“Oh jeez, really?” says George Villalobos after seeing an image of the planned redevelopment of Stephen’s Green Shopping Centre.
He came for one final glance of the building on his last day of a week-long trip to Dublin when he saw protesters handing out pamphlets on Saturday afternoon.
“I think it’s one of the most beautiful shopping centres I’ve ever seen. I sent so many pictures of it to my wife,” he says.
Describing the facade of the building as “really pretty and historic-looking”, he goes further to say the interior “is wow”.
“I’m disappointed, because the picture you showed me, there’s a lot of that. There’s not a lot of this,” he says, pointing to the nearly 40-year-old structure.
At its peak, Saturday’s protest organised by the Save Stephens Green campaign group attracted about 200 people, one of whom carried a placard reading: “Stop this horror”.
An artist’s impression of the proposed new building. Illustration: Visual Labs
Another read: “All business and no play makes Dublin a dull city.”
Protesters said they would “fight tooth and nail” to prevent the redevelopment.
Stephen Murphy, a 32-year-old from Killester in Dublin, believes the shopping centre is “perfect the way it is”.
Although it might need “doing up a bit”, he says the new design is “completely bland”.
He describes Dublin City Council’s granting of planning permission to owner DTDL Ltd last month as “disgraceful”.
“They’re just trying to destroy the unique beauty of our city and it’s just shameful,” he says.
While protest organisers say the “iconic” shopping centre is “not perfect”, the new plans erase “all traces of its identity”.
Others, however, have a different view.
Protestors outside the shopping centre on Saturday. Photograph: Bryan O’Brien
Stephen Murphy demonstrating outside St Stephen’s Green shoping centre on Saturday. Photograph: Bryan O’Brien
Dermot O’Grady, owner and curator of The Green Gallery, which has been on the top floor of the shopping centre since 1995, believes the redevelopment should proceed.
“This is going on for many, many years and they keep knocking on the door until they get it. The keyholders are suffering, the shoppers are suffering and the place has gone down slow but sure,” he says.
Given the previous unsuccessful planning application, O’Grady says some business owners have been unable to secure lease renewals due to uncertainty.
“Now they’ve got the permission, and suddenly everybody is coming out of the woodwork, people who haven’t been in the shopping centre in years saying they like the facade and don’t want it knocked down,” he says, referencing the protesters that surround him.
“It’s stopping things, and it’s stopping progress,” he says.
Describing “fresh air and empty space” inside, O’Grady says: “That’s not profit money for the owners.”
Dermot O’Grady. Photograph: Bryan O’Brien
Since the plans have been approved, O’Grady says there are “queues of retailers wanting to get in”.
A number of appeals have been lodged with An Coimisiún Pleanála, including by the Save Stephen’s Green campaign group.
Speaking at the entrance of the shopping centre on Saturday, group member Yusuf Alraqi urged those present to lodge further appeals, saying the campaign would “cover the cost”, thanks to a fundraiser that has raised more than €3,300 to date.
Noting that the building is less than 40 years old, Alraqi says architecture is “not fashion”.
“That’s what it’s being treated like. You can’t be demolishing every building that’s built in the 70s and 80s to build something that’s two or three storeys higher and may be filled with offices.”
“Stephen’s Green Shopping Centre matters because it is unique to Dublin and people are tired of seeing the city lose its identity piece by piece,” he says.
Alraqi believed protesters did not attend solely because of their love for the structure, but because they are “seeing the city essentially being taken out of their hands and put into the hands of corporations”.