View of main library space and reference areas.

The first images of the design for the Parnell Square Cultural Quarter were presented as part of an update to Dublin City Council’s Culture Recreation & Amenity Strategic Policy Committee  last week. A selection of the images prepared by the design team led by Grafton Architects and Shaffrey Associates, working on behalf of the Parnell Square Foundation can be seen below.

Proposals include redevelopment of the public realm of Parnell Square North.

The project proposes development of a cluster of cultural facilities accommodated in a mix of new-build and renovated Georgina buildings, anchored by a City Library. Together with Dublin’s City Gallery, The Hugh Lane, which sits beside it, the facilities will create an important new destination in the city’s north Georgian core. The vision for the Parnell Square Cultural Quarter which gives the background to this project can be seen here.

A 200-seat conference facility is proposed for the top floor, adjacent to a courtyard roof garden.

Roof gardens are intended to give views out over Parnell Square and the city.

Reference and learning spaces are to be accommodated in the existing Georgian rooms.

A summary of the report by Margaret Hayes City Librarian can be seen on the Cultural Quarter website parnellsquare.ie. .

The Dublin House Project will be launched today, Monday 21st July, at 11:00.  Among those in attendance will be the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Christy Burke, and City Architect, Ali Grehan.  The launch will take place on the site advertised for the project, 29-30 Fishamble Street.

Dublin House is an initiative of the Housing Department through the City Architects’ Division to promote the potential of small-scale residential development in the inner city and inner suburban areas. It is a trial initiative to enable people to be citizen-developers by facilitating them to design and create their own bespoke homes for themselves in the city.

Ahead of the Launch the Lord Mayor said “I am delighted that Dublin City Council is introducing the Dublin House project as another initiative to encourage and enable families to live in the city centre. I look forward to seeing this initiative succeed in this historic part of the city.”

Ali Grehan, City Architect, explained “Promoting diverse owner-occupied city centre family- friendly homes is the underlying aspiration of the Dublin House project. This offers households an opportunity to come together as a group to design and develop the site in a way that suits their housing needs today and into the future. Through this innovative project Dublin City Council also wishes to address the under-provision of this type of housing delivery in the city centre and hopes that this can be replicated elsewhere.”

You can watch City Architect Ali Grehan discussing the project further here

We’ll keep you updated with the latest on this exciting project as it happens

dublinhouse@dublincity.ie

A multi-disciplinary team led by Grafton Architects and Shaffrey Associates have been chosen for the redevelopment of the Parnell Square Cultural Quarter.  The announcement was made today by Dublin City Council and the Parnell Square Foundation.  

Grafton Architects have built an impressive portfolio of award winning projects both in Ireland and internationally.  Their work in Dublin includes the Department of Finance Building in Merrion Row (2007) and the Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, Trinity College (1996, 2002).  Both projects received recognition in the RIAI awards.  Further afield, their work includes the Luigi Bocconi University in Milan which received the inaugural World Building of the Year Award at the 2008 World Architecture Festival.

Since their foundation in 1967, Shaffrey Associates have established a reputation for architectural, urban design and planning projects throughout Ireland and for working with existing and historic contexts.  Among their previous works are library and cultural buildings in Cavan Town and Lismore, Co Waterford.

The full team is as follows:

Welcoming the announcement, Lord Mayor Christy Burke said

 ‘this is a significant milestone in the redevelopment of Parnell Square, a cultural and historic gem right on our doorstep. This is the first and finest of our Georgian Squares and this project will invigorate the North Inner City, acting I’m sure as a catalyst to promote further economic and social regeneration in other areas of the City. It is great to see that a series of public meetings and workshops which took place over the past 12 months, involving all stakeholders from different social, economic and cultural perspectives, has informed the commissioning of the design and final design brief. I look forward to seeing the vision for the Square being captured in the design by Grafton Architects + Shaffrey Associates and I wish them every success in bringing the project to fruition’.

