Franchise sought for millennium spire souvenirs

Dublin Corporation has received an "opening offer" of £1 million from a private company which wants to franchise images of the millennium monument planned for the site of Nelson Pillar in O'Connell Street.

Mr Jim Barrett, the Dublin city architect, confirmed yesterday that the offer had been received, though he was not prepared to name the company. "It's at a very preliminary stage," he said.

The company has proposed buying the copyright which the corporation holds on the £3 million project, with a view to using the image of the proposed 120-metre steel "spire" on items such as silverware and souvenirs. The corporation believes this interest from the business community is a measure of public acceptance for the scheme and it should help to dispel any notion that it is "wasting money".

"Clearly, what they're saying is that this is going to work and we want to buy into it," Mr Barrett said. He noted that a presentation of the design by Mr Ian Ritchie, a London-based architect, was being made to city councillors last night and he anticipated that they would approve it in principle at a full council meeting on Monday.

"Ideally, we should have it built by Shorts in Belfast because it's one of the few places in Ireland which could do this sort of thing - plus it would be the right gesture in the context of the peace process," Mr Barrett said.

The rolled stainless steel structure would be built in 20-metre lengths which would then be welded together - probably on the median of O'Connell Street - and dramatically raised into position as a single piece.

According to the city architect, it should be completed by this time next year, in plenty of time for the Millennium celebrations. It would be secured by bolts in a reinforced concrete base set on piles keyed into the bedrock.

Mr Barrett said the fact that the internationally-known structural engineers Ove Arup and Partners was involved in the project was "very reassuring" in terms of guaranteeing the integrity and stability of the monument.

He also pointed out that the stainless steel structure would be 40 millimetres (about two inches) thick and this would make it very hard to cut through using an angle-grinder, for example. "You'd have to be cutting for a long time," he said.

He said a ladder inside the hollow structure would be used to service the high-powered floodlights which would project light up to the glass and perforated steel tip from an internal platform 40 metres above street level.

Provision has been made for vents to draw in cold air at the base and expel the hot air generated by the floodlights through the perforations at the tip. Mr Barrett also sees no problem with the narrowness of the base, at three metres.

The runners-up in the competition, which attracted over 200 entries, were a cylindrical tower covered in a fabric on which images could be projected and a glass obelisk of the same height and profile as Nelson Pillar.

All of the entries in the competition are to be exhibited in January, most likely in the Civic Offices at Wood Quay.