Dublin City Council gave the go ahead for a redesign of Liberty Hall, which will see it gain six storeys if completed.
During the week we heard the news that An Bord Pleanala had rejected proposals for a new Children’s Hospital in the city centre as it would be ‘too tall’ and it would ruin the city’s skyline. However, it now looks like Dublin City Council still wants to poke at the skyline as they plan to increase Liberty Hall (on the left of the image above) by six storeys.
Currently, Liberty Hall stands at 16 storeys tall but the council wants to increase this to 22 storeys, which will be ‘self-financed’, or so we’re told. They plan to use a combination of existing funds while also leasing existing office space.
However, according to the Irish Independent, SIPTU, which owns the building, was keeping tight lipped on how much the proposed redevelopment would actually cost.
So why go to the trouble of throwing another six stories on top of Liberty Hall? Well, according to SIPTU general secretary Joe O’Flynn, ‘the building doesn’t meet the union’s needs in the 21st Century’.
Well, that’s sure to feck up traffic on the quays for sometime. Sure at least 200 construction jobs might come from it, if it does go ahead.
Dublin City Council have already received a number of objections to the new plans, mainly because of the proposed height of the building, and more opposition is expected to be filed with An Bord Pleanala over the coming weeks.
