Nos. 72, 74 & 76 Morehampton Road, Dublin 4, are protected structures and part of a five-building terrace. They are located on a site adjacent the junction of Morehampton Road, Marlborough Road and Herbert Park. The terrace was built circa 1855 and marked the beginning of the development of the north side of the road. The three buildings were interlinked with an established educational use.
Although originally built as town houses, various combinations of the buildings have been in educational use since the late 19th century. The proposed works acknowledge this historic fact and attempt to make such adaptive refurbishments and interventions that are suitable and practical to allow for the continued use of these protected structures as an educational facility throughout the 21st century.
The buildings needed various degrees of renovation, repair and renewal works. Further refurbishment works were proposed to better adapt the buildings to their use in terms of circulation, enhancement of fire safety, improvement of sanitary facilities, mechanical and electrical services as well as the overall presentation of the protected structures. The main intervention on the exterior includes the restoration of the front façades and the cast and wrought iron ironwork to the street. Also proposed was a new single storey pavilion which provided a type of large meeting room space, absent from the original layout.
Following consultation with the Fire Officer at Dublin City Fire Brigade, an alternate fire safety strategy was proposed which would allow the removal of intrusive lobbies at various stair and landing locations. This would not only improve fire safety but restore the historic architectural qualities of the circulation spaces while simultaneously improving movement of pupils through the school at busy times of the day.
