A new €100 million residential development on one of Cork's quays will set the scale for future development of the city's docklands, an An Bord Pleanála oral hearing was told yesterday.
Hugh Murray of Murray O'Laoire, lead architect of the project, said it was essential that the Water Street development by Werdna Ltd on Cork's north docklands was the correct height.
"This project is going to set the scale for all future developments. I feel passionately that if we set it too low, we will make a mistake for the rest of the waterfront in the city," Mr Murray told the hearing chaired by An Bord Pleanála inspector David Dunne.
Werdna Ltd is appealing two conditions attached by Cork City Council to a revised 304-apartment proposal for Water Street submitted after the council refused permission for a 400-apartment complex.
The company is appealing the decision to reduce its proposed heights on four finger blocks of apartments from seven storeys with a two-storey setback to five storeys with a two-storey setback.
It is also appealing another part of this condition: the council's refusal to allow planning for a 17-storey tower block because it was unhappy with its design and impact on the area's amenities.
The second condition that Werdna is appealing is a requirement that it build a terrace of mews houses at the rear of the development to improve the relationship of the complex with the existing terraced housing on the adjacent Lower Glanmire Road.
It is arguing that the provision of a green area at the northern side of a new road in the complex would better serve as a buffer between the complex and the backs of the houses on the southern side of Lower Glanmire Road.
Yesterday Mr Murray argued that the council had not made any compelling case for a reduction in the finger blocks from seven storeys with a two-storey setback to five storeys with a two-storey setback.
He argued that in the context of the site, which opens on to the river Lee where the channel is some 117 metres wide, and the 220m quayside frontage, a nine storey development was not out of scale. He said the 17-storey tower (56.2m) was an appropriate landmark building, especially as it "echoed" the height of some of the corresponding buildings on the facing south quays, including the ESB power station (30m), its chimney (78m) and grain silos (53m and 46m).
Mr Murray said the tower originally had a shoulder design and had been located on the western side of the development. However, it was redesigned following discussions with the council and was now a slender elegant tower, which had been relocated to the eastern side of the development.
He believed the revised proposal meant it would be a suitable landmark building, which, with the other tall buildings on the south docks, would be like "physical gates" marking entry to the city.
Mr Murray said planners tended to be cautious and conservative about tall buildings and these were reduced in size to satisfy them, with the results often being far from satisfactory.
The hearing continues in Cork.