The Dublin wing of O'Malley Construction, which specialises in the top end of the apartment market, has always been particularly choosy when it comes to sites. It is hardly surprising therefore that the company's latest apartment development is located on what is undoubtedly a unique town site in Dublin 2.
The main frontage is along Adelaide Road with views towards Leeson Street and the Georgian Fitzwilliam Place. On the other side, it faces on to the Grand Canal looking over Dartmouth Square and Dublin mountains in the distance. The site was formerly owned by the Jewish community and part of a 19th century red-brick Synagogue has been retained along the Adelaide Road frontage.
Although the wide range of homes in Symphony House are not due to be completed until next summer, O'Malleys are taking bookings from today for a mixture of 20 apartments, penthouses and townhouses. Ross McParland will be handling sales.
One-bedroom apartments with between 474 and 611 sq ft will cost from £230,000 to £275,000 (292,000 to 349,000); two-bedroom apartments with 728 to 819 sq ft will range from £350,000 to £475,000(444,410 to 603,130) while two-bedroom duplex units (785 to 852 sq ft) overlooking a courtyard will be priced from £440,000 to £445,000 (558,684 to 565,033).
There will also be a choice of two two-bedroom townhouses with 806 sq ft overlooking the canal at £435,000 and one three-bedroom townhouse with 1,140 sq ft and a similar orientation priced at £555,000 (704,704). For someone looking for a particularly glamorous city home there is one three-bedroom penthouse available at £1.2 million (1.52m).
It will have a floor area of 1,800 sq ft and two large terraces with stunning views all over the city. Car-parking spaces, which are particularly valuable in this part of the city, will cost £4,500 (5,714).
O'Malleys have always prided themselves on the high quality of their fit outs. Their Ballsbridge Woods scheme set a new standard in the Dublin apartment market and not surprisingly these homes are deemed to have shown the fastest capital growth of any new development in the city.
But for viewers unfamiliar with that project and the company's other developments in Dublin, a new showroom has just been completed on the site of Symphony House to illustrate the standard of fixtures and fittings that will be available. Kitchens will be particularly impressive with dark granite worktops and splashbacks, Scandanavian-style wall and floor units with stainless steel fittings and under-counter lighting.
All the bedrooms will have built-in cream and beech wardrobes. There will be gas central heating and all mod cons, including multi-core cable for internet access, cable TV and telephone. As usual with O'Malley's, there will be solid oak internal doors.
For the visitors, the first experience of the interior will be an impressive entrance foyer and graceful curved staircase housed in a dramatic six-storey glazed atrium floored in natural stone.
Symphony House seems set to become one of the most stylish schemes in the south inner city. It is also likely to be seen as a considerable professional triumph for architects McCrossan O'Rourke and Manning who have shown great flair and imagination in designing a scheme for a particularly challenging shape of site.
A total of 41 units are housed in a six-storey block over ground-level parking. The apartments in the six-storey block face either tree-lined Adelaide Road and the grounds of the Eye and Ear Hospital or a private inner courtyard formed between the block and the canal-facing townhouses.
A dramatic circular-drum feature of the six-storey block, visible from Leeson Street and Fitzwilliam Place, will almost certainly become a Dublin landmark.
The finish will be in clay brickwork, echoing the neighbouring terrace and the hospital across the road. The higher level homes will have panoramic views over the roofs of the townhouses towards the mountains.
