Accolades for the Glucksman Gallery have obscured the humdrum quality of much of what's being built in Cork, writes Frank McDonald, Environment Editor

The largest single project in Cork this year was not the Glucksman Gallery, but Mahon Point. Opened last February, this €230 million development by O'Callaghan Properties was billed as "Ireland's newest and most spectacular shopping centre", even though it came from the same stable as Liffey Valley in Dublin.

Another glorified retailing box, with Debenhams at one end and Tesco at the other, it has 48 units laid out on either side of a two-level mall, under a glazed roof with a 12-metre span, and an 11-screen multiplex. Its "food court", lined by fast-food outlets as predictable as the shops, has all the allure of a holiday camp canteen.

A double-height window at the rear looks out over boundary walls and Traveller housing towards Cork Harbour; despite its maritime logo, this is Mahon Point's only relationship with the water. Surface car-parking is the norm, apart from one deck serving Tesco, which crashes into the main entrance and has a dark, forbidding undercroft.

Designed by Ambrose Kelly's Project Architects, who also did Liffey Valley, Mahon Point has two entrances clad in pre-patinated copper.

Their faux verdigris colour clashes with the blue corrugated sheeting on its feature towers; these must have been intended to relieve the tedious grey metal cladding used to sheet the rest of it.

On the other side of a busy road, quite a walk away, a "retail park" is in the making, predictably led by B & Q. The Irish Examiner is also building a new printing plant here while a billboard heralds the completion of "Mahon Mall - five spectacular showrooms to let". There are palisade fences all over the place; it could be anywhere.

So could O'Callaghan Properties' first shopping centre on Merchants Quay.

Unlike Dublin's ILAC centre, which was mainly built in back streets, it occupies a very prominent site, just to the west of Patrick Street. All the variety of 27 buildings was replaced by a brick-clad box, punctured by green, plastic-coated aluminium windows.

With fake shopfronts that are actually the rear ends of retail units within, and grim service bays fronting onto Parnell Place, the shopping centre has a deadening effect. Some excuse might be made for it on the basis that it was conceived in the 1970s and completed in the 1980s, before we supposedly became more sophisticated.

The same could be said for the blank-walled façade which Cork's Opera House presents to the River Lee - a case of form too closely following function.

Though the entrance front was enlivened by a major refurbishment in 2000, the second phase was pigeon-holed, even though it would have been an obvious project for Cork 2005.

Now, the opera's fly-tower with its vulgar Toyota sign is being taken as a benchmark for the height of other developments along this stretch of the river. The most recent is 21 Lavitt's Quay, an astonishingly bloated and fussy confection by Cashman and Associates (for O'Callaghan Properties) that all but consumes an 18th century house.

This jump in scale is set to be followed next door, on a site assembled by Thomas Crosbie Holdings that includes another 18th century house - also a protected structure - with exceptional interiors. Designed by Reddy O'Riordan Staehli for Howard Holdings, the seven-storey Comfort Inn proposed will rise up behind it like a bland colossus.

That will be a matter for An Bord Pleanála to decide, by December 7th. In the meantime, it is understood that the ubiquitous Owen O'Callaghan has acquired the ex-Crosbie site and intends to incorporate it into another major retail development he's planning for Academy Street, centred on the former Irish Examiner offices.

The Academy Street site, which extends from Patrick Street to Emmett Place, was identified as a "prime location" for city centre retailing in a 2001 development brief by Cork City Council. Whether it will retain its fine urban grain and buildings of heritage value will only become clear when O'Callaghan Properties unveils its plans.

Further west is the dreadful Dunnes Stores on Kyrl's Quay and even more dreadful multi-storey car-park, which comes with silly turrets and loggia.

One of the merits of an architectural ideas competition for left-over sites in the area - won last May by Conroy Architecture - is that whatever emerges should help to cover up these eyesores.

The nearby Gate multiplex at the corner of North Main Street by Derek Tynan Architects, which won awards in 1999 for its "taut and elegant minimalism", has stood the test of time pretty well.

Clad in warm limestone, it transcends everything else in the vicinity - especially the adjoining apartment block, with its awful random brick and render.

The Gate also demonstrates an awareness of one of the key elements of urban design on the quays of Cork - the need for sharp edges.

This seems to have been forgotten by the architects of more recent buildings, such as the Clarion Hotel, where Scott Tallon Walker marked the corner with a sweeping curve topped by a drum.

Just across the way, Coughlan DeKeyser Associates made the same mistake with a new office block by O'Flynn Construction. This is a building that's far too "busy"; its pink walls, blue-framed glazing and sandstone-clad corner tower add up to an eclectic mix that seems over-cooked when what was needed here was a bit of restraint.

The same architects have also put their stamp on George's Quay with the garishly-coloured Trinity Court apartment block. A pastiche of old Cork, it has oversailing bow-fronts that start on the second floor as well as round-headed windows, clip-on balconies, barrel-vaulted penthouses and a mansard roof that slopes back at different angles.

Developments in the pipeline include a 116-bedroom hotel in Parnell Place, designed by James Leahy and Associates, which will retain two forlorn stucco façades. This shape-throwing scheme was re-cast at the behest of Cork's planners, who wanted to be assured about height, design quality and impact on the adjoining former Provincial Bank.

Much more daring is O'Flynn Construction's plan for a 17-storey residential tower at Eglinton Street, facing the arrow-like South Link Road. Designed by Wilson Architecture, its sharply angular profile will certainly cut a dash.

And at 70 metres, it will be even higher than Cork County Hall, currently being remodelled by Shay Cleay Architects.

Wilson is also responsible for a mega office development proposal for Patrick's Quay by developer Paul Kenny.

Billed as The Treasury and targeted at the Revenue Commissioners, which currently occupies the ghastly Government office block at Sullivan's Quay, it would rise up like a glasshouse behind retained warehouse façades on the quayfront.

With Murray O'Laoire's Cork School of Music finally on site and their high-rise plans for Water Street with An Bord Pleanála, one of the big questions in Cork is when the long-delayed redevelopment of Horgan's Quay will get under way. Manor Park Homes is in the driving seat for this 17-acre ex-CIÉ site, with O'Mahony Pike as architects.

Given its close proximity to the city centre, with Kent Station on the doorstep, it is odd that the city council will permit only "neighbourhood shopping" at Horgan's Quay, on the basis that anything of a higher order could undermine retailing in the city centre. Could this be the same council that netted €50 million from selling the site for Mahon Point?