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ADELAIDE SQUARE
Peter Street, Dublin 8
1999-2001
Client:
Benton Property Holding Ltd
Structual Consultants:
Walsh Goodfellow
Mechanical & Electrical Consultants:
Dervan Engineering Consultants Ltd.
Quantity Surveyors:
Michael Hickey & Associates
This is a residential development in the heart of Dublin that creates an urban community while reinstating the urban fabric damaged by the previous use of the site.
There are 176 apartments, 3000 sq. m. offices, car parking, laundry and health centre with gym and swimming pool, on the 1.75-acre site of the former Adelaide Hospital.
The developer wanted a residential development that would encourage owner/occupiers to live in the city centre to form an urban community by focusing the development around an entry point that would be manned 24 hours-a-day by a concierge, to give a ‘human’ feel.
The development was seen as an opportunity to repair damage caused to the urban fabric by the development of the hospital over one hundred years.
The contradiction between the scale of the development and the aspiration to reinstate the urban grain was resolved by giving expression to the unique issues of each of the three streets bordering the site.
By reinstating the medieval curve on Whitefriar Street and using the curve to lead you to the entrance at the corner with Peter Street, it has been given back its former dignity.
The double height undercroft on the third side, Wood Street, gives a glimpse of the inner open space and responds to the large open space in front of it, created by abandoned road widening plans from the 1960’s.
The success of the strategy of 24 hour porterage is apparent. The development has already developed a welcoming sense of community.
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