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Ireland's political and cultural magazine
November/December 2020 69
I
F YOU liked Eohan Murphy for ‘boutique
hotels’ co-livin units and housin
delivery, just wait until you see his hih-
rise architectural leacy.
Since the building of Liberty Hall (60
metres) and O’ Connell Bridge House in the
1960s the Georgian core of Dublin has been
protected from incongruous high-rise devel
-
opment, by planning control policies. Outside
of Belfast the same applies to the other Irish
historic centres. The country’s tallest building
from the twentieth century was Cork County
Hall: to the west of the centre and a surprising
-
ly well-considered interface between city and
county, with its Council Chamber at roof level.
The legislation for Protected Structures and
Architectural Conservation Areas, integrated
with the 2000 Planning and Development Act,
has largely prevented inappropriate develop
-
ment in our historic urban centres since then.
Under the guise of solving the housing crisis
by Ian Lumley
The housing-starved populus seem bored with
all that old city-centre human-scale.
ENVIRONMENT
but following much suspicious lobbying from
the property development world for commer
-
cial tower blocks, then Housing and Planning
Minister Eoghan Murphy pushed though his
pet ‘Urban Development and Buildings Height
Guidelines for Planning Authorities (BHGs)’ in
2018, doubtless thinking they made him and
his party look well-travelled.
Ocial Ireland, the media, Chambers of
Commerce seems in the housing-starved last
few years to have actively rejected Ireland’s
age-old city aesthetic, a unique selling point,
in favour of a rush to the sky, particularly in
historic cores where high rise does most dam
-
age.
The fact that this will have no benefit in de
-
livering aordable housing seems to be of no
concern. The dissent from conservationists is
portrayed as cranky. An Bord Pleanála which
used to show critical judgement on urban
design and architectural heritage is rubber
The sky’s the limited
thanks to Eoghan Murphy
A put-upon John
Ronan is seeking
to increase the
height of his
‘Waterfront’
scheme beside
Dublin’s Eastlink
Bridge, to 40
and 44 storeys
(155 metres -
Liberty Hall is 55
metres).
70 November/December 2020
stamping all of the high-rise proposals that
have come before it, treating the Eoghan Mur
-
phy building height guidelines as trumping all
other considerations, including its own previ
-
ous decisions.
Architectural quality does not seem to rate
in the debate; nor does the fact most people
seem to actually quite like our existing urban
vibe; nor does the fact that erecting two high
rises diminishes the historic human-scale
and atmosphere of every historic building in
between; nor does the fact most of the devel
-
opments are not residential; nor does the fact
experts say high-rise serves private interests
better than the public interest and that high-
rise is not necessarily conducive to, generally
desirable, high-density; nor does the striking
fire hazard associated with inaccessible high
-
er storeys.
This is at variance with the best-planned his
-
toric capitals and major cities across Europe
which we visit, and which have well-consid
-
ered polices to protect their historic central ar-
eas. They strategically accommodate high rise
in public-transport-enhanced dockland areas
or new business districts, avoiding impact on
historic cores.
DUBLIN CITY CENTRE
While there was much regrettable demoli-
tion and poor-quality new building between
the 1960s and 1980s the scale and coherence
of the city portrayed in, for example, James
Malton’s 1790s engravings and the streets
evoked in ‘Ulysses’ have been largely main
-
tained.
Celtic-Tiger-era plans in Dublin for a tower
beside the Royal Hospital Kilmainham oppo
-
site Heuston Station and another at Tara St
station never materialised.The two twentieth-
century high-rise developments which have
been built are well away from the historic
centre: the blocks both north and south of the
Liey to the west of the East Link Bridge, the
former now nearing completion.
Around a decade ago two major high-rise ap
-
plications were refused by An Bord Pleanála
as too big: the 16-storey National Children’s
Hospital on Eccles St and the demolition of
Liberty Hall for a substantially bulkier and
taller replacement. A plan for a ski-slope-style
intervention atop the former O Connell St Carl
-
ton Cinema development site was amended to
avert a refusal; and never built.
