New €100m rejuvenation plan for St Stephen’s Green Shopping Centre would add two storeys

17 comments
  1. It’s the biggest pain in the hole shopping centre in Ireland. A glorified shed of nothingness.

  2. The top floor is already such a hassle to get up too, and the only thing worth seeing up there is the jacks

  3. The new renovation looks so ugly compared to the present one.

    And so bland, like any English city shopping centre.

  4. I used to work near here and the one thing that always struck me about it was how old fashioned the place seemed for a shopping centre designed, built and opened in the (late) 80s.

    Loads of shitty little units like you’d see in a flea market, they seem to have been rationing stairs and escalators in the place (one has been permanently closed for years anyway, which given the lack of ways to go to the upper levels seems like something they’d want to prioritize but it feels like a decade at this stage, they have planters in front of the entrance to it), they squeezed in one extra lift at the front because they literally just put one in when it opened (next to a staircase that they made pointlessly convoluted to access for some reason) and just this pervasive sense that this is a converted….something rather than a purpose-built shopping centre that just happens to also look like “a Mississippi riverboat anchored at the top of Grafton Street”.

    And that’s not even getting into the stupidly inaccessible western end of the centre, which has two entrances from South King Street that are several steps from the street level, meaning wheelchair users and those with buggies have to traipse up to the main entrance. Why not design the BRAND NEW shopping centre to be level with the street and just have gentle inclines inside? Or have there be an initial drop at the main entrance that levels off with the street by the time it reaches the Dunnes end?

    There’s been plans to do stuff with the top floors for years, one developer was certain they were going to convert a good chunk of the car park into a 6 screen cinema in the past 15 years. I say build one massive unit at the top, entice Penneys to finally come to the south city centre and knock through as many other shops as possible. Alternatively, knock the whole thing down and start again.

    I’d honestly love to see the thing gone, it’s hideous

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