Signature architecture - that's what it's called - is coming to Dublin. And while it would be an exaggeration to say that every "big name" in the architectural galaxy is jetting in, lured by the rich pickings of Ireland's economic boom, the city will end up with a number of "signature structures".

Despite the forest of tower-cranes on Dublin's skyline, most major building projects are not particularly large by the standards of, say, Berlin or Shanghai. Nonetheless, news of the city's current "buzz" has spread far and wide, prompting a number of international architects to sit up and take notice.

Among those coming to town is Chinese-American architect I.M. Pei, whose most internationally-famous project is the Grand Louvre in Paris - best-known for the pyramid roof over its main concourse. Pei is so attached to it, indeed, that he copyrighted images of the pyramid, even on tourist postcards.

His office, Pei Cobb Freed and Partners, is in the process of being commissioned to design a mega-project centred on Westland Row station and an adjoining derelict site on Pearse Street, once occupied by the post office. It is to be a joint venture by CIE and Trinity College, which now owns this site.

Other big names with major schemes in the pipeline include Santiago Calatrava, the Zurich-based Catalan architect-engineer, who has been commissioned by Dublin Corporation to design two bridges for the River Liffey - one linking Blackhall Place with Ushers Island and the other on the axis of Macken Street.

Britain's best-known architects, Norman Foster and Richard Rogers, are also believed to be considering invitations to become involved in major projects in Dublin. And we already have controversial schemes by Skidmore Owings and Merrill for George's Quay and Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo Associates for Spencer Dock.

"Some developers seem to think that getting in a `big name' can swing a project, that it will bamboozle the planners into granting permission," one observer commented. However, as the sagas of George's Quay and Spencer Dock have shown, having a big name on board is no guarantee that they will be ushered through the system.

Another architect, who did not wish to be identified, said there was now a perception that the Dublin Corporation is promoting "big name" imports. "They talk about Dublin as a world-class city that needs world-class buildings by world-class architects, particularly if the scheme involves high-rise buildings," he suggested.

But Jim Barrett, the City Architect, denied the corporation was actively promoting the use of foreign architects.

"We believe that Dublin has architects and engineers as good as anywhere in the world. What's happening is a reflection of the health of the Irish economy and the growing internationalisation of architecture."

Norman Foster - or Lord Foster of Thameside, to give him his latest honorific - is at the forefront of this trend, designing such prestige projects abroad as the spectacular renovation of the Reichstag in Berlin. Similarly, it was US architect Frank Gehry who designed the sensational Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao.

Jim Barrett pointed out that some of the foreign architects with major projects in Dublin got these commissions as a result of competitions - Ian Ritchie, of London, for the Millennium Spire in O'Connell Street, and Edinburgh-based Benson and Forsyth for the £17 million Clare Street extension to the National Gallery.

The gallery project was the subject of a limited competition, mainly involving firms from overseas. Yet, as the results showed, even the likes of Odile Decq, Daniel Liebskind and Moshe Saftie did not produce particularly inspiring schemes for the site. And Benson and Forsyth's winning project did not get an easy ride either.

The Millennium Spire was due to be erected by the end of this year, but it has been delayed by successful High Court actions taken by two of the 204 also-rans in the competition. But the project is not dead; after consultants prepare an environmental impact statement, it will go to the Minister for the Environment for approval.

Meanwhile, Barcelona-based architect David Mackay, whose firm is associated with many of the good things that have happened in the Catalan capital over the past 15 years, has been engaged by the corporation to remake the pocketsize "Millennium Park" beside City Hall - including the design of a Revenue Museum.

London architect David Chipperfield, who recently won an international competition for a church and cemetery in Venice, is doing sketch designs for the installation of Francis Bacon's studio in the Municipal Gallery on Parnell Square. He is best-known for the cool minimalism of his mainly small-scale projects.

Irish architects have worked all over the world, particularly in London, when there was nothing happening here. Now, they are so busy that most of them don't have time to enter international competitions. And despite EU procurement procedures for public contracts, the chances of them getting work elsewhere are close to zero.

So there is a simmering resentment over "big names" from overseas scooping up major projects in Dublin.

"We have the talent here - among those who have developed a regional architecture that is modest in its ambitions and respects the heritage and traditions of the country," according to the RIAI's director, John Graby.

"What we are seeing is the beginnings of market-branding in architecture and urban design, on the lines of Calvin Klein or Ralph Lauren. But is that necessarily a good thing? An architect who designs a building in his or her home town has to live with it. For others, it is just another project in a huge international portfolio."

So, cities all over Europe are getting, say, a bridge by Calatrava, a telecommunications tower by Norman Foster or an urban design plan by Richard Rogers (aka Lord Rogers of Riverside). But how their clients can be certain of securing the imaginative skills of the principals and not some nameless understudy is anybody's guess. There is also a sense that Dublin is at the end of the line. Calatrava's bridges have become so commonplace that one local architect, commenting on his two projects here, was moved to paraphrase Lady Bracknell: "To have one Calatrava bridge may be regarded as a misfortune; to have two looks like carelessness."

I.M. Pei is perhaps the most interesting "name" to darken our shores. Having been personally commissioned by the late Francois Mitterrand to redesign the Louvre, his pyramid - designed in collaboration with RFR (Rice Francis Ritchie) - caused outrage initially, but it has long since displaced the Eiffel Tower as the most visited site in Paris.

Discussions with the corporation's planners and senior officials about his proposed project for Westland Row are at a delicate stage. It is believed to be a very large project indeed, spanning the railway line and incorporating offices, apartments, student residential units and sports facilities for Trinity College and yet another hotel.

This mega-project is so substantial that the corporation is being asked to indicate whether it's a potential runner or tell Pei Cobb Freed that they are wasting their time. If it gets the nod, however unofficial, CIE and Trinity College, together with an as yet unnamed private developer, will proceed to planning application stage.

The Westland Row project grew out of TCD's need to develop new sports facilities, designed by Henry J. Lyons and Partners, as well as more student housing adjoining Goldsmith Hall, on the corner of Pearse Street. Subsequent contacts with CIE, now belatedly rushing to develop its railway stations, turned it into a mega-project.

And that's where I.M. Pei was called in, as potentially the right horse for this particular course. So whatever about the progress that's been made on the home front in recent years in terms of architecture and urban design, there is clearly an attitude that big names from abroad are better than what's available locally.

Time will tell whether this lingering assumption is right or wrong.