AIB's new HQ plans appealed

Dublin 4 residents have challenged AIB's plan to build a seven-storey office development on the site of the existing bankcentre bounded by Merrion Road and Serpentine Avenue in Ballsbridge.

A number of parties have appealed planning permission granted by Dublin City Council for the proposed 56,834 sq m (611,75 sq ft) office scheme on the 14-acre grounds of the existing 1970s-built bankcentre. The plan is for three linked blocks rising from five to seven stories.

AIB says it is building the new headquarters because the existing group head office functions have grown since the 1980s with an outward spread of staff and facilities, and a consequent doubling of employers to over 4,500.

The appellants are Ballsbridge Court Management Company Ltd which represents 90 apartments, Tom and Helen Marren and 13 residents of Serpentine Avenue and Serpentine Terrace.

Ballsbridge Court Management Committee says it believes the bankcentre building should be no more than four storeys high. It says the development's height and proximity to Ballsbridge Court apartment scheme will result in overlooking, overshadowing and a loss of privacy.

A proposed entrance to the bankcentre which runs parallel to Ballsbridge Court will exacerbate traffic on Serpentine Avenue. It says the entrance is 50 yards from the DART gates which already close every 10 minutes, resulting in a tailback of traffic. Another concern was the provision of only 916 car-parking spaces for 4,500 staff.

It asks that An Bord Pleanála insist AIB take precautions to ensure there is no structural damage to nearby buildings and says the proposal is more suited to an industrial estate than a residential area.

Tom and Helen Marren with an address at Claremont Road in Sandymount say they live adjacent to the bankcentre premises, and have no objection in principle to the scheme if it is set back from Serpentine Avenue with a height and scale similar to the existing AIB office block.

They say the proposed relocation of the entrance from Serpentine Avenue to Serpentine Terrace will cause serious traffic congestion because it is closer to the DART line.

Chartered town planners Stephen Little & Associates on behalf of 13 residents of Serpentine Terrace and avenue said the rotation of the front of the AIB bankcentre from Merrion Road to Serpentine Road is "wholly inappropriate" because it is on a residential road. It calls the scale and mass of the building "visually dominant" and overbearing and requests an oral hearing by An Bord Pleanála.

The proposed development designed by RKD architects will be in two phases, the first involving 30,466 sq m (327,933 sq ft) of offices in four to six storeys , an atrium, and five-storey glazed gallery.

The second phase will involve and a four to six-storey extension to the north of the building, designed around a series of atria.