NATIONAL GALLERY OF IRELAND, DARGAN WING ROOF

NATIONAL GALLERY OF IRELAND, DARGAN WING ROOF

NATIONAL GALLERY OF IRELAND, DARGAN WING ROOF

This contract was part of a larger project to refurbish and redesign Dublin’s National Gallery of Ireland on Merrion Square, one of a number of historic buildings in the area including Dáil Éireann, the Natural History Museum, and the National Museum. Our remit was the careful removal and replacement of the existing glass/slate roof and ‘laylight’ glazing that connected two historic wings of the listed building.

Client : OPW
Service : Restoration / Conservation
Architect : Heneghen Peng
Quantity surveyors : Davis Langdon
Structural engineer : Punch Consultants
Services engineer : BDP
Value : €2.1 million

PJ Hegarty is an accredited heritage contractor and we carried out all works using Best Practice Historical Restoration methods. The National Gallery of Ireland houses the National Collection of European and Irish Fine Art and the building remained open to visitors during construction. This required close liaising between our team and the gallery management to coordinate significant pedestrian and vehicular traffic, as well as to maintain the gallery’s strict security protocols.

The new glass roof is supported on triple-laminated toughened glass fins that span the 7m gap between the two wings of the building, construction of which was designed to minimise the visual impact of the structure and achieve a more open, courtyard-like quality in the gallery space below.