Friday 14 December 2007

€46m sculpture planned for Liffey

A MASSIVE human sculpture could tower over Dublin if a planning application lodged yesterday is given the green light.

The €46m figure — almost half the height of Dublin’s landmark Spire — is to be sited on the River Liffey in the city next to the Seán O’Casey bridge.

It was designed by artist Antony Gormley, best known for the Angel Of The North in England.

The Dublin Docklands Development Authority confirmed a planning application was lodged with the city council yesterday.

The final site was chosen because of its prominent location.

The authority’s chief executive Paul Maloney said: “It is positioned at a point between the old and new development areas of Dublin city and on a prominent site when viewed along the Liffey corridor and along one of the main thoroughfares down to the River Liffey.

“It is also at a location where north/south and east/west pedestrian movements intersect.

“In addition, the proposed site allows the sculpture to be viewed against the skyline within an area of Dublin that has low-rise buildings on both sides of the river and it does not interfere with navigation on the River Liffey.”

The sculpture would have a huge impact on Dublin’s quickly changing docklands area, where there are already plans for Ireland’s first skyscraper, the U2 Tower.

The Spire came to signify Ireland’s Celtic Tiger economy and towers O’Connell Street, near the proposed site of the sculpture.

Subject to planning permission, construction is likely to start on the €1.6m project during 2008 and will take about a year.

It will be built in sections off-site and then welded together on-site over a three-month period. Painted black and unlit, it would be put on a single pile driven into the river bedrock.

Gormley’s Angel Of The North has become one of the best-known artistic landmarks in Europe.

Any submissions must be made within five weeks to Dublin City Council’s planning office.

Irish Examiner

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