Dundrum Town Centre, which opens this morning, is big - and there's much more to come. The old village, with its memorable crossroad, is being turned into a town by having a huge town centre grafted on to it - with retailing as the principal activity.
The scale is vast. Located along the Dundrum bypass, what has already been built stretches for nearly half a kilometre.
And the second phase, for which planning permission was recently granted by Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council on the site of the original Dundrum Shopping Centre, will extend it still further in the spring of 2008. The old shopping centre is due to be demolished next year.
The council has a vested interest, of course. According to its own estimate, 47 per cent of the county council's residents shop elsewhere - in the city centre, in Tallaght, in Liffey Valley and in other suburban locations. And it wants to change this pattern.
Dundrum's shopping centre will be a gold mine for commercial rates, earning €27 million a year for the cash-strapped council from a House of Fraser department store, a Tesco supermarket, high-fashion outlets, restaurants and smaller retail units.
That was one of the driving forces behind the decision in the mid-1990s to designate Dundrum as a "major town centre" on a par with Dún Laoghaire.
The rezoning of the 22-acre Pye Ireland site and the opening of the bypass in 2002 made this transformation possible.
Michael Gough, the council's planning and development director, was determined that a proper urban structure plan would be put in place.
The aim was to create a permeable network of streets and squares on the sausage-shaped site fronting onto the bypass.
Crossridge Ltd, a consortium headed by Joe O'Reilly, of Castlethorn Construction, acquired the Pye site and bought into the vision, working with Burke-Kennedy Doyle (BKD) Architects to bring it to fruition over the past seven years. It will take another three years to finish.
Tom Coughlan, the BKD director in charge of the project, said the very long elevation along the bypass was a real challenge. It has been broken up into several elements, with different materials - terracotta panels, granite cladding and brick - to guard against monotony.
The developers also had to contend with a 20-metre slope on the site. And although a great deal of excavation was required - involving the removal of 300,000 cubic metres of granite - one of the main advantages is that most of the 3,500 parking spaces could be put underground.
Two Luas stations, at Balally and Dundrum, are located at either end of the extended site.
Offices are under construction at the Balally end, while the second phase, known as the Village Scheme, will eventually bring the overall development close to the Luas bridge.
BKD's project architect for the first phase, Niall Carney, has been working on it for nearly nine years. "Different architects from the office have designed individual elements to give it more diversity."
And the project is so huge that BKD rented an office block in Dundrum as its base.
The developers and their architects had to integrate new buildings with the fabric of Dundrum village, much of which is just two storeys. A new scale has now been established, most dramatically by the curved front of the 12-screen multiplex cinema due to open in July. The cinema building, which will have fast-food outlets at ground-floor level, fronts onto a new public space laid out around the old Mill Pond.
The main entrance to the shopping centre is also located here, as well as a glazed restaurant building and a Harvey Nichols shop.
Despite the intense construction activity on the site, two large mature trees have been retained.
The Mill Pond itself will have an illuminated water feature, and, though much of the space around it faces north, seating has been provided in sunnier spots.
A flight of steps leads down to a pedestrian street at the lower level. This will ultimately lead to a new square behind the Catholic church, where the ground will be raised to provide a venue for seasonal ice-skating as well as an outdoor market. A library and theatre will also be located here.
The second phase will also include a hotel and a Tesco convenience store aimed at people exiting from the Luas stop in Dundrum, according to project architect Simon Healy.
One of the main aims was to ensure that the area would not be "dead after dark" like some shopping centres. Apartments are included in the mix. Many of them will be located above new retail units along the main street on the site currently occupied by Dundrum's old shopping centre.
Certainly, the new shopping centre could not be more different. With interiors by Belfast architects Ferguson Wheeler, it is bright and cheerful - particularly its central space, with its escalators, lifts and curved balcony edges at different levels under a large, glazed roof designed by BKD.
This is where a new style of restaurant is located, with seating for 575 inside and another 50 on an outdoor deck overlooking the bypass.
"Theatre cooking" is how the architect, Paul Ferguson, describes it - in complete contrast with the secretive nature of most Chinese takeaways.
The mall inside the main entrance is notable for its suspended ceilings and concealed lighting which can be changed in colour. Yesterday it was a girlie purple.
The east-side entrance has a waterfall on vertical copper sheeting to liven up its staircase.
Even the car parking levels are unusually bright - twice as bright, in fact, as most multi-storey car parks.
Each space is marked by a red or green light so that motorists will be able to see at a glance where free spaces are available, and the tickets will tell them which level they have parked on.
The shopping centre is flagged on its south side by an angular building with its crescent moon logo. A restaurant on the upper level, yet to be fitted out, will offer diners a panoramic view towards the mountains, reminding them of the granite territory in which rapidly changing Dundrum is located.
DUNDRUM TOWN CENTRE: information for shoppers
Opening hours: Today 10am-9pm, normally Monday to Friday 9am-9pm, Saturday 8.30am-7pm, Sunday 10am-7pm. Tesco open 24 hours. Some stores' trading hours may vary.
Public transport: Take the Luas Green Line to Balally.
Luas operators Connex have agreed to increase its off-peak service to a five-minute frequency between 10am and 4pm on Thursday to Friday, and between noon and 7pm on Saturday to facilitate shoppers.
The centre can also be accessed through the following bus services: 17 (Rialto/Blackrock), 44/44B/44C (city centre/Enniskerry), 48A (city centre/Ballinteer), 75 (Tallaght/Dún Laoghaire), and 116 (Ballinteer/city centre).
Parking: Motorists can access the centre through any of six entrances, located on the Dundrum bypass, the neighbouring roundabout and Sandyford Road.
Parking is €2 an hour for the first three hours, and then €3 an hour for the next three hours.
The car-park will be open 24 hours, and is free between 11pm and 7am. Tesco is operating a car-park fee redemption system for its customers.
