Heuston scheme is 'excessive in scale'

Scott Tallon Walker's design for a landmark development at Hickeys Fabrics headquarters on Parkgate Street, Dublin 8, has been criticised by An Taisce.

The leading architectural firm's design for a mixed-use scheme at the 0.7-hectare site at the junction of Parkgate Street and Seán Heuston Bridge has been branded "substandard" and "excessive in scale" by the environmental group.

Hickeys plans for the site include 139 apartments in two nine-storey blocks, a public plaza overhanging the River Liffey, a six-storey glazed office block and a new pedestrianised street connecting Parkgate Street to the river.

While An Taisce has welcomed in principle the development of a contemporary, mixed-use scheme on the strategic Liffey-front site, it has expressed concern about the scale and design of the scheme.

The design has a "corporate appearance" more suited to the IFSC, says Kevin Duff from An Taisce.

The landmark site, at the entrance to the city and opposite Heuston Station, "calls for a more civic design", he said.

The environmental group has appealed Dublin City Council's grant of permission to An Bord Pleanála.

"The architectural design, particularly that of the residential blocks, is heavy, repetitive and monolithic and does not befit the huge importance of the site," it stated in a letter to An Bord Pleanála.

The height of the scheme integrates poorly into the surrounding area, it added.

"A sudden jump from three/four storeys to nine storeys in this streetscape would clearly not be in the interest of the coherent planning and development of the area."

Plans to make a break in the River Liffey quay wall to facilitate the building of a public plaza overhanging the River Liffey also came in for criticism.

A plaza jutting out into the river would clutter and spoil the view east along the Liffey above Seán Heuston Bridge, the environmental group argued.

The excessive height and the proposed demolition of Parkgate House were among concerns raised by another objection to the planning board from Stephen Farrell and Dr Conrad O'Keeffe.

The scheme, if it gets the go-ahead from the planning board, will also include two retail units fronting onto Parkgate Street, a restaurant fronting onto the river, four own-door duplex office units and a new river walkway connecting to an existing walkway to the west of the site.