The centre-piece of the Parnell Square Cultural Quarter will be the development of over 11,000m2 at the former Coláiste Mhuire, anchored by a new City library which will offer a vibrant mix of cultural facilities for the city of Dublin

The full press release is available here

 photo credit: Greg Dunn, stoneybutter.com

The regeneration of St Teresa’s Gardens continues apace with the passing of its part VIII proposal by Dublin City Council. The project will involve the construction of a mixture of new houses and apartments along with refurbishment works to existing blocks.  Complementing this will be a new urban park equipped with facilities for play and recreation.  Construction is expected to begin in 2015. 

The news was reported by the Council’s South Central News e-bulletin.  Below is their description of the plans for the area.  We’ll keep you updated with the latest news and images of this project as it progresses

St. Teresa’s Gardens Regeneration Project 

The residents of St. Teresa’s Gardens have been waiting since 2006 for the regeneration of their complex and are very happy that it has finally started. A major milestone has been achieved with the passing by Dublin City Council of a Part VIII proposal for the St. Teresa’s Gardens Regeneration Project by the City Council. The Council intend to build 50 new residential units: – 16 apartments 3 to 5 storey’s in height and 34 houses ranging between 2 to 3 storey’s in height. There will also be revisions to the consolidation blocks and refurbishment work to existing four storey apartment blocks.

 An urban park is planned, overlooked by the new dwellings, providing active recreational uses and children’s play facilities. Other works include the provision of a new road network from Donore Avenue and an entrance from Cork Street/Cameron Street into the new development. There will also be monitored CCTV and additional lighting.

This Part VIII includes the demolition of 3 single storey terraced houses on Eugene Street, the closure of a section of Darley’s Terrace, including the relocation of the existing ESB substation. It is expected that work will commence on the new houses next year.

The Regeneration Board, which comprises Dublin City Council officials and a number of residents from St Teresa’s Gardens, and Eugene Street, as well as other stakeholders have worked very hard to progress this project. The Chairperson of the new Board, Chris Fitzpatrick, has said that the partnership between the various groups will continue the good work until the project is completed. This partnership is vital to the success of the project which is very challenging, because of the detenanting programme, the delivery of the new build houses and the very tight timeframe.

These pictures show the finishing touches being applied to the new homes at Thornton Heights, Inchicore.   They replace the old tower blocks of St Michael’s Estate, the last of which was demolished in 2013.  The final scheme consists of 75 new dwellings, grouped around a landscaped courtyard and playground. There is a creche included in the development which will also provide an after schools service for children in the area.  In 2008 Dublin City Council put regeneration plans in place for the delivery of the project which will deliver Thornton Heights this year as the first phase of the regeneration of the area.

St Michael’s Estate was built in the late 1960s and consisted of a number of tower blocks set amidst open space.  Over the years, however, anti social behaviour became an issue, and the flat blocks fell into decline with the accommodation falling into disrepair.  St Michael’s Estate was one of several areas planned for regeneration in the late 1990s. It was planned to achieve a mixed use regeneration of the 10 acre site  through a Public Private Partnership and plans were prepared for the new homes, community facilities, and commercial development.  However, the economic downturn of 2008 led to collapse of several PPPs including St Michael’s Estate.  In mid 2008 Dublin City Council set up a multidisciplinary taskforce and all options for the former PPPs were examined.  Following this process, new regeneration plans were put in place for St Michael’s Estate, O’Devany Gardens, and Dominic Street.

Since then, Dublin City Architects have developed the previous proposal to provide better quality and more spacious homes at Thornton Heights.  The scheme is composed of a group of buildings ranging in height from two to six stories.  These are carefully arranged around a courtyard, which has been landscaped to provide communal space, planting, and play areas.  The 75 dwellings at Thornton Heights comprise both houses and apartments, which come in a range of sizes and layouts to meet the needs of its community.

