`Brutal' civil service building to get a facelift

Goldsmith House, the incongruous 1970s civil service building at the junction of Pearse Street and Tara Street in Dublin's city centre is in line for a facelift and major extension, if a recent planning application by the Commissioners of Public Works is approved.

The aim of the proposal is to soften the streetscape by removing the existing precast concrete cladding on the building and replacing it with a mix of coarse and polished limestone. The finished building would be contemporary in design but, according to the OPW, more visually compatible with the stone front buildings on either side - the listed Garda station on Pearse Street and the Fireworks Club and the hotel at Tara Street Fire Station, which has a listed watchtower.

An industry source described the existing 26,964 sq ft building, occupied by the Department of Social Community and Family Affairs as "brutal" in its impact on the adjacent buildings and said that while concrete "bullet-type facades, with loads of windows" were in vogue in the 1960s and 1970s, they have weathered the years quite poorly. "If it were cleaned up it would look well but after a few years it would take on the same grimy hue."

The architectural firm overseeing the revamp of Goldsmith House, which was bought from Canada Life Assurance in 1997 for £2.8 million (€3.5 million), is Ashlin Coleman, which will work in consultation with the OPW project team.

The planning application states that the renovation will also involve the extension of the fourth floor, which is currently set back from the street, to form a recessed glazed penthouse and the addition of a fifth floor behind a mansard roof comprising of an extra 7,414 sq ft of office space. The building will also be modified for wheelchair access.

According to an OPW spokesperson, the overall building design, with the use of carefully modelled stonework and state-of-the-art glazing technology "will offer a contemporary intervention, bridging the gap between two important buildings - and located on the junction of Pearse Street and Tara Street, it will turn the corner on to a major traffic artery through Dublin's city centre."

The OPW must be fairly confident that permission will be granted as it has already relocated some staff to make way for refurbishments, which it envisages will begin in the autumn. The ground floor will be a conference area while the first and second floors will comprise cellular offices. The third will be open plan and the fourth and fifth will accommodate the building's IT facilities.

The OPW expect that work on the renovation will take a year to complete. The spokesperson said OPW would not comment on the projected cost of the works "at this early stage".