Plans unveiled for Diamond tower in Dublin

Developer Sean Dunne tonight unveiled ambitious plans for a 37-storey diamond shaped tower in Dublin 4.

The Mountbrook Group is seeking permission to build a 132 meter high landmark building on the seven acre site currently occupied by the Jurys Berkeley Court Hotel in Ballsbridge.

The plan boasts a 232 bedroom luxury hotel, family sized apartments, underground mall, embassy complex, office block, ice rink, and a creche for 150 children.

Sculpted like a diamond, the development also features a cultural quarter at the entrance to the former hotel, incorporating an art house cinema, a jazz club, art galleries, artists’ studios, music rooms, rehearsal studios and a European Centre for Culture to become a focal point for the work of many cultural institutes.

Residents groups are expected to oppose the plans, which will be on public display at the Berkeley Court Hotel from 12 – 6pm tomorrow, Saturday and Sunday.

“Ballsbridge has for a long time been wrongly portrayed by some as a village, whereas in actual fact it is a national centre,” said Sean Dunne, Managing Director of Mountbrook.

“It houses the home of Irish rugby, the headquarters of AIB (the largest bank in Ireland), 1,500,000 square feet of offices, the Royal Dublin Society and is home to 29 embassies.”

Mr Dunne said Ballsbridge has for many years been defined by its Georgian and Victorian architecture, which has remained well preserved from the 18th and 19th centuries.

However he deemed more recent developments as outmoded and ugly.

“The 20th century, involved haphazard development which is today predominantly exemplified by the existing Jurys Hotel, Hume House, Carrisbrook House, Lansdowne House, Franklin House and, indeed, the Berkeley Court itself,” he continued.

“We are now however in the 21st century.

“What was considered modern office space in the 1960s and early 1970s has now reached the end of its useful life and like the current development of the Lansdowne Road stadium, the cycle of developing Ballsbridge for the 21st century is now ready to commence.”

Mr Dunne said it is a widely held belief that, with the exception of the American Embassy, these buildings and structures are of no particular architectural value and for the most part are considered both outmoded and ugly.

The site was purchased in 2005 at €54m per acre, a record price for land in Ireland.

Adjoining land transactions have since changed hands at varying prices from €83m to €125m per acre.

The landmark tower – to be known as One Berkeley Court – was designed by Henning Larsen Architects, based in Copenhagen, and chosen through an international competition.

The developers claim while the site measures seven acres, almost nine acres will be given back to the people of Dublin by providing almost three acres of new pedestrian streets while the underground mall, bars, restaurants, cafes, cultural facilities, ice rink and other public areas provide an additional 5.75 acres.