In addition to the new homes the complex will also contain a new crèche.  This will provide a number of facilities, among them, after-school activities for local children.  The environmental impact of the scheme as a whole has be reduced through the provision of a communal composing and green housing facility and electric solar panels located on the roof.

Upon completion Thornton Heights will be taken over by the Circle Voluntary Housing Organisation.  This organisation will manage the new estate, and look after this new Phase 1 of the overall regeneration of this area .  It is hoped that the first residents will move into their new homes during the summer.

The latest guest curator of the pivotdublin.com blog, le cool Dublin, posed a number of questions about developments going on in the city in their final posts. Here on the City Architects blog we provide some hopefuly useful answers in this and the next few posts. First up was the question of markets.

 The Council’s Development Department manage the City Fruit and Veg Markets off Capel Street and are leading on plans for their refurbishment and upgrading as a retail market. Currently painting and electrical upgrades are being carried out while working around a busy wholesale functioning market operating in the building. The intention is to open up the building to retail when renovations and upgrades of service facilities are more advanced. We have previously put information up about the project up here and here.

On a related markets matter, The City Council currently have a call out for Expressions of Interest to run specialty or casual markets at a number of locations around the city. These are: Smithfield, Wolfe Tone Park, Coppinger Row (Sunday only), East Essex Street, Lotts, Cathedral Street, South William Street, Anglesea Street. You can find out more from the Casual Trading Section.

Opened in 2011, Rathmines Square is a mixed-use development which provides a state of the art public leisure centre together with residential accommodation on Rathmines Road in Dublin 6. Designed by the award-winning Donnelly Turpin Architects, the project is managed by the South East Area with input from the Culture, Recreation & Amenity Department with technical input from City Architects during its design and construction.

DCC initiated an architectural competition organised by the RIAI in order to redevelop the site of the former public swimming pool, which was built in the 1970’s and was in need of replacement. A decision to redevelop the entire site provided the opportunity to achieve a full leisure centre and maximise the use of the site by providing residential development in addition to the new public facilities.

Donnelly Turpin Architects won the architectural competition in 2003 and following the planning and procurement processes, John Paul Construction were selected as main contractors. With a construction budget of €31m, the building commenced on site in January 2008 and completed in 2010.

Located on the site of the old pool building and its surface car park the Rathmines Square scheme is designed to create two new public spaces. At the front: a set-back paved area along Rathmines Road, and at the rear – a small park with sunny orientation. The space fronting onto Rathmines Road is intended to enhance the streetscape of the heavily trafficked street and enliven the area as a new focal point, becoming a meeting place and a point of information for the various local activities and services. The scheme has also been designed to integrate with a neighbouring mixed-use development, which will follow later to add activity in the new square.

The architectural vision was to achieve a high level of transparency characterizing the new public facilities. The principal ground floor spaces – reception, pool hall, and gymnasium, are placed in a single double-height volume running the full 60-metre depth of the building. Large roof lights set between 18-metre concrete V-shaped beams ensure the centre of the plan is full of daylight. The 25m pool includes a moving floor and boom wall enabling the pool to be divided and the floor raised, thereby facilitating use by people of all ages and abilities. 46 apartments are arranged around the light wells over the pool, a small number of which have been set aside as social and affordable housing.

Above this there is a multi-purpose Hall and its foyer that overlooks the small park. The residential apartments are located in 4, 5, and 6 storey blocks arranged around a podium level entrance courtyard. A separate three storey building, originally designated as a childcare centre, looks south over the new park space.

The scheme won Best Public Building and Best Public Space in the 2011 RIAI awards and a Special Award from the AAI as well as an award for Best International Building from the UK Brick Development Board.

The new leisure centre has provided an excellent facility serving a wide catchment area and is one of a number of significant leisure projects undertaken by the Council, including the Ballyfermot Leisure Centre (2008) and Finglas Leisure Centre (2003).