Locals appeal Liam Carroll's Google extension

RESIDENTS OF THE Gasworks apartment development on Barrow Street, Dublin 2 have appealed developer Liam Carroll's proposal to extend Google headquarters at the nearby Gordon House.

Carroll is seeking an additional 5,617sq m (60,461sq ft) of office space which would give the six-storey Gordon House an overall size of 20,614sq m (221,887sq ft) and change the shape of the building from the existing stepped down design, so it gets narrower as it rises, to a rectangular building.

In their appeal to An Bord Pleanála the residents say a rectangular-shaped building would block light to two apartment blocks, Clayton and Poolbeg, and cut light from Pigeon House in the Gasworks development and houses on Gordon Street.

They say the multiplication of windows overlooking bedrooms will affect privacy in their development, the Clayton Building, Poolbeg Building and Pigeon House.

They also contend that the height of the proposed extended building will create a wind tunnel effect between two Google buildings leading to the Gasworks development from Barrow Street.

The appeal refers to the "dense close arrangement" that is typical of Google offices.

It quotes Larry Page, co-founder of Google, as saying "we think it's important to have a high density of people. People are packed together everywhere. We all share offices", and this gives an atmosphere more "like a densely packed university campus than a typical suburban office park".

However, the Gasworks Residents say packing people into such small spaces can result in "overuse of existing amenities, excessive wear and tear of facilities and surplus noise. The combination of these reduces the profile of the Gasworks development, the enjoyment of our home and value of our property."

They also contend that more staff would be unsustainable in the area which only has one grocery and one pharmacy. They say the area outside the block "is already teeming with smokers during the day from Google and these bleed into the Gasworks common areas".

The residents of Gerald Street have also appealed to An Bord Pleanála with similar concerns about overshadowing and loss of privacy, and say the lights from the existing building "are annoying at night" and this would become worse if the extension was allowed.