High-rise interest has long concentrated on
the Tara St area. It is beside a Dart station,
close to the depressing mid-rise Ulster Bank
“Canary Dwarf” on George’s Quay and benefits
from the George’s Quay Local Area Plan which
since 2012 has mooted high rise for the site.
In 2017 an application for a 22-storey tower
beside Tara St station fronted by developer
Johnny Ronan was refused by Dublin City
Council, and the refusal upheld by An Bord
Ronan’s 22-storey
permitted scheme
for Tara St
Malton Print of
College Green
and poor-quality
photomontage of
impact of Marlet’s
scheme – provided
by the developer
The 21-storey
Apollo House site
permission, on
Tara St
Fruit and Vegetable
market is on left of
photomontage of
proposed 14-storey
co-living scheme
November/December 2020 71
Pleanála on grounds of impact on the O Con-
nell St to Westmoreland St Architectural Con-
servation Area.
In 2018 while the then Minister for Hous
-
ing Planning and Local Government Eoghan
Murphy was advancing the “consultation“ for
his BHGs an application was made again for
a 22-storey tower with some design, but not
height, modifications, for the Tara St Station
site. This was again refused by Dublin City
Council on the same grounds as the previous
Council and Bord refusals.
This refusal was appealed to An Bord Pleaná
-
la. The new BHGs came into eect during the
appeal process, with An Bord Pleanála grant
-
ing the application citing the BHGs as over-
arching grounds.
The eect was to grant a largely identical
application in building height to a previ
-
ously refused application deemed to have
an adverse Architectural Conservation Area
impact, a statutory protection measure un
-
der the Planning and Development Act 2000.
Ronan subsequently got permission for an
extra floor and he recently - tellingly and un
-
successfully - tried to convert it from white-
elephant hotel to oces, post-Covid.
This clearly shows the impact of Murphy’s
‘guidelines’ that in fact had been drafted so as
to be mandatory.
The block between Tara St, Hawkins St,
Poolbeg St and Townsend St including Apollo
House and Hawkins House was subject to a
Local Area Plan by Dublin City Council in 2012,
providing for development of up to 2 mid-rise
buildings of up to 12 storeys.
Planning permission was granted in 2016 for
a development of the Apollo House site – the
unloved building was later confusingly occu
-
pied by ineectual celebrities for homeless
people, for a scheme extending to 11 storeys
on the basis of this LAP.
In September 2020 the site-owners, Mar
-
let, got Bord Pleanála approval after a failed
An Taisce appeal on a revised plan to plonk
a 10-storey additional tower on the approved
Tara St block, comprising 54 “build to rent”
apartments bringing its height to 21 storeys.
And why would they not? It creates free value
for them by allowing them to interpose on the
skyline. In New York they would have to pay for
this, through air rights, but here it would be a
gratuity to them.
The development clearly has a significant
impact on Protected Structures and the statu
-
tory Grafton St and O’Connell St Architectural
Conservation Areas which come up to the bor
-
ders of College Green and the main historic
western parts of Trinity College. But concern
for that has been side-lined since Murphy’s
guidelines were imposed.
Marlet made an Environmental Impact As
-
sessment (EIA) Screening report stating that
EIA was not required for adding 10 storeys to
a development having such architectural and
cultural heritage location impact. The Bord
Pleanála Inspector accepted Marlet’s reason
-
ing for this and the Bord itself followed suit.
The report notably ignores statutory designa
-
tions of sensitive nearby sites and buildings;
as well as the wide-ranging lesser significant
impact on more distant sites and buildings.
An EIA is required in an urban setting where a
development is likely to have a significant ef
-
fect on the environment by virtue of its nature
(here, altering the city’s historic skyline), size
(here, 21 storeys) and location (close to some
of the city’s most important historic
buildings - Trinity College and the
Bank of Ireland; and Conservation
Areas).
Clearly the Bord got it wrong in not
demanding a EIA to better determine
the building’s impact on the almost
entirely low-rise city.
