The Treasury Building, Lower Grand Canal Street, Dublin 2 with structural design by CORA Consulting Engineers is a major refurbishment and extension of a protected 1946 industrial building, delivering nine storeys of Grade A office accommodation. The project involved the addition of two new floors, mezzanines, rooftop and basement plantrooms, and a significant atrium extension, all carefully integrated within the existing riveted steel frame structure.

The careful dismantling, testing, recertification and re-use of 85 tonnes of original structural steel broke new ground in Ireland, maintaining continuity with the building’s historic fabric while dramatically reducing embodied carbon.

Strengthening and extending the existing structure within tight spatial constraints required detailed finite element modelling, innovative foundation design and close collaboration between contractor, fabricator and design team. The resulting building combines heritage retention with exemplary low-carbon structural innovation.

The Distillers Building, Smithfield, Dublin 7 with structural design by PUNCH Consulting Engineers is a mixed-use development of c.20,000 sq.m. that occupies a key location, framing the Smithfield plaza and bounded by New Church Street, Bow Lane and Phoenix Street North. It ranges from 4 to 7 stories with its mass successfully disaggregated to provide variety and appropriate scale on the differing elevations.

The dismantling, careful retention and re-use of the Bow Street boundary wall provides continuity of memory and urban fabric and links the development to its 20th century neighbour.

In engineering terms, the double-basement construction close to active Luas lines required imagination, assurance and close co-operation with TII. The narrow but impressive atrium has an impressive cantilever at its base, enlarging its footprint at ground level and it is capped by a deceptively simple glass roof.