Latest news with #tower
News.com.au
22-07-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
Inner city site with $150m tower proposal sells
A Docklands site with a permit for a $150m tower has sold although it remains unclear if the massive development will go ahead. Melbourne City Council greenlit the project that developer Claric Ninety-Nine proposed to replace existing buildings at 13-33 Hartley St in 2022. Plans for the 6714sq m address near the Westgate Freeway included 400 apartments, 4580sq of retail and office space, basement parking for 173 cars and 492 bikes, a pool and library, across 50 levels. Melbourne's biggest eyesore listed for sale by China's Wang Hua It was slated to stand at 164m tall and also have a public park and new road built. Commercial real estate Allard Shelton director Joseph Walton declined to comment on the sold price although the property was listed with circa-$20m price hopes. Mr Walton said that the Fishermans Bend precinct lot had attracted strong interest, mostly from developers and a couple of potential owner-occupiers. 'We had buyers locally, interstate and internationally all look at the site,' Mr Walton said. Out of multiple offers submitted for the listing, a local developer ended up being the successful buyer. Mr Walton said the purchaser planned to 'spend some time repositioning the project'. In 2022, a Melbourne City Council's officers' report stated that the proposed 50-storey tower was 'not considered to introduce unreasonable amenity impacts to the public realm or adjoining sites'. 'The proposed materials and design of the development are generally supported based on best-practice urban-design principles, subject to a facade strategy to further refine the design,' the report read. 'The proposal includes the provision of a large portion of the site to be set aside for a public park and a new road, responding appropriately to the future vision of Fishermans Bend.' The 480ha Fishermans Bend urban renewal project, stretching across the City of Melbourne and City of Port Phillip, is set to become home to approximately 80,000 residents by 2055. In 2012, the Victorian government rezoned part of the area from urban industrial land to mixed use land. Historically, the precinct was home to aircraft, aerospace engineering and car design and manufacturing companies. Latest state government plans for Fishermans Bend include parks, schools, roads and community facilities along with the aim of providing employment for up to 80,000 people within the next three decades.
Irish Times
20-07-2025
- General
- Irish Times
Dublin's new tallest building: This tower of darkness should never have been allowed
The random tower that has reared up on Tara Street in Dublin photobombs itself into almost every important vista in the city centre. It intrudes into the historic precincts of Trinity College as well as College Green and looms up behind O'Connell Bridge House in views along the Liffey quays. It can also be seen from Lower Grafton Street, Parnell Square East, St Stephen's Green West and numerous other locations. Although some high-rise cheerleaders are no doubt thrilled by such a brazen jump in scale within the city's historic core, there is nothing elegant about Marlet Property Group 's vertical slab of build-to-rent apartments rising from the top of Longstone House, an 11-storey office block opposite Mulligan's pub on Poolbeg Street. It's a dark and brooding alien edifice redolent of a sci-fi portal of darkness and as menacing as Darth Vader in The Empire Strikes Back. Why it presents such a black picture is a story in itself. As originally designed by Henry J Lyons Architects , it was light in colour and intended to have 'a calm presence ... to reflect and converse with the Dublin sky'. But the three members of An Bord Pleanála who dealt with an appeal by An Taisce against Dublin City Council 's decision to grant permission decreed that it should be redesigned – to have more impact. Light or dark, the new tower should never have been built. There was no provision for it either in the Dublin city development plan 2016-2022 or in the 2009 George's Quay local area plan. While this local plan envisaged that there might be a 'mid-rise marker building' at the corner of Tara Street and Poolbeg Street, it clearly specified that any such building on the site 'shall not exceed a maximum of 12 storeys in height'. READ MORE What Dublin got instead is now the city's tallest building, at 82m – 3m higher than the dreary brick-clad Capital Dock tower on Sir John Rogerson's Quay, designed by O'Mahony Pike Architects for Kennedy Wilson. But that tower created its own environment at the nether end of Docklands, whereas Marlet's erection – part of its College Square development, of which Longstone House forms two sides – has been inserted into the Georgian city, between the Custom House and Trinity College. The only tall building envisaged by the George's Quay local area plan was for a site directly adjoining Tara Street station, specified to be 'a maximum of 22 storeys (88 metres)' in height. These were the precise dimensions of a tower proposed by the developer Johnny Ronan – also designed by Henry J Lyons Architects – that An Bord Pleanála finally approved in April 2019 after it had been refused twice by Dublin City Council and once by the board itself. Using this as a precedent, and apparently emboldened by the promulgation in December 2018 of ultraliberal building-height guidelines by Eoghan Murphy, as minister for housing, Pat