DUBLIN CITY Council's chief conservation architect, Clare Hogan, is expected to recommend that planning permission be refused for radical alterations to the Bank of Ireland headquarters on Lower Baggot Street.
A decision on the scheme is due to be made before the end of this month.
It is regarded as particularly sensitive because the three modernist blocks are now protected structures, following a vote by the city council last year.
The application to have the bank's headquarters listed for preservation was made in April 2006 by city architect Jim Barrett, who has since retired.
He was concerned that the complex would be threatened by redevelopment.
At the time, the Bank of Ireland was negotiating to sell its headquarters to a consortium headed by developer Paddy Shovlin and financier Derek Quinlan for just over €200 million, and the deal was concluded shortly afterwards.
In his application, Mr Barrett described the complex as the "foremost example" of the style of 20th-century architecture pioneered by German-born modernist master, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, architect of the Seagram Building in New York.
As designed by Scott Tallon Walker, the bank's headquarters was "grandiose but rigorously disciplined, making a significant contribution to the cityscape with their exceptional architectural quality and landscaped open space", he wrote.
In her report recommending that the complex be added to the record of protected structures, Ms Hogan noted that its characteristic bronze cladding had been manufactured in Dublin to a very high standard by steel fabricators Smith and Pearson.
"It was built to an unprecedented level of quality in terms of its materials, internal spaces, finishes and detailing. The excellence of its modern art works and their complementary role to the internal architecture of its spaces is exceptional."
Ms Hogan noted that the facade related to Baggot Street and "respects its storey height and street rhythm ... Rather than making a monumental statement, the building addresses the context of a historic street and offers the city a plaza."
The Shovlin-Quinlan consortium is seeking permission to enclose much of this plaza with an atrium containing new lift shafts as well as two additional floors on top of the nine-storey and four-storey blocks and an extra floor on the five-storey block.
The planning application, submitted by HKR Architects, also envisages extending the main block at the rear on James's Lane by removing most of its bronze-clad façade to make way for a seven-storey glazed slab extending the floors at every level.
The council has received 17 objections, including letters from the Arts Council, An Taisce, the Architectural Association of Ireland, four leading members of Aosdána and several architects, as well as an observation from the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland.
The Irish Times
www.buckplanning.ie
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