Case Studies

Hume Street

TEAM

ORS Multidisciplinary Team

Sector

Commercial/Offices

Related Services

PSDP, DAC and Assigned Certifier

People To Contact

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Overview of service

Green Sea Property Ltd. appointed ORS to provide multidisciplinary services, including DAC, Assigned Certifier and PSDP, on refurbishing a number of properties on the Hume Street Project, Dublin 2.

This was a complex and exciting project. The site comprises seven Georgian houses, amalgamated to form one building on Hume Street (no. 3-8 Hume Street) and a single house at no.16 Ely Place. The project is located in a densely populated area of Dublin city centre with commercial buildings surrounding the site.

The demolition of internal extensions to the former Hume Street Hospital and the construction of a contemporary block connects the existing buildings internally. The front façades of the existing buildings were restored to their original form.

The refurbishment of the existing properties provides office space, residential units, restaurant facilities and an art gallery. The work combines the original architecture with a new internal extension accessed through a contemporary link bridge on several floor levels. A glass atrium in the inner courtyard spans the old and new buildings.

The project involved the meticulous restoration of the existing historical buildings overseen by Shaffery Conservation architects, while Plus Architecture designed the contemporary additions.

As a multidisciplinary project, ORS appointed a project coordinator, offering the client one point of contact. This approach allowed for the seamless delivery of our combined service offering, resulting in a smooth outcome for the client. The resulting works delivered a unique city centre building that fused contemporary architecture with the sympathetic treatment of the existing historical building.

Project challenges

Complex site management

Given the site’s location in a densely populated city centre area, access roads to the site were subject to a high volume of both pedestrian and vehicular traffic. Responsibility was on the contractor to ensure that construction traffic did not hinder the city centre traffic movement on the surrounding public roads. Lifting operations of heavy pre-assembled materials posed a particular issue, with temporary road closures being put in place when high-risk construction activities were planned.

The project required piling and bulk excavation works to be carried out. The works comprised the installation of foundation piles to the proposed extension, a secant piled wall to form a new basement, piles for the support of tower cranes, static load tests on non-working test pile(s), integrity, and dynamic testing. This also included removing contaminated material and buried obstructions from previous construction, dewatering ground, shoring/propping, and provisioning a piling access mat.

In addition to the complexities the urban site presented, the ORS team and the contractor had to be cognisant that extensive temporary works secured protected structures adjoining the piling works area. They ensured that all appropriate temporary work procedures were in place. Significant care was taken to ensure no damage was caused to the existing buildings. As a preventive measure, the ORS team proposed movement monitoring and vibration monitoring to assess the impact of the works.