LIAM CARROLL has lost his bid to extend Google's headquarters at Gordon House in Barrow Street, Dublin 2 to allow it to double its workforce.
Two local residents groups successfully appealed planning permission granted to the developer by Dublin City Council earlier this year.
An Bord Pleanála decided that the additional office space would increase the scale and massing of the existing development to "an unacceptable degree" in relation to single storey housing in the area.
Google, which occupies two office blocks fronting Barrow Street, submitted supporting material with the planning application stating its Dublin office is the second largest in the world, employing 1,500, and that it is planning to double its workforce.
Carroll was seeking an additional 5,617sq m (60,461sq ft) of office space on the former gas storage depot site which would have given the six-storey Gordon House an overall size of 20,614sq m (221,887sq ft) and change the shape of the building from the existing stepped down design, so it gets narrower as it rises, to a rectangular building.
The two third party appeals to the planning board were from the Clayton and Pigeon house units in the Gasworks development and the residents of Gerald Street, Gordon Street and South Dock Street. They complained that the office block would overshadow their homes and would be visually intrusive resulting in a loss of privacy.
Gasworks residents said a rectangular-shaped building would block light to two apartment blocks, Clayton and Poolbeg, and cut light from Pigeon House in the Gasworks development and houses on Gordon Street.
