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Saturday 14 March 2015

Tenth floor of the trendiest block at Grand Canal Dock for €595k

The cornerstone of cool.

Mark Keenan Twitter

PUBLISHED13/03/2015 | 02:30

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From the 10th floor apartment inside Leinster's tallest residential building, you look right down on Dublin's picture postcard for the new Millennium.

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The vista below encapsulates the architectural 'what's what' of the capital - in a built line-up that can challenge any of the world's modern city streetscapes for visual vibrancy.

This is Grand Canal Docks, otherwise known as the 'Silicon Docks' - and around the stone lined water basin at Ringsend in Dublin 4 you'll see the smart checker board of the Marker Hotel by Manuel Aires Mateus. There's the svelte and angular tilting glass projector of Daniel Libeskind's Bord Gais Energy Theatre and there's Martha Schwartz's Grand Canal Square with its playful forest of red angled light sticks which glow at night. There's the water reflecting the scene - expecially dramatic after dark when it shimmers with the mirrored lights of the towers.

By day, the water is furrowed by the bright yellow Viking Splash pleasure tour DUKWs - amphibious buses that once hauled GIs ashore at the WW2 D Day landings and now chug screaming children to the dock, into the dock, around it, out of it and back through the city streets to Stephen's Green, scaring pedestrians at every corner with their "Viking Roar."

Matching your height across the way is the hub of Europe online - Google Docks, the tallest commercial building in Dublin and the multi-national's European headquarters. There's the angularly spindly and drawered Alto Vetro building by Shay Cleary, 16 floors high and one short of the block you are looking from - Charlotte Quay's Millennium Tower in Dublin 4.

This year, the landmark by homegrown company O'Mahony Pike has its 16th birthday and while it is not the most celebrated piece of modern architecture in the superstar ensemble; it remains the cornerstone of Dublin's coolest locale, it still holds a simple elegance among the younger members of the internationally flavoured contemporary catwalk.

Strangest of all, none of this was here when Liam Carroll, previously known for humdrum blocks, found Damascus and built the Millennium - nothing apart from the rectangular water basin.

And the Millennium, which is still the tallest residential building in Dublin at 17 floors above ground, has weathered extraordinarily well with its coat of glass and white polished self-clean cladding. At the Tower's heel on the ground floor today is the universally hailed eaterie, the Mourne Seafood Bar - recently coming second from top of a list of the best chips in Dublin (its Tuscan fries are dusted with diced olive, parsley and parmesan).

But true testimony to the Tower's favour among its residents and owners (many of them are rented out) is the fact just three of the 242 units have come to market since Residential Property Price Register records began more than five years ago.

Few remember the excitement when the building was launched in 1999 as Dublin's tallest - it's 207 feet exceeding Liberty Hall's 195 sq ft. It would hold the title for 10 years. One of the two top penthouse apartments was sold in 2000 for a sum reported to be in the order of €2.4m. In 2013 one of these sold for €806,625.

Number 64 on the 10th floor corner has just been placed for sale through DNG. At 900 sq ft it is simply-enough fitted with two double bedrooms (one ensuite), cream marble floor and bathroom, a small balcony (hold on tight) and a rust-enameled kitchen. Rent potential is €30k. There's a hall and a basement parking space. But on three sides it has the floor to ceiling views to make you drop Dublin's second best chips. If you'll pay €595,000, view this home at dusk on a sunny day. And bring the smelling salts.

64 Millennium Tower

Grand Canal Dock, Dublin 4

Asking price: €595,000

Agent: DNG (01) 6794088

Indo Property

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