A project tackling dereliction on Waterford's Lombard Street unveiled
Pictured are Niamh McKeogh, Alice Tyrell and Hannah Lanigan with their winning project. Photo: John Power
GOMA gallery partnered with SETU to generate ideas for the derelict building beside the gallery.
Waterford City and County Council own the building and the gallery hopes to one day expand into the historic site.
A total of 14 projects were presented to the gallery, many of which had not been considered by the gallerists themselves, according to
Chairperson of GOMA, Stephanie Taheny.
She said, “We particularly liked the introduction of new uses in the form of residential use on the third floor linked to artist studios, which would allow us to provide artist residences with accommodation (Project 8 Unveiling the Courtyard).
"We liked the idea of the café / coffee dock on the ground floor (Project 13 Continuum), which would be beneficial to GOMA by creating additional traffic to the gallery and potential greater use of the courtyard and might provide an additional income stream.”
Ms Taheny also outlined the urban dereliction in the area: “For more than a decade, Lombard Street has been in a state of dereliction.”
Manager of Waterford City and County Council, Seán McKeown, was in attendance. He told the Waterford News & Star, “I’m very impressed. They are so sympathetic to the street and buildings around. We have an architectural conservation area here, so that kind of limited what they could do with their brief, but they were still able to be so creative even within those restrictions.”
Number 3 and 4 Lombard Street, the buildings which GOMA hope to redevelop, date back to the 18th Century and are older than the 33 The Mall building.
When asked if the council had any plans to redevelop the buildings, Mr McKeown said, “GOMA are in consultation in relation to their plans, so we’ll see where that goes.”
Niamh McKeogh, Alice Tyrell and Hannah Lanigan were architects of the winning design. Ms McKeown explained their vision for the project.
She said they wanted to change the reception area into the adjacent alleyway, “We’ve renamed it the gateway.”
Alice explained that on a sunny day in Ireland “everyone wants to be outside”, so their design focused on having all parts of the new design link back to the outdoor space.
She said: “The courtyard has become the new core of the gallery.”
Jenny O’Leary, an architecture lecturer at SETU, spoke to the Waterford News & Star about her students' work. She said, “They did excellent historical research, and they really dove into how GOMA works as a building.
"It was really wonderful for them to have a real-life client and to have to respond to what the client’s real needs are.”
