Plans to demolish the eight-storey Carrisbrook House in Dublin 4 and replace it with a 10-storey office block are being opposed by local residents.
Last year Atria V Lux SARL lodged plans for the demolition of the well-known building located at the junction of Pembroke and Northumberland roads, opposite the former Jury’s hotel.
Carrisbrook House served as the home of the Israeli embassy in Ireland until its relocation to nearby Shelbourne Road in 2019.
Scheme
The new office block scheme at 12,690sq m will provide more than three times the gross floor area of the current Carrisbrook House, which has a gross floor area of 3,757sq m. Atria V Lux SARL’s plan also includes a restaurant and cafe at ground floor level.
However, the Pembroke Road Association and the Lansdowne and District Residents Association have lodged objections.
The Lansdowne association told the city council that the houses on Pembroke Road would be dwarfed by the proposal. It also said the 10-storey development would result “in a sheer and brutalist structure sitting at this important junction”.
The Pembroke Road Association said there “is a super abundance” of office space in the area.
“We would welcome an application for a smaller scale residential and mixed use building but not for office space alone,” it said. The association went on to say that “the heights, bulk and massing of the proposed building are out of proportion with the scale of the historic residential district”.
The association also said that the celebrated sight lines, views and vistas of Pembroke Road would “be irrevocably altered”.
Site
Planning consultants for the scheme, John Spain & Associates, said that the proposal “represents a further opportunity to secure the improvement of an inner suburban site at a strategic location”.
Mr Spain said the site already had an eight-storey office development, albeit of little architectural merit, and with considerable environmental and built constraints in terms of its future use for office development.
Mr Spain also said the scheme was a high quality replacement for the dated 1960s building.
The council has requested the applicant submit revised plans in response to its concerns over the scale of the northeast section of the building and its proximity to adjoining properties and other items.
