The Lennox Building
Dublin
The Lennox Building is a four-storey over basement mixed use, office and restaurant development which occupies a prominent site at the junction of Lennox Street and South Richmond Street.
The building occupies a prominent corner on one of the busiest approaches to Dublin city centre. The two streets forming this corner meet at a slightly irregular angle. This odd geometry informs the treatment of the corner, where the façade’s surface fractures and twists out of shape as it rounds the block. The outer face of the rounded corner splits from the body of the structure, leaving a series of glass fins floating between bands of cantilevered brick. Concealed light-sources illuminate these fins to reveal sharp blades of light. This ‘light show’ suggests a memory of the pyrotechnics and Chinese gas lanterns that were a feature of the historic Portobello Gardens, which occupied the site in the mid 1800’s.
The office entrance, sheltered under the cantilevered brick band, opens into a marble clad lobby. The lobby’s terrazzo floor extends beyond the floor-to-ceiling frameless glass walls, as far as the outer edge of the site, creating a seamless connection between the interior and streetscape outside. Internally, the lobby walls are clad in book-matched marble slabs with exposed sandblasted concrete above this level. The richly textured surface of the exposed concrete walls extends into the main stairwell where it contrasts with the smooth surfaces of the stone steps and the black metal handrails. At each of the upper floors the lifts and stairs open to the curved glass corner to reveal spectacular views across the city and towards the Dublin mountains.
The building is clad in distinctive black brick. The texture of the brick creates a dialogue with the familiar surfaces of the adjacent red-brick terraces of houses, while its less familiar colour, reflects the idiosyncratic mixture of shop fronts along South Richmond Street.
Client
Oakmount & Core Capital
Size
3,600 m2
Type
Office and Restaurant
Dates
Jan 2016 - May 2019
Category
Workplace
Awards
Build Architecture Awards 2021.
Best Completed Commercial Architecture Project (ROI).