The approved redevelopment of Stephen’s Green Shopping Centre “falls well short” of the public's high expectations for the site.

Dublin City Council last week granted planning permission for a controversial €100m redevelopment of the landmark building.

The shopping centre, which first opened in 1988, is now set to be converted into office and retail space by Davy entity, DTDL Ltd.

On Moncrieff today, Former Irish Times Environment editor Frank McDonald said the building is an iconic city landmark.

“It became a city centre landmark, kind of an emblem of Dublin,” he said.

“It featured on postcards of the city and was really much photographed by tourists over the years.

“The reaction to Dublin City Council planners’ decision to approve the latest scheme to basically replace it all has been pretty uniformly negative.

“I was surprised at how strong it was with numerous posts on Twitter describing it as ‘Atrocious, awful, bland, disgusting, hideous, horrible, ugly’ and even worse.”

Artistic drawings of the proposed redevelopment of Stephen's Green Shopping Centre.

Mr McDonald said there is already plenty of office space available in Dublin.

“There’s been an awful lot of new office space built in Dublin over the last couple of years,” he said.

“Much of that space is vacant so you’d have to wonder what is the point of building more.

“I can’t remember the exact square footage, but it’s a very large amount of office space they intend to build.”

The increased height of the new building does fit in with the area, according to Mr McDonald.

St Stephen's Green Shopping Centre in Dublin decorated for Christmas in November 2013. Picture by: Jackie Ellis / Alamy Stock Photo

“The existing height to the parapet would be significantly taller than the current shopping centre which kind of fits in with its surroundings,” he said.

“The point is, it does have that scale, it matches the general scale of the area around it if you think of south King Street and the west side of Stephens Green.”

That said, Mr McDonald does not believe the new development fits the standard of what is needed to replace the shopping centre.

“When you think of Stephen’s Green, it’s the oldest Georgian Square in Dublin that dates back to the late 17th century and it’s a designated national monument,” he said.

“The setting of that park is important and the St Stephen’s Green shopping centre is a part of that setting.

“Anything that is built on that corner really does need to be of exceptional design quality and I don’t think we’ve reached that.”

It is expected that appeals will be made to An Bord Pleanála over the approval of the redevelopment of Stephen's Green Shopping Centre.

Listen back now: