Approval given for second tallest building

Planning permission for Ireland's second tallest building - a 24-storey apartment tower about 1½ times the size of Liberty Hall - has been granted by Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council.

The apartment tower on the former M J Flood site in Sandyford Industrial Estate will be second in height only to the 32-storey residential tower approved by Bord Pleanála for a site opposite Heuston Station in Dublin.

It will be more than twice the height of the 10-storey tower proposed for the former baths site on Dún Laoghaire seafront, and about one-third higher than the 17-storey tower also approved by Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council for nearby Leopardstown at the edge of the Sandyford Industrial Estate.

The title of Ireland's second tallest building could be challenged very quickly, however, as a 32-storey building has also been proposed for the Jurys/Berkley Court site in Ballsbridge.

Between them all the towers would have the potential to significantly change the profile of south Dublin, providing a series of what planners call "landmark buildings".

The site of the 24-storey tower approved by the council is opposite the Luas line at the Blackthorn Road/Blackthorn Avenue junction.

Included are a number of blocks in a courtyard style of up to nine storeys around the tower element. In all there are to be 259 apartments, with 15 live/work units with commercial use on the ground floor. There will be underground car parking, and approval for a gym, a creche and a cinema. All facades of the tower are to have balconies, with a "winter garden" on the top floor.

According to Independent Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown councillor Gearóid O'Keeffe, local opposition will definitely see the development referred to Bord Pleanála.

Almost 100 locals recently protested at the Leopardstown junction site of the proposed other 17-storey tower. Bord Pleanála is expected to rule on this at the end of the month.

However, according to senior Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council planner Declan McCullough the county development plan provides for such buildings. "A chapter in the development plan permits landmark buildings in certain locations and in certain conditions."