Plans to develop a State-owned site on Dublin's Harcourt Terrace for two office blocks and two apartment buildings, rising to a height of nine storeys, are "wholly inappropriate" in scale for this sensitive location, according to An Taisce.
"Harcourt Terrace is a unique environment in the city, defined by the rare and intact Regency houses, with centrepiece, on its west side," it said. "Unfortunately, the proposed building is . . . in no way sympathetic to the sensitive historic environment of the terrace."
The proposed development, by Harcourt Terrace Ltd, a subsidiary of the Durkan Group, "needs to be significantly revised to take account of the unique and sensitive environment of Harcourt Terrace and the scale and pattern of development on the Grand Canal frontage", An Taisce said.
In a letter to Dublin City Council objecting to the scheme, Kevin Duff of An Taisce's planning sub-committee noted that An Bord Pleanála had refused planning permission last April for an eight-storey office block on Charlemont Place because of its obtrusive height and scale.
The Durkan scheme would be even higher - it features a nine-storey office block as well as two apartment buildings, five and seven storeys high, and a four-storey office block to the rear of two houses on Harcourt Terrace, with a ramp leading to an underground car park with 86 spaces.
Altogether, the scheme would provide 43 apartments - a mix of mainly one- and two-bedroom units - and 12,714sq metres (136,854sq ft) of office space, all located within walking distance of the Luas stop at Charlemont Place, which is one of its selling points.
The development would occupy the site of Harcourt Terrace Garda station, the Film Censor's office and the former Dairy Science Laboratory, which Durkans acquired last year in exchange for providing 408 affordable homes in new housing schemes in west Dublin.
The 0.87 acre site was valued at €31.4 million and its swap for housing was hailed by Des Geraghty, chairman of the Affordable Homes Partnership, as showing the "potential of the land-exchange mechanism as a model for the delivery of affordable housing".
Citing the Irish Nationwide (formerly Carroll's) headquarters on Grand Parade as a precedent, the developers maintain that the height of the proposed office block fronting onto Charlemont Place would be "appropriate" having regard to its location on the Grand Canal.
"The Regency buildings on Harcourt Terrace are an extremely elegant architectural set-piece and have had a bearing in the consideration of the proposed development," according to a planning and environmental report prepared by Tom Phillips and Associates.
"The canal, in our view, is the more important context when considering an appropriate scale for the proposed development," it says, adding that the most successful building in the immediate is the "elegant modernist" Carroll's building on the south bank of the canal.
The report claims that the proposed development would be "respectful of its physical context" and also that the potential for overlooking adjacent buildings had been "minimised" by O'Mahoney Architecture through "significant set-backs and stepping of the buildings".
"The proposal will deliver a high-quality scheme which addresses the shortfall of accommodation (both residential and office space) within the Greater Dublin Area on an under-utilised brownfield site and is in accordance with proper planning and sustainable development."
This is hotly disputed by residents of Harcourt Terrace, including veteran conservationist Eileen Ross, who said the Durkan scheme was the "worst ever" proposed for the area.
She has joined with others to "oppose this awful plan" before a decision is made early next month.
