Madam, - There is a worrying and growing acceptance that high-rise buildings in Dublin are not only inevitable but also desirable and appealing. The City Council's draft strategy, Maximising the City's Potential: the Strategy for Intensification and Height, attempts to impose this thinking on the capital and, in so doing, to radically alter the city skyline.
Having read this document charter, and Michael Smith's critique of it ( Opinion & Analysis, February 8th), I agree that a more thorough study needs to be carried out before high-rise structures are built in some of the areas being advocated. The council declares its intention to protect the city's historic core, or "bowl", yet says that areas around Grangegorman, the Digital Hub and Connolly Station can support high-rise. It also leaves open many other parts of the capital's historic core to potential high-rise development, including Rathmines, Mountjoy, Ship Street and the Markets.
No doubt Dublin needs greater intensification, but surely it is the low-rise, high-density of Barcelona and Copenhagen that we should be trying to replicate. Dublin's historic core needs to be restored and protected first and foremost. And, in the meantime, what (high-quality) high rise is required can be accommodated in the Docklands and Heuston areas. - Yours, etc,
GEOFF POWER, The Island, Chapelizod, Dublin 20.