"I am not a height-freak. I have always wanted to keep this as low as possible," said Mr Kevin Roche, the architect who has designed the Spencer Dock scheme in Dublin's docklands.
At the Bord Pleanala hearing yesterday on the scheme, he said he would have no problem lowering the height of buildings if this was deemed necessary.
Parts of the proposed scheme reach 95 metres - about 36 metres higher than the city's present tallest building, Liberty Hall.
"It is not an absolutely vital feature of this design. I would be happy to concede," he said.
Mr Roche - at 77 one of international architecture's elder statesmen - spent five hours outlining his vision.
Now based in the US, the veteran of such innovative buildings as the TWA terminal at Kennedy Airport in New York - as well as dozens of high-rise and corporate headquarters structures - flew into Dublin for the day to present his architectural rationale for the scheme promoted by the Spencer Dock Consortium, which includes Treasury Holdings and Mr Harry Crosbie.
The plan includes a national conference centre, office blocks, residential complexes and a public park.
An Bord Pleanala has been hearing the developers' arguments in favour of the project this week, after Dublin Corporation sought amendments last August. Objections from the financier, Mr Dermot Desmond, from Dublin Corporation, and from residents and other concerned groups were heard previously.
Mr Roche who has designed buildings in Tokyo, New York and Singapore, said he did not consider the proposed buildings excessively tall. "I don't agree these buildings are high-rise buildings. They are low-rise. They are low to medium rise."
Asked about the impact that the scheme, if built, would have on the "Georgian Mile" view from Fitzwilliam Street, Mr Roche said historic parts of Dublin had been destroyed over the past 50 years but that this project did not do that.
Yesterday evening another prominent architect, Mr Sam Stephenson, appeared at the hearing to support the project. He described Mr Roche as "one of the greatest living architects" and a "master of development and design".