QUICK VISIT TO THE TU CAMPUS – JANUARY 2022
As you can see from my photographs Grangegorman TU is now a beautifully restored historic part of Dublin City. In keeping with their ongoing conservation efforts, TU Dublin is committed to the promotion of sustainable modes of transport. The Campus is fully pedestrianised and they encourage the use of public transport to access the campus.
The new campus at Grangegorman, the largest investment in Higher Education in Ireland, brings together many activities in one vibrant, cutting-edge campus, providing students with an incomparable educational experience.
The current development phase at Grangegorman saw the East Quad open in late 2020 while the Central Quad began welcoming small numbers of students, public health guidelines permitting, from April 2021. The buildings, when fully operational, will accommodate 10,000 students. Further to this, three existing buildings have been significantly upgraded and refurbished to offer a range of facilities and services to both students and staff – Lower House, Rathdown House, and Park House.
The Lower House is the name given to the former Richmond Asylum which opened to patients in 1814 and served over 2,000 patients at its peak. It forms an important gateway part of the new University campus and Is one of the 11 protected structures on the Grangegorman site. This old building has been refurbished from a derelict shell, to be available for a variety of student uses for Technical University Dublin.
The building’s new uses include music practice rooms, students’ union workspace, a food hall with full production kitchen, sports rooms, a dance studio and general student support services. The refurbishment of the existing 3600m2, 3 storey over partial basement project also included two single storey extensions, totalling 393m2 . The project itself was extremely challenging due to the exposed nature of the protected structure, the significant structural works required and the extremely tight timeframe set out by the Client, magnified by the fact that we are in the middle of a global pandemic.
The Park House is located on the Grangegorman Campus. Three out of seven floors of the 10,500 m² building are home to the current university library.
Park House was originally built as a hotel in 1972, but later converted into office space and used by some high-profile state institutions such as the Ministry of Justice.
Several floors have already been refurbished and will continue to be used as offices by university employees and various external tenants.
The library floors were extensively renovated and redesigned from 2020. Modern, bright and open rooms have been created in order to offer the students optimal learning conditions and to make student life even more attractive. For short breaks, the building offers, among other things, a café on the ground floor and a staff canteen on the upper floor.
Rathdown House, in addition to housing a large 250-seater canteen, is a one-stop-shop for student queries including Admissions, Registrations, Exams, International Office, Access & Civic Engagement, along with a new Student Wellness Centre which includes a Health Centre and Counselling Services.