Crean's Marlet subsidiary Atlas GP opened pre-application consultations with Dublin City Council planners in June 2019 on its audacious proposal to diversify the redevelopment of Apollo House, Hawkins House and College House by adding a 10-storey 'vertical extension'. [ From the archive: Hawkins House to be knocked, but what about its ugly neighbours? Opens in new window ] Marlet's planning consultant Brady Shipman Martin referenced a High Court judgment by Mr Justice Garrett Simons on May 30th, 2019, to suggest that the planners could 'rely on the guidelines to disapply objectives of the local area plan'; in fact, Mr Justice Simons found exactly the opposite: that the building height guidelines 'do not authorise a planning authority to disapply the criteria prescribed under a planning scheme…' Crean's approach paid off. Instead of being treated as a material contravention of both the Dublin city development plan 2016-2022 and the George's Quay local area plan – which would require the approval of city councillors – Atlas GP's tower proposal was evidently welcomed by one of the council's senior planners, Garrett Hughes, who had previously condemned Ronan Group 's tower as 'unacceptably conspicuous' in its context. Tower of darkness: plans for the redesigned, blue-black residential tower at College Square. Illustration: HJL/Marlet While noting that Marlet's proposal 'will have a visual impact' on College Green and Trinity College, he considered this 'acceptable given the inventive nature of the design', with a scale that was intended to 'sit in tandem' with Ronan Group's still unbuilt tower at Tara Street station. 'Overall, the impact is considered to be positive given the modern and assertive design and the overall upgrading of the existing urban block'. Hughes also noted that the 'perceived height' would be 'moderated by the architectural treatment of the upper and lower parts of the building', with the office-block element having a blue-black terracotta frame, 'whereas the upper residential tower adopts a comparatively lighter character with the use of fritted glass and white ceramic fin detailing' – the facade finishes that Henry J Lyons Architects suggested would give it a 'calm presence'. [ From the Irish Times archive: The little known architectural firm that is transforming Dublin Opens in new window ] Dublin City Council's decision to grant permission in December 2019 was appealed by An Taisce , which warned that Dublin was 'heading toward an incoherent Manchester or Brussels-type townscape with modern high-rise towers randomly inserted into the historic urban structure'. The Irish Georgian Society said it would also 'exacerbate the negative impact' on the skyline of the tower approved at Tara Street station. The Bord Pleanála planning inspector Irené McCormack, in her 40-page report to the board, said Marlet's building would not be 'dominant or uncharacteristic with its surrounding built context', as it was 'notably slender in form and light in colour and reflective'; on the contrary, it 'would generate a strong sense of place through the diversification of the skyline and make a positive contribution to the urban character of the area'. The board triumvirate that dealt with the case consisted of its only architect members – the former deputy chairman Paul Hyde , who would later be convicted on two counts of failing to make full declarations of his property interests, and Michelle Fagan , a former president of the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland – along with Terry Prendergast, previously senior planner with Grangegorman Development Agency. The new Longstone House/College Square building development over the Dublin skyline. Photograph: Chris Maddaloni The new Longstone House/College Square building development over the Dublin skyline seen from College Green. Photograph: Chris Maddaloni The new Longstone House/College Square building development over the Dublin skyline seen from inside Trinity. Photograph: Chris Maddaloni As 'presenting board member' in charge of the case, Hyde convened a meeting with Fagan and Prendergast to discuss it three days after McCormack submitted her report. The trio were apparently so unhappy with the scheme that they decided to issue a rare notice under section 132 of the 2000 Planning Act to Atlas GP requesting significant design revisions to respond to 'this pivotal and highly visible location' in the city centre. In sending the Henry J Lyons team back to their designs, the board bluntly stated that the reason for doing so was that 'the proposed development, due to its architectural design quality and materiality, does not successfully address the opportunities provided by the site, does not protect or enhance the skyline at this location nor does it, in its present form, make a positive contribution to the urban character of the area'. It considered that the design and materiality of the tower 'contrasts negatively with that of the lower blocks' on Marlet's huge site while its 'horizontal emphasis ... and lack of facade articulation provides an unsatisfactory response to its context'. But matching the 'materiality' of the build-to-rent tower with the dark-terracotta frame of the office block beneath it inevitably meant that its skyline impact would be more strident. [ Dublin's disappearing venues: A promised 500-seat theatre is shrouded in mystery Opens in new window ] In its response, submitted in July 2020, Henry J Lyons did exactly what it was told by redesigning the