Former Tourist Office, Arthur’s Quay Park

Formerly known as Chez le Fab

Arthurs Quay, LimerickGoogle Maps

Working with city architect Jim Barrett, Murray O’Laoire Architects designed a contemporary tourist office and civic park on a vacant car park site at Arthur’s Quay, which was part of a vision to see the pedestrianisation of a route along the River Shannon.
This building won a RIAI Gold Medal Award in 1989–91. The nautical features within the design draw inspiration from the River Shannon, which lies only a few metres away.
This building was a tourist office until 2015 and then operated as a café and cultural space called Chez le Fab until 2018. It currently lies vacant.
It has been used as a venue for EVA for two editions, in 2001 and 1996.
This site was one of the 16 listed venues for the 22nd edition of EVA in 2001, curated by Salah M. Hassan (b. 1964, Sudan) with Iftikhar Dadi (b. 1982, Pakistan).
For that edition, Augustine O’Donoghue (b. 1972, Ireland) presented a work titled In my mind I imagined if I kept smiling I would become a millionaire (2000). The video work addressed the decline of the tourism industry in Ireland, as well as a campaign to promote friendliness in those working in the tourism industry.