SIPTU HAS APPLIED for planning permission to demolish the existing Liberty Hall and replace it with an even taller building.

The trade union wants to upgrade its offices and establish a performance arts centre in the space on Eden Quay in Dublin.

Currently, the 17-storey office building stands 60 metres high but the new proposals, if allowed to go ahead, will see a 100 metre complex built.

The first 17 floors would accommodate offices, SIPTU said in its planning application, but the top four floors would house a public heritage centre and a Skydeck viewing facility and café.

SIPTU had previously submitted a plan to Dublin City Council about revamping Liberty Hall but subsequently pulled it to figure out design kinks.

Although the application looks impressive and discusses a slimmer building, better use of space, landscaped terraces and winter gardens, there have been objections to demolishing the original building.

One group who has set up a Facebook page to save the building calls it an “icon of Sixties architecture” and a symbol of Dublin’s first boom era.