Pelican House, the landmark Dublin office block with its notable courtyard and gardens at Mespil Road, Dublin 4, was being demolished this week to make way for two proposed interlinking buildings. Four months ago Bracadale Ltd, a company controlled by John Ronan and Richard Barrett, failed to get planning permission to develop a standalone seven-storey block on the Mespil Road site with a total of 180,000 sq ft and 75 car-parking spaces at double basement level.

However, the company has now apparently opted to proceed with the demolition on the basis of an earlier planning permission for two interlinking L-shaped seven-storey blocks running from Mespil Road to Burlington Road. The scheme will have 257,000 sq ft.

The planners refused permission for the stand-alone block on the site of Pelican House because it would differ significantly from the original planning permission "which was designed to ensure the protection of the residential amenities of the adjacent dwellings". The planning inspector, Norman Boyd, reported that the planning application for the Pelican House site was essentially an attempt to increase the floor area from 119,436 sq ft to 180,482 sq ft. The effect of this would be to increase the plot ratio from 2.74 to 3.29 "which is significantly in excess of other similar developments in the general area".

Built in the 1960s as the headquarters of Irish Life and occupied in recent years by the Blood Transfusion Service Board, Pelican House had one of the best gardens of any city office block.