New building boost for education
Niamh Nolan, Irish Examiner, Thursday 20th May 2004

These are exciting times for the City of Cork Vocational Educational Committee (VEC) as the country’s first purpose-built college for further education nears completion in the city centre.

After almost a decade of planning the €11m state-of-the-art facility at St. John’s Central College will open in September.

The imposing 4-storey building has been constructed on lands owned by the VEC adjacent to the existing college building in Sawmill Street.

Designed by Reddy O’Riordan Staehli Architects (RORSA) and built by Wexford-based contractors Cleary Doyle Ltd., the new building has a floor area of approximately 5,200m². Ewbank Preece O hEocha structural engineers and Arup mechanical and electrical consultants completed the team.

College principle Gerard Looney says the building is the realisation of a long-awaited dream. “We’ve been providing education services to the people of Cork since the 1960s in buildings built in the 1850s,” he says. “This is the final part in a jigsaw, where planning began nine or ten years ago. We’re all very happy that the last piece of the jigsaw is coming together.”

The original design incorporates some interesting features, including copper cladding on the walls and roof of the common areas such as the canteen and library. The three main stairwells and entrance foyer will have a high quality architectural concrete finish.

Respect for the surrounding neighbourhood and an unimpeded operation of the existing college were essential requirements of the project, which required a substantial amount of demolition works as well as external landscaping.

“This is a very exciting project for Cleary Doyle to be involved in,” says contracts manager Kieran Walsh. “It is a very complex building in terms of construction, with very high standard of finishes throughout, and it has been a great challenge for everyone involved.”

Gerard Looney says the result will be an “open access-style” facility that will allow for greater interaction with the local community. Plans are also underway to conduct a project for the Capital of Culture 2005 in conjunction with the local community.

The design is highly specific to the practical training courses in the college and a number of interesting new courses are on offer for the forthcoming academic year.

The new building includes a 72-seater lecture theatre, engineering and woodcraft technology work shops, animal care facilities, audio visual labs, science rooms, arts and crafts rooms, staff rooms, storage areas, together with a new two-storey canteen building that has a glazed link to the new building.

“In the new building, we will have the opportunity to deliver on our reputation for education in the travel and tourism business,” say Mr. Looney. The large studio-size classrooms and computer labs will facilitate courses in e-travel skills, computer game design and the most modern IT skills.

Other courses include art, interior design, pharmacy assistant, dispensing optician, electronics, jewellery and metal craft, cartoon animation, video and film production, animal care and hairdressing.