The shock waves generated by An Bord Pleanala's decision last September to refuse planning permission for a high-rise scheme on George's Quay, opposite the Custom House, may have stayed the hand of a number of developers with towers on their mind - but not Noel Smyth, chairman of Dunloe Ewart plc.
Shortly before Christmas, Dunloe Ewart lodged plans for a tapering glazed skyscraper - at least, a skyscraper by Dublin's standards - on the Hammond Lane works between Sir John Rogerson's Quay and the Grand Canal Docks. If approved by the planners, it would be the city's tallest building, rising to a height of 92m (just over 303 ft).
And though this would be 12m taller than Dublin Corporation was prepared to permit at George's Quay, there are crucial differences between the two locations - not least the fact that the Hammond Lane site is relatively remote from the city centre and from important clusters of historic buildings, such as Trinity College.
Noel Smyth's trump card is that the Grand Canal Docks Area Master Plan, adopted by the Dublin Docklands Development Authority, specifically provides for a "landmark building" on Dunloe Ewart's site in recognition of its pivotal location at the confluence of the Liffey, the Dodder and the Grand Canal.
The company's architects, O Muire Smyth, were involved in discussions with the DDDA's consultants when the master plan was being drafted in mid-1999. Indeed, a design team headed by the developer's younger brother, John Smyth, has been working on the scheme for the past two years, refining it over time.
O Muire Smyth won its spurs on the urban renewal front by designing what is still one of the most intelligent pieces of Liffey-side in-fill in Dublin, at Merchant's Quay, in the early 1990s. More recently, it achieved a new standard of excellence in the 177-unit courtyard apartments scheme at Beresford Street, in the markets area of the city.
Its plan for Sir John Rogerson's Quay is in a different league, however. In total, it would provide 55,600 sq. m (nearly 600,000 sq ft) of offices, as well as 231 apartments, most of them either three-bedroom or two bedroom, with retail, restaurant, bar, crΦche and leisure facilities at street level. Spotting its strategic significance, Noel Smyth bought the three-acre Hammond Lane site some years ago for just over £4 million and, in 1998, sold it on to Dunloe Ewart for £7.5 million - a simple reflection of soaring values in docklands, where land with tax designation has made as much as £10 million per acre and even more in some cases.
Mr Smyth, who is winding down his solicitors' practice to concentrate on property development, both on his own and Dunloe Ewart's account in Dublin, Belfast and London, is obviously among those developers who can't sit down to their Christmas dinner without having at least one major planning application lodged in advance.
Thus, the application for Sir John Rogerson's Quay was submitted without an environmental impact statement (EIS). This is still being worked on by McHugh Consultants and will not be finished until next month. In the meantime, consideration of the application has been suspended by Dublin Corporation's planners.
Bernard McHugh, who is co-ordinating the EIS, told The Irish Times that visibility studies, including photomontages showing the proposed tower from a large number of locations, close-up and far removed from the site, had yet to be completed. And since visual impact is obviously the main issue, "we want to get it right".
The architect, John Smyth, said he was very pleased with the outcome of laboratory wind tunnel tests carried out at the University of Bristol.
"We had designed the tower to deflect the prevailing south-westerly wind so that the microclimate of the civic space in front of it would be pleasant - and this has been confirmed by the study".
He described the tower as a "signature building" that would relate to the city and not merely its own site. As with Skidmore Owings and Merrill's failed plan for George's Quay, it was designed as a "dynamic-looking object" with a "sculptural massing" and "elegant, tapered form"; it was "not something that's just mushroomed".
The architects also considered such issues as sustainability and passive technology in designing the tower. Its sail-like outer skin of glazing, similar to that used by Norman Foster in his Commerzbank in Frankfurt, would provide ventilation, allowing windows to be opened, thus avoiding the need for expensive air-conditioning.
As in George's Quay, the glazing is to be transparent rather than opaque. The cladding consultant is Sean Billings, with whom O Muire Smyth has worked closely on the remodelling of Century House, an office tower in Lambeth, London and other major projects in the city which have been drawn into Noel Smyth's growing empire.
These include a high-rise scheme of 200 apartments at St Vincent Square, beside the Tate Gallery, which incorporates an element of social housing. Mr Smyth has no problem with this; to him, it has become "part of the business" and he has publicly called on developers here to "wake up" on this issue.
The architects maintain that their scheme also deals with apartment living to cater for families or second-time apartment owners, not only by providing generous spaces but also a very high-quality pedestrian environment in a courtyard setting. Unlike the tower, the residential buildings are integrated with the building blocks of the city.
To give Dublin Corporation's planners an idea of how high the office tower would rise, blimps were flown at various levels and a crane was erected on the site with its gib marking the roof level. It would be nearly twice the height of Zoe's apartment tower at Charlotte Quay and significantly higher than Liberty Hall (59m).
"If we want this development to go ahead, which we do, we're going to have to prove to people that a signature building in that part of the city is desirable and that it's not going to destroy the skyline," according to Noel Smyth. "The quality of the actual building is going to be such that I believe people will be delighted with it."
As John Smyth puts it, the proposed tower is not an abrasive square block with large floor plates. "What we've done is to make sure that it's a dynamic building that contextually responds to its site and the city in general, a building that people will respond to and that will present itself differently depending on what part of the city you're in."
However, given that the high buildings study is now under way and will not be finalised until June, there may well be an issue of how high the corporation's planners will allow it to go. The EIS will help them, and the public in general, to assess the visual impact of this latest daring plan to build the tallest building in Dublin.
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