O’Connor Sutton Cronin (M&E) for Glencar House.

The former Toyota garage site is now home to a landmark, double basement, 5-storey high 6,968m² ‘Grade A’ office building that is LEED, WELL and WiredScore Platinum. It has a Building Energy Rating (BER) A3 and was awarded the highly coveted LEED Platinum Certification.

The scheme includes three pump stations, 550m of town centre flood walling and 785m of harbour frontage walling. It is characterised by an upstream, pastoral, remote controlled, 19.5hA storage area to control flood flow. This avoided 1.5km of flood defences up to 4m high and the canalisation of 1 km of natural river bank. The innovative use of this upstream storage is a key indicator of the value of considered engineering design. As well as saving on hard engineering solutions in an historic town, it led to a significant reduction in the embedded carbon footprint of the project.

A 7,000 m2 office development of five storeys over double basement. The building achieved nZEB, BER A3, LEED Platinum and WELL accreditations. The project was an early forerunner for nZEB compliance before this was either mandatory or usual. The scheme uses many significant innovative design approaches including night time ice generation and the reuse of waste heat to provide a highly efficient building. The consultant used extensive dynamic system simulation to achieve a 26% energy saving through various innovative measures. The project was Highly Commended in the RIAI 2021 Sustainability Awards.