Refurbishing a Georgian Office Building

Paul Dillon Architects have recently moved into their refurbished Georgian office, a protected structure in the heart of Galway built between 1820 and 1840. The architectural practice enlisted the help of their long-time collaborators on projects worth in excess of e30 million – namely structural engineers O’Connor Sutton Cronin and building services engineers RN Murphy & Associates. “We ran into problems but they could’ve been much bigger problems if we hadn’t had the resources there,” says Paul Dillon, leader of the architectural practice of the same name.

This project involved the refurbishment of an existing three storey mid terrace building, possibly constructed in the early 19th century. The building has been extended to the rear in more recent times. Following a detailed inspection of the existing building by O Connor Sutton Cronin, it was found that the wall construction of the older part of the building varied from random stone rubble up to 600mm in thickness, to 300mm block cavity walls to the recent extension with timber floors of varying levels throughout the building. The roof consisted of an “A” type cut timber roof with a slate finish to the front with a flat roof to the rear.

Irishconstruction.com