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The Limerick County Council Headquarters belongs to an impressive series of new local government buildings erected throughout the Emerald Isle during the past decade, structures that gather council offices together, for the first time, in signature buildings. It was designed by the American/Irish duo Merritt Bucholz and Karen McEvoy. This husband-and-wife team established their practice in Dublin after winning a competition to design Fingal County Hall [RECORD, August 2001, page 98]. Just before the completion of that, their first building, Bucholz McEvoy Architects was awarded the Limerick commission through an interview process.
Program
Limerick's new county hall gathers together nearly 300 local government officials working in nine departments that were previously scattered across several locations. In addition, the building provides a council chamber for 29 locally elected representatives. Computerization, increasing informality, and a less homogenous society suggested a more open architecture than in the past.
Located in Dooradoyle, a suburb of Limerick, the County Headquarters is surrounded by the vast parking lot of a shopping center, across a busy road from tract houses. Like many places in Ireland, the site was rural until 15 years of the Celtic Tiger's rapid economic growth transformed it. Bucholz McEvoy considered its project in the context of this evolving landscape. The resulting design focuses at the scale of both the suburban context and that of individual workstations. Natural ventilation, lighting, and climate control all aim for new environmental standards in Irish governmental architecture.
Solution
The architects set the bulk of the building back from the road, dividing the interstitial ground into parallel strips. Alternatively landscaped or used for parking, these striations tilt up and down, partially concealing the automobiles within this new terrain....