tower 'using the same materials, profiles and rhythm of the base building', as it explained, while also giving it a 'strong vertical emphasis' with a frame of blue-black terracotta fins – similar to the office floors below – reinforced by a 'double order' expression, meaning that horizontal profiles occur at every second floor. Henry J Lyons claimed that its darker finish would contrast with the lighter stone of historic buildings in Trinity College, allowing these to be 'read independently and not to be confused with the backdrop'. Does that sound like grasping at straws? A revised townscape assessment by the Paul Hogarth Company conceded that the tower would be 'more noticeable' on the skyline and would also have a 'heavier' presence in views along the Liffey quays. After holding two further meetings to consider the case, the board's triumvirate decided unanimously on September 14th, 2020, to grant permission for the proposed development 'as superseded and/or amended by the plans and particulars submitted in response to the section 132 request', with the order signed by Paul Hyde. It was, to paraphrase Yeats, 'all changed, changed utterly: A terrible beauty is born ...' In March 2022 Dublin City Council approved Marlet's plan to add a floor, increasing the number of build-to-rent apartments from 54 to 58, including a large penthouse on the 21st floor; this raised the tower's overall height to 22 storeys, topped by a 'crown' that appears peculiarly unresolved. One can just imagine how discordant this high-rise luxury tenement will look at night, with light in some windows and not in others. The view from Lower O'Connell Street towards Burgh Quay, originally designed by the Wide Streets Commission as a uniform composition, has been so spoiled by uncoordinated redevelopment in recent decades that it resembles the urban-design equivalent of a dog's dinner – now trumped by a tower of darkness on Tara Street that will sadly stand for decades as a monument to developer-led 'planning' in Dublin.
CTV News
15-07-2025
- Business
- CTV News
‘They're going to ruin our downtown': Delegates prepare to voice concern over proposed 28-storey tower in west Galt
Renderings show was a proposed 28-storey tower for west Galt could look like. (Courtesy: Patterson Planning Consultants ) A developer is hoping to take the Galt skyline to new levels by building a tower that is more than four times higher than what is currently allowed. Patterson Planning Consultants is proposing a 28-storey mixed-use tower on Grand Avenue South, near the Grand River Pedestrian Bridge. The proposal includes 328 residential spaces, mostly bachelor units, and some commercial space. Currently, six-storeys is the limit that's allowed in the area. Cambridge city council will hear about the project for the first time Tuesday night. Multiple residents and business owners are scheduled to speak as delegates and some aren't impressed by the proposal. Coleen Boland owns Barnacle Bill's, a restaurant less than 500 metres from the proposed development. She said west Galt isn't the right place for a tower this tall. She will be a delegate at the public meeting. 'Why do they have to cram it into our little street on the west side? There's Hespeler. It seems to be where they got the biggest buildings,' she told CTV News ahead of the meeting. She said traffic and safety are among her top concerns. 'We don't have the infrastructure for that much more traffic. They're going to ruin our downtown,' she said. 'My husband has congestive heart failure. How was an ambulance ever going to get through? It's ridiculous. It's too busy down there.' Renderings 28-storey tower in Galt Renderings show was a proposed 28-storey tower for west Galt could look like. (Courtesy: Patterson Planning Consultants ) Leslee Urquart is another delegate. She said she also has concerns about the proposal. 'Our area is unique and historic. This monolithic structure would completely ruin the look of the core,' she told CTV News, ahead of the meeting. Sheri Roberts is the city councillor in that area. She has her own concerns. 'We need density. We need housing. We certainly do. Do we need hundreds of bachelor apartments? I don't think so,' Roberts said. Roberts said she is trying to keep an open mind but hasn't been hearing positive feedback from residents so far. 'We do have to be open to change. We can't stay in the same position we're in forever. But I think that to go from a two-storey building to 28 directly beside it is jarring,' Roberts said. She said the area is already quite busy and parking is another major concern. 'Folks are already having trouble finding parking. This proposal is coming with less than a half a parking spot per unit, which I know is going to potentially be problematic,' she said. Renderings 28-storey tower in Galt Renderings show was a proposed 28-storey tower for west Galt could look like. (Courtesy: Patterson Planning Consultants ) Tuesday's meeting is just the first step. Roberts said a lot can change before it is up for approval which likely won't be until the fall, after staff come back with a recommendation. 'We need to hear from residents about what their concerns are so that staff can make a good recommendation coming back to us,' Roberts said. CTV News reached out to Patterson Planning Consultants but did not hear back. A representative is expected to present at the meeting. In the agenda notes the developer said the proposal is 'appropriate for the site' and 'represents good land use planning'.
