Re: Re: Should the Clarence Hotel redevelopment get permission?

I’ve thought about this and I’ve reached the decision that the redevelopment should be given the go-ahead. ( Even, after considering the demolishment of the fine old buildings in Temple Bar east that line the quays as well as the old medieval Church’s interior.)

Regarding the Clarence……
1. If permission is granted, what we will get for the city of Dublin is a top international hotel designed by one of the world’s leading architects. We will have a focal point for the city. A magnet and a beacon as such. A talking point.

2. If permission is not granted what could happen is that U2 would sell the loss making hotel. No one would be interested in buying it, so it would be left to lie idle for years and years. Some cheap developer would finally come along and finally get planning permission for the ‘eyesore’ that it would become and so we’d end up up a substandard hotel designed by ‘Joe the builder’ architects.

People don’t have to look very far to see this already happening. Just across the river, the Ormond Hotel has been already lying idle for years. No one says a word about it’s fate. Joe Public doesn’t even notice it, passing it by each day. An Taisce are very quiet too. It may eventually get planning permission but it’s new design is no where near Foster’s stylish plans for the Clarence.