Meanwhile, the former Northern Bank headquarters on nearby Wilton Place has already been razed to the ground with an impressive glass-fronted building beginning to emerge from its ashes.

On St Stephen's Green, Shelbourne Developments has completely gutted the former Department of Justice offices while on the corner of the Green and Earlsfort Terrace, a company backed by businessman Denis O'Brien has planning permission to demolish the Canada House building and install a ninestorey block.

The trend will no doubt continue when Hawkins House on Poolbeg Street, currently home of the Department of Health and one of the most derided buildings in the state, is put up for sale by the OPW.

Roland O'Connell, a director at estate agents Hamilton Osborne King, says there are a number of reasons for this emerging trend.

"Changes in planning law in the mid-'90s meant that developers could no longer demolish Georgian buildings, making site assemblage in Dublin 2 and 4 more difficult.

Then the offices that were built in the '60s and '70s are coming to the end of their 'natural' life. Elevators, heating systems and windows in many buildings now need to be replaced. Because of the cost, in some instances it may be more sensible to simply demolish and start again.

Another factor is that many of the 25- or 30-year leases signed in the '70s and early '80s are drawing to a close, creating a natural break for developers to start over. I expect quite a number of these older office buildings to be demolished over the next decade."

But Derry Scully, president of the Society of Chartered Surveyors and a partner at Bruce Shaw, maintains that many of the buildings being demolished are still functional.

"We are receiving more inquiries about the demolition of buildings that are capable of being used by businesses and I think the primary motivation for developers is to be able to go for higher-density schemes. The price paid for the Jurys Hotel site was calculated solely on the basis that all the buildings could be replaced with a high- density development.

The same is true of the neighbouring Veterinary College deal. This is a relatively new phenomenon in Ireland but is quite common in other European countries."

With all the problems caused by the sprawl outside Dublin, the city council generally takes a favourable view of higher-density schemes.

Shelbourne Developments were given permission to add another 40,000sq ft to its refurbishment on St Stephen's Green while Denis O'Brien got the go-ahead for three extra floors in the Canada House scheme.

While the actual mechanics of demolition are pretty straightforward, a wrecking ball and chain being all that is needed, Scully says disposal of the waste materials has become a trickier proposition.

"There are now much stricter controls on the building materials in landfill and there have been problems with the disposal of asbestoscontaminated materials.

Everything now has to be segregated carefully and that can lead to an increase in cost.

However some of the materials like concrete can be reused for other purposes, " he says.

Utilising space in a more profitable manner is the primary reason for demolishing and starting again but there are also aesthetic considerations to take into account.

Many of the buildings now being destroyed are widely regarded as ugly and unimpressive remnants of the '60s and '70s, when much of Georgian Dublin was destroyed by developers.

John Graby, director of the Royal Institute of Architects in Ireland says these buildings were "investment diagrams" with developers having little or no consideration for the people who would work in them or the effect they would have on the city.

"Both the internal and external quality of these buildings was low, " says Graby. "However, the situation is very different now because developers recognise the higher the quality of the building the better the return they will get. It is also the case that employees are more vocal in demanding a decent working environment and won't accept the cramped conditions in some of the older office buildings."

Roland O'Connell agrees that there are some appalling buildings in the Dublin 2 and 4 areas but that developers are now more attentive to the importance of design than they were in the past. "Developers know that making more of an effort when it comes to the look of the buildings gives them a competitive advantage when it comes to attracting the best tenants and it is also an opportunity for them to leave a positive mark on the city."

TAX

TROUBLE THE Parkway Partnership's plans to demolish the former of"ces of the Institute of Taxation in Sandymount on the southside of Dublin and replace it with a development of 20 residential units has run into planning dif"culties.

The company had got permission from Dublin City Council to go ahead with the scheme but now a local resident and a neighbouring business have appealed the permission to An Bord Pleanala on the basis that the development is excessive and that the traf"c implication of building on the site, which is near a Dart rail crossing, have not been properly examined.