construction innovation then it too needs to consider both the improvement of existing facilities and the delivery of new ones. Such development would facilitate improved connectivity between the campus and the surrounding area, specifically the Railway Link through the College.