Eircom's new HQ makes the right connections

Heuston South Quarter is not yet the "vibrant urban quarter" as envisaged, but Eircom's new HQ there is a big success, writes FRANK MCDONALD

SUCH IS the curiosity about Eircom’s new HQ near Heuston Station that over 400 people availed of the opportunity of Open House weekend to have a look around. What they wouldn’t have seen, however, is its building management system, which cuts Eircom’s energy bills by at least 27 per cent.

Double-skin glazing insulates the building in winter and cools it in summer by encasing a “thermal flue”. Open-plan office space in “corrals” – even the chief executive has the same work station as everyone else – is naturally ventilated; only meeting rooms on every level are air-conditioned.

Designed by Anthony Reddy and Associates, the offices are also colour-coded to give each department its own identity and laid out on either side of a wide, elongated atrium with three “bridges” on each level for ease of circulation; contrast that with shopping centres where it’s usually impossible to take direct routes anywhere.

This “connectivity” and sense of openness at all levels were key design criteria, say the architects. And because the block is so long, they broke it into four components of glazed offices alternating with granite-clad service cores, with a razor-sharp vertical element, curved on one side, to mark the main entrance.

Low-energy lighting incorporated in the voids between the outer and inner glazing is used to change the colour of the long façade at night, and this is to be formalised by a computer programme similar to the one used to turn Liberty Hall into an art object. Views from the higher levels are superb.

The new Eircom building has become a landmark for Heuston South Quarter. With plans for the adjoining site east of Military Road pigeonholed by the OPW because of the recession, it is unlikely to be surpassed anytime soon by the 32-storey residential tower once planned as a beacon for the area.

Given the state of the public finances, there is uncertainty over whether an interactive science museum, Exploration Station, will ever be built. Indeed, the OPW-owned site looks almost abandoned, apart from its partial use as a carpark for the HSE, the Garda and the Revenue Commissioners’ data centre.

When the plans were unveiled in 2003, the first phase – west of Military Road – was to comprise 92,900sq m (1 million sq ft) of offices and 650 apartments as well as new facilities for the adjoining Irish Museum of Modern Art in the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham; the aim was to create a “vibrant urban quarter”.

Certainly, the Eircom project has turned out to be a big success, much to the satisfaction of its property manager, Felix McKenna. Not only did he manage to dispose of the company’s interests in several office blocks in the city centre, but the new HQ was sold to Quinlan Private for €180 million in December 2006.

But the adjoining bow-fronted Brunel Building, two storeys taller than Eircom’s corner block, is vacant and work has stopped on a 217-bed hotel designed by Henry J Lyons and Partners. A third office block by Make Architects has also been postponed.

These elements – importantly, with IMMA’s new annex of 3,715sq m (40,000sq ft) at ground-floor and basement levels of the Make block – were to have defined two edges of a new public square to form a lively centrepiece. Although only half of the surrounding buildings are built, the square will at least be paved.

Galway-based developer JJ Rhatigan, which bought the balance of the site from Eircom for less than €80 million in mid-2005, has had a tough time shifting the 343 apartments, which are laid out in distinct blocks stretching back from Military Road; they were the first to be tested for “let-to-buy” arrangements in a depressed market.

Designed by Anthony Reddy and Associates, using a mix of materials to avoid monotony, and by MV Cullinan Architects (theirs are characterised by coloured panels), the apartment blocks form new streets leading to the incomplete square. The north-facing block behind Eircom is overshadowed and overlooked by the offices. “It was a deliberate concept to have tighter-grain streets leading into the square,” Tony Reddy says. “The idea was to make it as permeable as possible.”

Nonetheless, a new laneway along the Royal Hospital’s stone boundary wall remains inaccessible behind a padlocked gate, even though there are timber benches and lighting along it.

Retailing is scant so far. A chemist shop has opened and Superquinn has signed up to take a large, double-height unit on a corner site on Military Road. There is also a crèche on one of the new side streets.

But one’s overall sense is that the Heuston South Quarter is still in the early stages of becoming the promised “vibrant urban quarter”.

Anthony Reddy and Associates was also centrally involved in designing Herberton on the site of Fatima Mansions in Rialto. Along with Metropolitan Workshop, it was responsible for the new blocks of private and affordable housing, which are laid out on attractively landscaped streets running south from the Grand Canal.

Officially opened recently by President Mary McAleese, Herberton includes an impressive, privately-run leisure centre with gym facilities and a basement swimming pool. The social housing element stands apart, in three-storey terraces where everyone has their own entrance from the street.

Herberton is a model of the type of public-private partnership (PPP) schemes favoured by Dublin City Council – until its deals with Bernard McNamara and Castlethorn Construction fell apart in mid-2008. And despite some local opposition to connecting it into the street network and some evidence of vandalism, it works well.

As Taoiseach Brian Cowen said at Eircom’s official opening in December 2008: “New developments need to involve more than just the provision of housing or business parks. It is essential that the development process is an integrated one to include schools, community facilities, employment, transport and amenities.” According to Cowen, the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism and the OPW were “working with the developer to specify the public cultural use of this space, which is to be provided to the State at the cost of €1”. There may also be a second exhibition space which may be used to show work by the National College of Art and Design.

The Taoiseach hailed Heuston South Quarter as “one of the most significant developments in Dublin in the last decade”, a western counterpoint to the Docklands area. But whether it is “also a model for integration and sustainability and heralds the way for future developments” remains to be seen.