A contemporary dilemma in cities such as Dublin and London, where a strong eighteenth and nineteenth century residential fabric has been adopted by commercial offices, is whether the integrity of the original typology can survive. The was nowhere more explicit than in the competition for the Electricity Supply Board headquarters on Lower Fitzwilliam Street in central Dublin. Here Stephenson Gibney & Associates’ 1962 competition-winning building paid elevational lip service to the Georgian terrace it controversially replaced to camouflage the single occupation of the site behind. Where there were once 16 doors, now there is only one. The 2010 competition envisaged the replacement of the 1962 building so this stretch of Lower Fitzwilliam street would have been demolished twice in 50 years.
The site is part of Dublin’s “Georgian Mile”, a line of period houses that stretches from Merrion Square to the Grand Canal. According to historian Maurice Craig, it is “the longest Georgian street in Dublin, and perhaps anywhere” (not counting London’s Gower Street, of course). Interestingly, the site is next door to Miachel Scott’s 1962 Bank of Ireland.
The location, on the north-south Georgian Mile and aligned with Fitzwilliam Lane that leads west to Leinster House, presented an opportunity to extend the lane so as to dissect the site and connect to James Place to the east. This resulted in a simple cross with the division of the site as the basis of the plan, with half occupied by the ESB and the other half by third parties.
In the long direction the site is divided to give two contrasting arrangements: a “plan of rooms” to the houses facing the street and a “free plan” to the two office buildings on the vacant lots behind.
Serial entrances are maintained to the “houses”, intended for retail and professional offices. At the centre of the terrace, on the alignment of Fitzwilliam Lane, is the main entrance to the ESB offices behind. This “Empty House” acts as a “cour d’honneur” to the offices and provides a mid-block connection. It also forms a foyer to the theatre and museum and a public cafe terrace.
Brick elevations of base, piano nobile and attic lend a strong character to this part of the city.
A key issue was how can the remaking of Fitzwilliam Street, in sympathy with the domestic scale, also represent the entrance to a large headquarters building. Hence, the idea of the Empty House. In contrast to the occupied brick terraces on either side, the facade would be made of stone, and the windows and door unglazed and open, the full-height, floorless space behind.
Two stepped terraced gardens occupy the interstitial space between the houses and the two office buildings. The combination of landscape terraces and external stairs introduces a varied set of relationships between the rooms of the houses and the free plan of the office floor plates on either side.
The curve of the roofs to the two principle office buildings has various and unlikely associations – from Monet’s paintings of haystacks to the profile of Palladio’s Basilica in Vicenza. The form considerably reduces the buildings’ impact at street level and, on the other hand, makes them highly conspicuous as part of the city skyline. Not unlike James Gandon’s dome at Dublin’s Four Courts building, the curved profile would contrast with the rectangular conventions of most of the city’s buildings. As a public company providing electrical power to the country as a whole this symbolic representation seemed not inappropriate.