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THE PLANNED DEMOLITION of Apollo House in Dublin has been put on hold.
This follows objectors to the demolition and redevelopment of the 1960s office block lodging appeals with An Bord Pleanála against the decision by Dublin City Council to give the scheme the go-ahead.
Over Christmas and the New Year, the focus on the homelessness crisis centred on Apollo House after it was occupied by housing activists and homeless people in a ‘direct action’ move fronted by singer Glen Hansard and movie director Jim Sheridan.
Now, An Bord Pleanála is to decide the future of Apollo House after it confirmed yesterday that appeals have been lodged against the City Council decision by a management firm representing the nearby 66 Corn Exchange apartments and developers, Balark Investments Ltd.
The planned demolition of Apollo House is part of an overall €50 million scheme that also involves the planned demolition and redevelopment of the adjacent Hawkins House, long regarded as one of Dublin’s ugliest buildings.
The appeals board also confirmed yesterday that a third party appeal has been received, but has yet to be validated, against the decision to give the go-ahead for the redevelopment of Hawkins House which is a companion application to the Apollo House plan.
The Office of Public Works (OPW) is the applicant for the redevelopment of Hawkins House while Nama appointed receiver to Cuprum Properties Ltd, Mazars is seeking to redevelop Apollo House.
The city council permission granted to the OPW allowed for a combined development of a new office “quarter”, along with shops, restaurants, a public plaza and a diagonal pedestrian street.
Not a worthy replacement
In their objection against the redevelopment of Apollo House, the Corn Exchange residents stated that the new building by way of its massing, scale and design does not represent a worthy replacement to the existing building.
However, in response to the concerns expressed when the plan was before the city council, consultants for Cuprum reduced the height of the new block by omitting one floor from the 12-storey building and reducing its height by 13 feet to 146 feet.
The consultants also included an image showing the new Apollo House will be significantly lower in height than Liberty Hall and the MonteVetro Google Dock building.
The building’s architects, Henry J Lyons, stated: “The tallest elements of the proposal provide a significant and elegant presence underpinning the project as an important point along the proposed Civic Route as well as being a high quality Headquarter Style office building.”
Consultants for Cuprum, Brady Shipman Martin, told the city council that “the redevelopment of Apollo House represents a significant opportunity in the revitalisation of not only this city block, but a strategic positive contribution in the urban environment of the city centre”.
The second appeal against the Apollo House redevelopment is by Balark Investments, which recently purchased the nearby College House and Screen Cinema.
In their objection against the plan, Balark state the three key site locations of their own land bank, Hawkins House and Apollo House should be redeveloped together.
The objection stated that the piecemeal approach to the redevelopment of the city block has resulted in a number of inefficiencies and challenges.
The objection stated that without the integrated approach for the three sites, “there is a strong possibility that the existing situation will be repeated with three individual buildings developed with connectivity or inter-relationship”.
A decision is due on the appeals in May of this year.
WOW, all the pro-Chinese t-ro-lls already on here……..
I just read an utterly insane comment that HK protestors should be thankful they’re not facing the NYPD?!!
Just how blind to China’s, literal, decades long abuses of human rights do they think we are?
@Tricia G: the 50 cent army is always around for these articles to spout their muck.
It’s both Full Moon
@Seriousnojoke: You mean all those people being kettled in Causeway bay by Police right now?
@Seriousnojoke: You think people in HK should consider themselves lucky because they are not dealing with NYPD. I disagree, Hong Kongers are lucky because the CCP have been kind not send them to concentration camps like the have for the Uyghurs in mainland China.
@Seriousnojoke: Pro-PRC troll.
@Seriousnojoke: LMFAO
@Seriousnojoke: You are a CCP pansy. The police harrassed a senior citizen for carry a yellow balloon ffs and charge groups of people who gather to cross the street at crossings, then arrest minors for baseless charges. Reading an Apple daily publication gains you the attention of police, like the guy alone in the MTR surround by 12 or more police while he read the paper.
@Seriousnojoke: propaganda troll for the CCP.
@Little Pudding: “the CCP have been kind not send them to concentration camps like the have for the Uyghurs”
Give them time!
Move to Taiwan and report from there instead. That will really pi*s off the CCP.
25 years ago, I was worried about China for all of us…. kept saying that in several debates… here we are….
Apple Daily, full lies, bias views or opinions, we call it as poison Apple, just like Fox News, other media debunks their lies and nobody’s cares.
In hk, the journalist was cheap, just pay €25 that is all. The most time they have tons of “journalists” standing between police and riots, literally standing between them. The police couldn’t do their job, just like mosquitos, so annoying. One of the photo i’ve see is one police hold smoke grenade gun standing at the corner and aim, that is all on hk media, but the full photo is about 50 journalists around him and taking photo of him, who cares about that?
Denzel Washington said if you read the newspaper, if you don’t read it, you’re misinformed, What is the long-term effect of too much information? One of the effects is the need to be first, not even to be true anymore.”
So what a responsibility you all have; to tell the truth, not to just be first, but to tell the truth.
“We live in a society now where it’s just first. Who cares? Get it out there. We don’t care who it hurts, we don’t care who we destroy, we don’t care if it’s true. Just say it, sell it.”
Harrow
I had a comment deleted because I was critical of journalists and their of of the tv licence scam
have your say