Madam, - Frank McDonald's comprehensive feature (Weekend, September 6th) on the possible future for Ballsbridge quotes the city manager as likening a proposed high rise development there to New York's Rockefeller Centre.
I recall the advice given by an eminent planning consultant (Walter Bor) many years ago when asked to report on a policy for high-rise buildings in the city. He considered that the skyline for Dublin should be seen as a saucer with the taller buildings on the rim. A somewhat similar approach has helped to retain the traditional quality of Haussmann's Paris.
The feature concludes by referring to Liberty Hall, still the tallest building in the city, "which many would like to see retained as an icon of modernism in Ireland."
Despite being the location of the US Embassy, Ballsbridge is not Manhattan. - Yours, etc,
NIALL MEAGHER,
Naas,
Co Kildare.