But in any event high-rise is taking
over the city centre. There are also
permissions for and 29 storeys on
the Hickey’s site on Parkgate St on
the Liey opposite Heuston Station
and for 23 storeys at Connolly Sta
-
tion. Johnny Ronan is pushing for 44
storeys on North Wall Quay (previous
page) in breach of all plans but on a
site that actually has a much greater carrying
capacity than most.
An application for 14 storeys has just been
lodged for the markets area opposite the
low-rise Victorian fruit and vegetable markets
which are to be refurbished for retail use.
And the vogue is nationwide.
WATERFORD CITY
Waterford is to get a vast Saudi investment
backed mixed-use development along its
north quays, approved by An Bord Pleanala in
July, embracing a fifteen and a seventeen sto
-
rey building.
LIMERICK CITY
In Limerick the City and County Council is the
direct promoter of high rise through the plan it
got approved by An Bord Pleanála earlier this
year for a 15 story tower on the former “opera
centre” site near the 18
th
C Custom House (now
the Hunt Museum) and across the Abbey River
from the 12
th
century St Marys Cathedral. The
lumpy tower is sited incongruously between
the city’s earliest Georgian brick terrace and
the converted 19
th
C stone Granary building.
Taoiseach Michael Martin in a recent Dail
exchange promising a review by Housing and
Planning Minister Darragh O’ Brien slammed
his predecessor’s co-living apartments as
“glorified tenement living”. However this is
not stopping An Bord Pleanála from continu
-
ing to approve schemes.
The Murphy era BHGs equally need to be
scrapped.
However, worryingly Minister Darragh O’
Brien made a poorly informed statement in
September promising to review architectural
heritage protection legislation as impeding
people wanting to come back to live in old
buildings in cities.
The opposite has been shown to be the
case internationally as people are attracted
to the unique character of protected historic
buildings and neighbourhoods. It is building
and fire regulations that makes conversion
Waterford,
North Quays:
Saudi-backed
Unexciting
14-storey tower
with no residential
component
permitted for
Limerick’s Opera
site
72 November/December 2020
particularly onerous in Ireland, on top of
competing in price with speculative investors.
Eoghan Murphy has left a legacy of housing
crisis, small apartment units, co-living and
hotels, rather than ordinary apartments. What
has not been appreciated is the legacy he
may, if the economy thrives, have left on our
historic streetscapes and skylines.
CORK CITY
The Celtic Tiger period saw Cork again bag-
ging the tallest building with the Elysium
tower which took years to let after the crash,
Again Cork City Council is in a race to up
-
stage Dublin in the high rise stakes with the
continued help of An Bord Pleanála.
An Bord Pleanála permitted 201 rental
apartments built in a development ranging
in height from 8 to 24 storeys in February on
the site of Carey Tool Hire and the now demol
-
ished Sextant Bar on Albert Quay to the east
of Cork City Hall.
In June 2020 Cork City Council issued a
tender notice for consultants to undertake a
high-rise study to provide “new thinking” and
a “robust evidence base” for the city’s new
2022 to 2028 Development Plan “in order to
ensure the council has a coherent policy in
relation to urban density, building height and
tall buildings”.
An application by New-York-based Tower
Holdings for 140 metres and 34 storeys of
The 34-storey tower is too tall
to show in this photomontage
of the pedimented Georgian
Custom House to the left.
A 24-storey apartment-rental scheme has
been permitted on Albert Quay
The Prism with bus station
in foreground
Photomontage image of planned 34-storey hotel and commercial
complex at the east river channel junction between the Georgian
Custom House and warehouses. The Horgan Quay tower is to the
left and the Prism to the right. The spires of St Finbarr’s are in
background
Marriott hotel and commercial development,
with no residential component, on Custom
House Quay. Ireland’s tallest building, it was
granted permission by Cork City Council on 14
October. Located on the eastern junction of
the city’s river channels and beside the Geor
-
gian Custom House if built it would dominate
the centre like the Tower of Sauron, eclipsing
the triple-spired St Finbarr’s Cathedral and
Shandon Church tower as the city’s defining
skyline image. It may be appealed.
Ian Lumley is Head of Advocacy for An Taisce
