Founders District in Dublin Upgraded, Redeveloped

Posted on October 24, 2022

It’s a rarity to find an office environment that brings suburban amenities like parking, outdoor space and an onsite restaurant together in one complex anywhere near an urban downtown, but that is just what Spear Street Capital has created in the Founders District, just three miles from Dublin’s city center in Ireland. Structure Tone Dublin is serving as general contractor on the project.

Spear Street recognized this potential when they set out on a master planning effort to upgrade and redevelop the 10-block, 20-year-old campus into a modern, amenity-rich workplace that brings the best of both worlds — suburban and urban — together in one setting.

Spear Street originally brought in the general contractor to upgrade and expand blocks 1, 2 and 3 of the campus, including:

Extensive demolition to the exterior, including replacing the red brick façade with glass curtainwall, from ground to roof
Extending the six-story complex on each of the three sides, both for a larger floor plate and to bring the buildings together as one
Filling in the center of the U-shaped complex with a seven-story atrium that features interconnecting stairs and cantilevered meeting pods
Adding greenroofs to all of the extended sections, including all the required infrastructure to support it
Extending the existing basement to house two new concrete sprinkler tanks, as well as some of the expanded MEP infrastructure
Upgrading the entire mechanical and electrical system
Adding sprinklers to blocks 1, 2 and 3
Building two new cantilevered-glass boxes over the car park entrances to house shower and locker room facilities for tenants
Replacing all of the lifts, including two glass panoramic lifts in the atrium

Partway through this work, the owner expanded the scope to include the outdoor redevelopment as well, which features sheltered meeting areas, expanded seating and a revamped landscape design for the two large courtyards.

Given the original complex’s age, the Structure Tone team encountered some challenges that are to be expected in older buildings. One was the existing structural integrity.

“We discovered that some of the deviations that occurred over time were not going to support the new structure,” says Noel Bradley, Structure Tone Dublin senior project manager. “We constructed extensive temporary propping so we could remove the old columns and replace them with all new concrete bases and columns.”

COVID-19 also impacted the timeline due to two extensive lockdowns and some labor shortages throughout. To help mitigate some of the time lost, the project team asked subcontractors to increase resources to work on different elevations concurrently, and allowed the interior fit-out works to commence in advance of base build works completion.

On the positive side, the decreased number of campus tenants in the buildings during the pandemic meant the team was less restricted in moving around the site, and it created an especially positive relationship with the onsite restaurant.

With blocks 1, 2 and 3 now complete, Founders District is being transformed from an old-fashioned, traditional brick complex into a modern, gleaming glass structure that greets visitors with striking cantilevered blocks, incredible outdoor spaces and workplace amenities that rival any in the marketplace.

Project highlights