CHARLEMONT STREET REGENERATION PROJECT
This was my first time to visit this new complex.
Charlemont Square is the second phase of the transformative Charlemont Street regeneration placemaking project in the heart of Dublin 2. This €210 million mixed-use development involved the reimaging of c.13,000m2 – mostly derelict – space on a logistically challenging site close to the city centre. The creation of a focal point for the local community was a key ambition of this development, which commenced in January 2018 and was completed in December 2022.
Works consisted of the demolition and site clearance of four existing residential blocks, including specialist asbestos removal, prior to the construction of six multi-storey blocks.
This phase of regeneration delivered 96 apartments, 355,000ft² of Grade A office space and 30,000ft² of retail space for the local area.
The residential portion of this project comprises a unique collection of one, two and three-bed apartments, designed and delivered to a high quality.
The office incorporates Grade 2 basement over two levels, cast in-situ RC frame with bespoke curtain walling and glazing with large areas of brick and stone cladding. Internally, the accommodation provides efficient floor plates with suspended ceilings with 650mm void, 150mm raised access floors and minimised internal columns with 12m clear spans. Roof terraces and tenant facilities including secure basement car parking and bicycle spaces, showers and drying facilities are also provided. The scheme has a WireScore rating of Platinum, LEED Gold, and an A3 BER rating.
At street level, the retail space incorporates convenience retail, food and beverage uses and an art studio, complementing the residential and office accommodation.
[March 2014] The Charlemont Street flat complex near Ranelagh was to have been redeveloped as a public-private partnership scheme including shops, restaurants, offices, as well as 260 new apartments. However, despite beginning demolition, including razing Scott’s 1944 building Ffrench Mullen House, the council had been unable to finalise a deal on the regeneration project. Independent city councillor Mannix Flynn sought to save Ffrench Mullen House, because its demolition was ethically wrong given the block was a “one-off social housing unit, designed by Michael Scott in 1944 during the Emergency”, and that it should be reused. Ffrench Mullen House was named after Madeline Ffrench Mullen who developed the nearby St Ultan’s Hospital for Women and Infants in 1919 in response to the dire socioeconomic conditions in Dublin.
