RIAI | Irish Architecture Awards

Citation

Dublin Over €3,000,000

On a prominent corner in downtown Dublin, the architects were inspired by the constraints of a tight urban site to produce a well crafted commercial office block that is both individual and dynamic.

An order has been created that pulls together elements of the city fabric in a surprisingly gentle and resolved manner. Intelligent layering stacks the six commercial floors, which belly out over recessed entrances, ground floor showrooms and basement car park. This featured midrift identifies the development and is expressed as a unified black basalt box projection, punctuated and adorned with two large glass drapes, and crowned with a terraced penthouse suite that enjoys panoramic views to the Wicklow Mountains beyond. An altogether successful endeavour

Architect's Comment
This building is a commercial development by Dublin City Council. It is located on a prominent corner site in Dublin city centre. It comprised 6 floors and a penthouse of office accommodation over a ground floor showroom and basement level car park and plant area.

The rectangular ground floor plan reinforces the orthogonal nature of the urban block. Its façade aligns with those of adjoining buildings and is configured to provide generous public pavement and seating.

The bulk of the office accommodation is located overhead in a contrasting curvilinear form which sails close to the site boundary, projects to provide cover to the main entrance and inflects to register the oblique entrance to the adjoining Ashford House. It is clad in Chinese basalt and read as a black mass, floating over an insubstantial ground floor.

Service and ancillary areas are located in a slim rectangular box on the eastern or 'interior' face of the site. This is clad in a red clay brick consistent with that of existing landmarks in the vicinity.

Clients' Comment
Various Departments of the former Dublin Corporation were accommodated in the original Liffey House. This building, located at the junction of Tara Street with Townsend Street was typical of the drab, low quality office blocks erected by speculators in the late 1960's. It was an eyesore and contributed nothing to the life of the street.

Dublin City Council embarked on a radical new policy in the 1990's to encourage the redevelopment of this section of the inner city. The Fire Brigade Headquarter site which encompassed sections of Pearse Street, Tara Street and Townsend Street, was redeveloped. The Markievicz Swimming Pool was demolished and rebuilt. Finally, completion of the Civic Offices on Wood Quay allowed staff to be decanted and Liffey House vacated.

The City Council thereafter undertook a number of studies with Donnelly Turpin Architects to determine how best the building might be refurbished and the site redeveloped to maximise its commercial potential. Eventually, Dublin City Council were persuaded that the only viable choice was to replace the existing in total, mainly because the floor to floor heights were too low to accommodate contemporary services.

The new Liffey House is a striking eight-storey structure which has become a landmark on this prominent corner. The very elegant façade is formed by a combination of black basalt stone and brick cladding, and a custom designed high performance glazing system which optimises natural lighting whilst controlling thermal, glare and acoustic performance.

The building is a 'state of the art' third generation development for the commercial market. Dublin City Council are delighted with this building and are very proud of it.