When Dubliners first saw the multi-tiered, gleaming white, iron and glass shopping centre on St Stephen’s Green in the late 1980s, it was quickly nicknamed “the Mississippi showboat” and “the wedding cake”. And in a city that prides itself on its Georgian heritage and its historic buildings, it was seen by some as kitsch, an architectural pastiche and a bit embarrassing. But it grew on others.
Now that plans have been approved by Dublin City Council to knock the shopping centre and replace it with a new scheme, a campaign has begun to save the centre.
So what is planned to replace it? Why are objectors so against it? And why do so many people have a new appreciation for this “historic” building?
Dublin editor Olivia Kelly isn’t one to sit on the fence when it comes to how the city is shaping up and she explains her reservations about the plans.
Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Suzanne Brennan.
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