For the best view of Dublin as a city of scaffolding and cranes, try climbing to the upper storeys of Millennium Tower. The gleaming block of glass and polished white dolomite stone sits on a corner of Charlotte Quay Dock and should look even more dazzling at night when all its 48 apartments are occupied.
The first of these are now ready for inspection and immediately reveal that the most popular are likely to be from the seventh floor upwards. While the lower storeys offered rather congested sightlines, particularly on the south and east sides where other apartment blocks have been built, the top floors provide remarkable panoramic views across the capital. Depending on the direction faced, it is possible to see the Dublin Mountains, Howth or Dun Laoghaire without any obstruction.
All the livingrooms capitalise on this advantage with very large windows; apartments in the north-east corner of the tower have stretches of window running for 16 ft while their height runs close to six feet. This means generous amounts of light (if also the prospect of substantial window cleaning bills). Finished in metal on the exterior, the frames have been left in pale varnished wood inside but these could be painted white to increase the sense of open-airiness. Deep sills beneath the windows are perfect as either seats or shelves.
In some of the show apartments, the livingroom walls have been given coloured treatments, but this tends to decrease the sense of spaciousness and runs counter to the spirit of the design. In at least one instance, a floor of pale wood has been laid and this works more successfully than carpeting.
All the living areas are slightly L-shaped to provide a small area for dining next to the kitchen. The latter is fitted out in pale wood with chrome handles which seems currently de rigueur for home fittings. The kitchens tend to be galley-style, little more than six feet wide but still big enough to accommodate everything necessary. That may not be the case in the bedrooms where the wardrobes - again in pale wood - while well-fitted and finished offer only modest amounts of hanging space.
Varying between 750 and 900 sq ft, the units all have by far the largest space allotted to their livingrooms, leaving a limited amount of room for everything else. However, in every apartment, the balcony is off one of the bedrooms rather than the livingroom, which is a bonus for the former. Bedroom windows are smaller than those in the living area, but still large enough to ensure the views are not lost.
The developer's desire to provide every apartment with two or three bedrooms means that these are never very large, the narrowest being less than eight foot six inches the widest 10 ft six inches.
Only in the three-bedroom units is there a second en suite bathroom; this comes with a corner shower, whereas all the other bathrooms throughout the development have a bath; units are white everywhere but none of the bathrooms enjoy natural light. But light, together with unimpeded views on the upper floors, really is the tower's finest feature. This certainly helps to compensate for the relatively low ceiling heights.
It is also unfortunate that, given the price of these apartments and their character, ordinary storage heaters have been fitted throughout; a more stylish solution might have been found in keeping with the aspirations of Millennium Tower to be a landmark development for Dublin.
