A FEW YEARS AGO, a headline in E&L described the Moylish campus of Limerick Regional Technical College as "Limerick's Lubyanka".
The college is older than the country's other RTCs, having been in existence as Limerick College of Art, Commerce and Technology (CoACT) before the RTC structure was devised. Its premises had therefore been in use for much longer, the library and some other facilities were housed in prefabs and it was over crowded.
It's an altogether different story now. Following a £17 million development, the former dreary rectangular building has been transformed into a modern complex full of light, space and interesting shapes. The design team was led by Murray O'Laoire Associates, and the main contractor was Tom Hayes.
The accommodation has grown by more than 250 per cent - from 6,000 square metres to almost 16,000. The original one story block has been thoroughly refurbished, and a three storey extension has been wrapped around three of its sides in an imaginative way.
In the process, the building has gained a long internal glazed street, running from the main entrance to an area at the end where a large group can gather. Off this street are a new centralised computing section, a library and several lecture theatres, while upstairs there are new architectural technology studios.
With the extra space, both lecturing and administration staff have been given new offices. A nursing station and a permanent bank branch are further enhancements.
Before the building programme began, 1,400 students plus staff were crammed into Moylish. At that stage, the campus housed just one of Limerick RTC's three schools, the school of engineering.
The school of professional and management studies was elsewhere in Limerick city in another dilapidated building, and the school of art and design was scattered around several other buildings in a different area entirely.
Last September, the school of professional and management studies moved to the Moylish campus, adding about 300 students and staff to the population. There are now about 1,900 students and well over 200 staff on the Moylish campus (The school of art and design, which has roughly 600 students, is developing a former convent in the city to house, eventually, all its activities.)
"We expect the numbers of students to keep on growing, reaching about 3,000 in the year 2000," says Michael O'Connell, the college's secretary and financial controller. Indeed, according to Jeannette McDonnell, chairwoman of the governing body, Limerick is the fastest growing RTC outside the Dublin area.
THE CAO first preference demand for places has grown by 25 per cent this year, says director James P. MacDonagh. "I suspect that the growth in interest in this college is due in no small part to the improved and positive image that the provision of this building has bestowed on it," he says.
The butterfly has burst from its chrysalis in two main stages. First a new computer centre, a new library and some administration offices were built at a cost of £1.4 million and opened in 1994. This added 1,583 square metres of floor space.
Next came the major step, with £5.5 million spent on doubling the size of the library and computer centre, adding two 150 seat and six 100 seat lecture theatres, six tutorial rooms, several offices and some architectural studios at the side and an administration block across the front. All this added a further 7,200 square metres.
In tandem, the original building, now at the core of the complex, was extended by about 1,000 square metres and refurbished fundamentally, at a cost of £3 million. A further £500,000 remains to be spent on mechanical laboratories.
Equipping the complex's many laboratories and the new lecture theatres added a further £4 million.
A long awaited amenity in the shape of a 500 seater restaurant and training block is under construction, at a cost of £2.2 million. This will be most welcome to both staff and students who have been eating in a prefab for years. The training accommodation is for CERT students, whom the college hopes to begin training in September this year, when the restaurant is ready.
There will also be showers and changing rooms to go with new sports facilities.
The RTC is currently buying an 11.5 acre site at the rear of the complex, on which it is to construct several pitches, including an all weather pitch with floodlighting. The purchase and development will cost around £650,000 and will bring the size of the Moylish campus to more than 30 acres.
Most of the £17 million for the development has come from the European Regional Development Fund through the Department of Education. The college will now be seeking a further £3 million for an Aula Maxima and a 300 seat lecture and conference theatre.
An additional £2 million has been spent on buying and refurbishing the convent premises for the art school; a plan for completing this refurbishment, at a cost of £3.5 million, is with the Department of Education.
