The Irish Times

No better illustration of the inherent design problems of Dublin's new Four Seasons hotel can be provided than the remark made recently by a company spokeswoman. "I'm afraid you can't speak to the architect," she explained, "because, you see, he is in California." Frankly, that is where the hotel belongs, too; it certainly should not have been built in Ballsbridge, or indeed anywhere else in this country. While the architect responsible, Mr Mike Chun, of the practice Wimberley Allison Tong and Goo, repeatedly visited the site, acquired from the RDS on the corner of Merrion and Simmonscourt Roads, there is precious little evidence of this in the finished result. Quite what the intended style of the structure is cannot be easily deduced; the publicity material produced by the Four Seasons group claims the hotel "combines both Georgian and Victorian architectural styles".