Geek Girl Authority
29-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Geek Girl Authority
Book Review: CRUELER MERCIES
Thank you to Fantasy & Frens for sending me a copy of Crueler Mercies in exchange for an honest review. Crueler Mercies by Maren Chase is a fantasy novel with bite. True, it may include a number of genre tropes, like a protagonist who is a princess and a king with dubious morality. However, it sets itself apart with its ruthless refusal to pull punches. Please note that while this review avoids major spoilers, it does allude to some major plot points and resolutions. Crueler Mercies The story follows Vita, who believes she is the only child of the king of the realm. But one horrible day, when she's only nine years old, Vita's mother is executed. Vita is subsequently sent into exile. There, she spends more than a decade confined in a tower. However, the incarceration is somewhat alleviated by her new friends: a family of crows whose trust she earns and grows over time. But one day, the situation changes. An invading army conquers the city where she's being held. Soon, Vita is betrothed to the general who led the siege, Ardaric. This is thanks to her status as the rightful heir, lending legitimacy to Ardaric's claim to the throne. In exchange, Vita will achieve vengeance against her father. RELATED: Book Review: The Enchanted Feast Cookbook In the meantime, Vita meets Soline, one of her new ladies-in-waiting. Soline has her own reasons to resent Ardaric. But she also has knowledge of alchemy — a theoretical knowledge, if not a working one. Soon, Soline and Vita are working together to break the code of alchemy, so they can use it to gain the upper hand against Ardaric. Plus, Vita begins to catch feelings towards Soline … even if the stakes of such a relationship are even higher with Ardaric in the equation. Eventually, Ardaric's forces reach the castle where the king resides and begin a grueling siege. Will Ardaric conquer the king? Will Vita be trapped in a relationship she finds loathsome, or will she and Soline live happily ever after? And will Soline and Vita ever master the art of alchemy? An Accurate Title This book surprised me. In spite of the fact that the title Crueler Mercies hints toward this fact, I didn't expect it to get as brutal as it does. Part of this is probably the high number of romantasy novels I've read lately. In that fantasy subgenre, things tend to stay on this side of the 'Stephen King line.' Not so in Crueler Mercies. While it does include a romantic element, this isn't the narrative focus, but rather a subplot. This novel is simply fantasy … and comparatively grounded fantasy, too. While it takes place in a fictional world and includes alchemy, the majority of the story reads almost like medieval historical fiction. RELATED: Book Review: Upon a Starlit Tide Speaking of the setting, this novel includes one of my favorite tropes: a map of the world. But while I'm always a fan of a book that opens with a map, this map was particularly well done. The inclusion of 'handwritten notations' was inspired. One thing I do think this book could have benefited from: a more obvious content warning. As alluded to above, the novel gets surprisingly brutal. While I personally didn't feel overly blindsided by the darker twists and turns, I can definitely see how some readers might. And to be clear, there is a content warning included at the top of the copyright page. However, I didn't notice this until after I had finished reading. I think it would have been better to have put the content warning in the center of its own page, as I imagine many readers could overlook the warning on the copyright page, as I did. Spoiler Alert In this final section, I am going to briefly discuss the ending of Crueler Mercies. If you don't want to have any hints about how the story ends, then please consider skipping the rest of the review. One of my very favorite elements of this novel was the fact that Vita herself does not pull any punches in the final pages of Crueler Mercies. In many stories, a woman protagonist must be 'likable,' which is code for 'non-threatening.' I adored the fact that Vita was not forced to adhere to any such sexist standard. RELATED: Book Review: Divining the Leaves At the conclusion of the novel, Vita dispenses bloody justice. This isn't to say she does anything that many male protagonists wouldn't be 'allowed' to do. But it often seems as though female protagonists are prohibited from engaging in the same behavior as their masculine counterparts. I applaud Crueler Mercies for presenting a woman who is unapologetic in securing and wielding her power. More characters like this, please. Crueler Mercies features a cover illustration by Camille Murgue, a cover design by Charlotte Strick and a map by Ilana Brady. Incredibly, this is Chase's debut novel. For some reason, 2025 has had a number of stunning debuts, and even among these Crueler Mercies is near the top. This novel is excellent, and I'm looking forward to reading more work by Chase in the future. Crueler Mercies will be available at a local bookstore and/or public library beginning on June 3, 2025. Book Review: SHIELD OF SPARROWS Avery Kaplan is the author of several books and the Features Editor at Comics Beat. She was honored to serve as a judge for the 2021 Cartoonist Studio Prize Award and the 2021 Prism Awards. She lives in the mountains of Southern California with her partner and a pile of cats, and her favorite place to visit is the cemetery. You can also find her writing on Comics Bookcase, NeoText, Shelfdust, the Mary Sue, in many issues of PanelxPanel, and in the margins of the books in her personal library.
