The DDDA’s many bad decisions
The U2 tower: the saga begins: The first competition to design a tower for the Britain Quay site was run in 2003 but the identity of the chosen winning design could not be determined. Later it was discovered that that particular entry should have been disqualified in the first place, so Irish architect BCDH’s submission of a tower with a 45-degree twist was declared the winner. Originally due to be 60 metres high, by 2006 the height of the building had increased to 130 metres.
Documents released by the Department of the Environment to the Sunday Tribune earlier this year said legal proceedings between BCDH and the DDDA “were either under way or being contemplated”. However, details of the correspondence could not be published as the department deleted the email in a highly unusual move. Asked at the time why details related to a possible legal action were deleted, an assistant principal in the department admitted that “perhaps that email should have been archived rather than deleted”.
