The Minister for Education and Skills Joe McHugh TD and the Minister for Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform Paschal Donohoe TD today marked an important moment in the Grangegorman project with the Topping Out of the Central Quad for Technological University Dublin (TU Dublin).
This milestone puts the Central Quad, and its sister building the East Quad, on track to be ready for the arrival of 10,000 students in Grangegorman in September 2020. It also reinforces the Government commitment to making Ireland’s education and training system the best in Europe by 2026.
The buildings, which span 52,000m2 of development, are being delivered via Public Private Partnership. The will provide academic facilities for ten schools from the College of Sciences & Health, the College of Engineering & Built Environment and the College of Arts and & Tourism from TU Dublin.
Minister McHugh said: “These flagship buildings at TU Dublin are helping to bring the vision for Grangegorman to life. The investment is transforming this part of the north inner city.
“Soon we will see 10,000 TU Dublin students on this campus and while we are attracting the young talent we are also matching it with state of the art facilities.
“This level of investment will help TU Dublin to deliver on its ambitions at home and internationally.”
Minister Paschal Donohoe said: “The Grangegorman project will have a hugely positive impact not just for TUD but also on this part of the city. From the earliest days of the development and planning of Grangegorman, it was always part of a much wider ambition beyond purely higher education – that of creating a new urban quarter in the city. Grangegorman will be a place for study, for primary education, for healthcare, for recreation – a place for living. I am sure that the development will not only benefit the students in the TU but also the local residents, and that it will a make a huge contribution to the regeneration of the North Inner City.”
The Chair of the Grangegorman Development Agency, Oliver Cussen Said “This is a great milestone in the Grangegorman project. From the Agency’s point of view these two new quads being underway have brought this re-development project on in leaps and bounds. Once they went on site they opened the gates to allow us to move on the development of the new Academic Hub and the West Quad for TU Dublin. We will also have the new primary school going on site in January and further design work now happening on the HSE Residential Care Neighbourhood. I would like to thank everyone involved in the project to date for helping to drive this vital public infrastructure project forward.”
Commenting on the opportunities that the campus will create, Professor David FitzPatrick, President of TU Dublin said, “To deliver on our mission and to do full justice to the ambitions of our students, it is vital to have facilities that support their learning. Students who will study here from next September will benefit from working in laboratories, kitchens and lecture spaces with up-to-the-minute facilities and technology. They will gain expertise that will ensure they can make a valuable contribution in key areas of the economy – in food science and innovation, pharmaceutical and nutraceuticals, health and environment, tourism and hospitality.”
Speaking on behalf of the main contractor delivering the project Sisk FCC, Donal McCarthy, Managing Director Ireland East, John Sisk & Son said “I am delighted to be here today on behalf of the Sisk FCC Joint venture leading the construction of the great new facilities at the East and Central Quads, as we hit this key milestone and formally top out the Central Quad. I want to recognise and thank our supply chain partners who are delivering top quality work across all aspects of this build. “I would like to thank MacQuarie Group, the Grangegorman Development Agency, TU Dublin, our design team partners and the National Development Finance Agency for their positive engagement and support with this important project.”
Simon Carter, Partner at Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios said “In reaching this milestone in the construction of the Central Quad, we can see our combined vision for Grangegorman Campus emerging. We can see a well-proportioned civic building based around an open and welcoming quadrangle. It will be a focal teaching and social centre for the whole Campus and encourage movement, meeting and collaboration. We are delighted with the high quality of the brick and precast stone facades, which bodes well for providing an exemplary finished building for TU Dublin. The building will provide state of the art specialist teaching spaces, which will be linked together by a variety of informal teaching, study spaces and informal social learning areas which will facilitate a new teaching and learning model for interaction and engagement between students, staff and public.”
