DUBLIN CITY Council has approved plans for a major revamp of Dublin’s Gresham Hotel which will it expand the number of its bedrooms by almost 50 per cent.
Owner Precinct Investment has secured permission for significant expansion and refurbishment of the hotel, including the addition of 179 new hotel rooms and a new glazed conference facility on the eight floor.
Designed by architects Cantrell and Crowley, the plans for the 288-bedroom hotel also include a day spa, fitness area and courtyard garden at first floor level.
The hotel’s restaurant and a new shop will be at Cathal Brugha Street along with the kitchens and a new function room. A new executive lounge and roof garden will be at seventh floor level.
The revamp of the four-star hotel will also involve the demolition of a number of structures to the rear of the hotel and some plant rooms at roof level.
There was only one objector to the scheme, An Taisce. Welcoming the changes, the environmental charity said the revamp of the “iconic” hotel, along with the development of the Carlton site, will “form a key element in the regeneration and upgrading of Upper O’Connell Street”.
But it expressed concern about the proposed conference facility which it described as a “glazed box” which would “sit above the the existing hotel” and would “excessively” dominate views in and around O’Connell Street and detract from the skyline.
