The revised master plan for Grand Canal Square in Docklands, with a diamond-like 2,000-seat theatre as its centrepiece, will provide "an architectural expression of the vitality of Dublin", according to its designer, perky international "starchitect" Daniel Libeskind.
He was speaking yesterdayTUES at a glitzy launch of the scheme in the great hall of the Royal College of Physicians in Ireland, which was transformed for the occasion by bordello lighting, a backing track of nightclub music and big screens showing off the architecture.
Hosted Chartered Land, developer Joe O'Reilly's latest vehicle, the launch was attended by members of the city's business community, who were being targeted to lease space in two of the three office blocks that will form elements of the overall master plan.
Last July 2007, solicitors BCM Hanby Wallace announced plans to relocate to one of these office blocks, which will have a floor area of 13,935 sq metres (150,000 sq. ft). The other two blocks, totalling 21,367 sq metres (230,000 sq ft), are still available.
According to Mr Libeskind, who always seeks local references for his projects, the colours in their façades were "inspired by the Book of Kells". However, there is nothing to enliven the office buildings at street level - no shops, caf>es or restaurants.
But the architect, who made his name with the jagged Jewish Museum in Berlin, said Grand Canal Square would become "almost a paradigm for bringing everyday life together with culture and commerce", representing "a new leap into the 21st century".
His Grand Canal Theatre would be "the magnetic centre of the project", opening out onto the criss-crossed square designed by New York landscape architect Martha Schwartz. Its design had also been revised to be more open and transparent, he said.
The scheme was first unveiled in May 2004 by Devey Properties, but it didn't start moving until Chartered Land took over last November.
But Mr Libeskind never doubted it would be built: "Architecture is like theology - if don't have faith you shouldn't do it" It would be "a very dramatic edifice, a major theatre, even by European standards", with bars and restaurants at different levels contained within a "vertiginous space" that would "bring life to this area 24 hours a day, seven days a week".
The entrance would be through a façade of glazed curtains, alternately transparent and translucent, from the "red carpet" already laid out on Grand Canal Square, to contrast with the "black box" theatre, which is to be run by Harry Crosbie.
Mr Crosbie is planning to double the size of the Point Theatre on North Wall Quay to seat up to 15,000 patrons. According to Chartered Land chief executive Dominic Deeny, operation of the two venues would be analagous to Belfast's Waterfront Hall and Odyssey complex.
Chartered Land's other projects include a major extension to The Pavilions shopping centre in Swords and a large retail scheme in South King Street. Later this year, it will unveil plans for the redevelopment of a six-acre site centred on the Carlton in O'Connell Street.
Describing Daniel Libeskind as an "artistic genius", Mr Deeny said the ensemble of buildings he had designed for Grand Canal Square would mark "an exciting step forward in delivering an architectural legacy for the Docklands [ and] reclaim part of the city from obscurity".
The architect, who had flown in from New York yesterday morning, left for Bucharest in the afternoon and will be travelling onwards to Zurich, Milan, Moscow, Hamburg, Bern, Vilnius, Warsaw and Lodz (the Polish city where he was born) - all within the next 14 days.
His wife and partner Nina said they now had 30 towers planned or under construction across the world and employed more than 100 architects at Studio Daniel Libeskind's New York headquarters as well as 45 more in Zurich, where it was previously based.
"We live in a renaissance of architecture that's happening globally", Mr Libeskind said. "We're no longer just building boxes".
Asked about the similarity in style between several of his projects, he replied: "They certainly have my character, it's in my hand".
