Four years after it was first mooted, Dubliners should prepare to be astonished by "The Spike" when it is finally erected in O'Connell Street, starting on Friday, writes Frank McDonald, Environment Editor
Nobody can imagine what the Spire of Dublin (aka "The Spike") is really going to look like, despite all the computer-generated images published since it was first unveiled as a project in November 1998.
So Dubliners should prepare to be gobsmacked by its 120-metre height.
Standing twice as tall as Liberty Hall, the soaring stainless-steel needle designed by an award-winning London architect, Mr Ian Ritchie, will have a "phenomenal wow factor", according to the Dublin City Architect, Mr Jim Barrett.
"There's no doubt it will have an immediate impact."
Despite its height, "The Spike" will rise from a base of just three metres (10 feet). It will also have a tolerance of 2½ metres at the apex so that it can gently sway in high winds without toppling over. And, at nearly 400 feet, it should be visible from numerous distant vantage points.
This sensational structure should redefine the city centre and people's perceptions of where that is, quite apart from providing Dublin with a new icon. Now that it is finally going up, Mr Barrett suggested that Dubliners will get used to it fairly quickly after the initial reaction of awe and wonder.
Weather permitting, the first section is due to be erected on Friday, when it will be secured by massive bolts to a steel receiving plate. And though Friday is the 13th of December, the city authorities are hoping that nothing will go wrong with the final phase of a very controversial project.
Mr Ritchie's Monument of Light was selected from 205 entries in an international design competition to find an appropriate replacement for Nelson's Pillar, blown up by the IRA in 1966. Ms Joan O'Connor, who chaired the jury, described it as "a wonderful wand for O'Connell Street."
Intended as "a new symbol of Dublin for the third millennium", its beacon-like quality derives from the fact that the top 12 metres will be perforated, tapering to a tip of optical glass, through which light will emerge from a powerful light positioned within the slender structure.
The winning architect described it as "a pure symbol of optimism for the future", saying his high, elegant monument symbolised "growth, search, release, thrust - and Ireland's future." Admittedly, this was at the height of the Celtic Tiger boom, now officially consigned to the past. The choice of Mr Ritchie's project from a motley collection of entries indicated that the jury was not particularly concerned about public access, which would have required a more bulky structure to accommodate a lift and stairs. Dramatic visual impact was seen as paramount.
As usual, Dubliners went into overdrive to suggest derogatory nicknames, such as "The Stiletto in the Ghetto", but the one that stuck was "The Spike". A former city councillor likened it to "a huge hypodermic needle" while a Russian emigré artist said it was "an anorexic and alien body."
The project, then estimated at £3 million (€3.8 million), was adopted by Dublin City Council in March 1999 by 34 votes to 14 after a spirited debate.
But this decision was later challenged in the High Court by Mr Micheál Ó Nualláin, a retired school inspector whose own entry had been rejected.
He had proposed a "skypod" mounted on a huge hexagonal column rising from a three-storey glazed box at street level. This, he argued, would give Dublin a "sculpted flying saucer", as powerful a symbol for the city as the Eiffel Tower in Paris, which was equally controversial in its day.
Mr Ó Nualláin, brother of Brian O'Nolan (alias Flann O'Brien and Myles na gCopalleen), argued that the city authorities should have produced an environmental impact statement. In July 1999, Mr Justice T.C. Smyth ruled that an EIS was required before Mr Ritchie's "bold beacon" could be erected..
An immensely-detailed EIS was subsequently compiled by McHugh Consultants and submitted for certification in June 2000 to Mr Noel Dempsey, then Minister for the Environment. A planning inspector, Mr Eoghan Brangan, was appointed to deal with the case and the public was asked for its views.
Of the 121 submissions received, three-quarters were against the project.
But Mr Brangan recommended that it should go ahead as a pivotal element of the city council's 1998 plan to rejuvenate O'Connell Street, which includes the creation of a granite-paved "plaza" in front of the GPO.
All but 10 of the objections came from individuals, including Mr Ó Nualláin. They argued that "The Spike" was inappropriate in terms of the character, history and architecture of the area, while just over a quarter complained that it would be too high, ugly and out of scale with its surroundings.
In his report to the Minister, Mr Brangan noted that a quarter of the submissions were supportive - mainly from local businesses and commercial organisations, including the Dublin City Centre Business Association, the Dublin Chamber of Commerce and the Irish Hotels Federation.
The Arts Council also rowed in, saying the monument's "sheer vertical form" was an appropriate response to the "broad horizontal nature" of O'Connell Street. With its "unique and exciting design", it would be "a courageous embodiment of the 21st century and a monument worthy of a capital city."
Mr Brangan found An Taisce's submission "somewhat ambivalent". On the one hand, it described the monument as "simple, streamlined, vertical in emphasis" and, on the other, as "non-functional, non-contextual and sterile". The heritage body wanted its height reduced so that it would not be so visible.
But the planning inspector said a height reduction was neither necessary nor appropriate. Though the monument's effect on the urban landscape was its most controversial aspect, "the purpose of the development is to produce a significant visual impact and it would be a failure if it did not do so".
Referring to complaints about the danger of toppling, Mr Brangan noted that it had been designed to withstand a 30-year extreme wind loading, which seemed "very short". He recommended modifications to ensure long-term stability and further measures to safeguard it against a lightning strike.
Two years ago this month, Mr Dempsey approved the spire subject to a number of conditions, including a requirement that it would be sufficiently stable to "withstand meteorological impacts based on a 100-year return wind loading" and that its base should incorporate a Celtic spiral design.