IIUD is pleased to announce that Gerard O'Hare, Managing Director of Parker Green International, Newry, Northern Ireland has accepted our invitation to join the Board.

Read More about Gerard O'Hare



November 15, 2006
Conference on Evidence-Informed Spatial Planning


The International Centre for Local and Regional Development (ICLRD) held a conference, Supporting Evidence-Informed Spatial Planning and Analysis: Towards the Development of Island of Ireland Spatial Databases in cooperation with the Regional Research Observatory and the Regional Studies Association on informed evidence for cross-border spatial planning. ICLRD Founding Director and IIUD Vice President John Driscoll opened the event, which was held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Dundalk, Ireland. Presentations from the event are publicly available at the ICLRD website.



October 17, 2006
IIUD Board of Directors visits ParkerGreen International, Newry, Northern Ireland

The IIUD board visited the head offices of ParkerGreen International on the occasion of a 2006 board meeting in Ireland . CEO, Dr. Gerard O'Hare, who was invited to join the Board, provided in-depth presentations on urban development in Newry, North Ireland and its surrounding regions.

To read more, please visit http://www.parkergreen.com/PGINews-6.pdf



August 2006
IIUD awarded the preservation strategy for the Old City of Baku

The Institute has just been awarded a major contract for the preparation of the Integrated Area Management Action Plan for Icheri Sheher, in Baku (Azerbaijan). The Walled City of Baku (Icheri Sheher) together with the Shirvanshah’s Palace and the Maiden Tower,  is a UNESCO World Heritage site since December 2000 as representing “an outstanding and rate example of an historic urban ensemble and architecture with influence from Zoroastrian, Sassanian, Arabic, Persian, Shirvani, Ottoman and Russian cultures.” (Report of the 24^th Session of the World Heritage Committee)  Recent development pressures have been deemed by UNESCO to threaten the integrity of the site and Icheri Sheher was inscribed on the List of World Heritage in Danger in 2003.

The current project is to develop a strategy to safeguard and restore the site. It is a World Bank financed project, our first as the Institute. IIUD will be working with a Danish architecture firm specialized in restoration and preservation (Alstrup & Avnby), a Russian expert on the cultural heritage of the region and several Azeri professionals who will provide us with the expertise in local legal and administrative aspects. IIUD won the project based on the high score of our technical proposal and a financial proposal that was only slightly higher than the lowest bidder. The other two finalists were Cotecno (Italy) and Arcadis (Netherlands), both large international firms.

Read more about the completed preservation strategy for the Old City of Baku.