The greater part of two walls have been retained from the original school and these are, therefore, of limestone and sandstone. The western wall is of lightly dressed concrete, part of which is concealed by a plastered screen, behind which runs the stairs leading to the first floor.
The stylish Model Arts and Niland Gallery in Sligo is a prime example of how refurbishment can enhance an old property. An impressed Robert O'Byrne hopes its artistic programme can live up to the promise of the building
IT IS a too rare pleasure to discover a building in which the architect's aspirations have been satisfactorily realised. The more common circumstance is that, due to budgetary constraints, a variety of compromises will have to be made - the eventual outcome being a structure bearing only modest comparison with the original design.
The newly-refurbished Model School in Sligo therefore commands approbation, not simply because the building so satisfactorily meets the purpose for which it has been overhauled, but also because it does so without having been subject to the customary financial cutbacks.
What makes this achievement even more remarkable is that the work was achieved within a relatively small budget: in the region of £2.4 million, with the funds coming from a wide variety of sources including local, national and international organisations. Furthermore, at over 1,900 sq metres, the new centre is much larger than many other purposebuilt equivalents around the country.
Originally designed by James Owen and built around 1855 for the Board of Works as a school and teachers' residence, the Model Arts and Niland Gallery, as it is now called, occupies a distinguished site at the eastern end of Sligo's Mall, raised high above the roadway by a series of three broad terraces; the ground continues to climb behind the property, which explains why it is unusually long.
A low two-storey building in loosely Italian-Romanesque style, its facade replete with rhythmic variations, the school is predominantly constructed of grey limestone. Pale Mountcharles sandstone was used for the door and window surrounds, as well as for the deep cornicing which remains one of the structure's most striking features.
While the building had long since ceased to serve its original purpose and was acting as an arts centre, only in the last two years has any serious structural work been undertaken to assist its new role. McCullough Mulvin Architects, the practice responsible for the old school's transformation, had to find a means of conserving as much of the original property as possible, while providing vastly superior resources than existed until just recently.
For this reason, the principal front of the building appears almost unaltered, save only for the introduction of new steps and a wheelchair ramp leading to the main entrance. It is at the back of the site that the radical nature of the new intervention becomes more apparent, but only examination of the interior reveals just how substantial the changes have been.
To give one simple but telling instance: the largest spaces on the ground floor are now covered not by their old black and terracotta tiles - although these were salvaged and reused on adjacent corridors.
The flooring in the public areas is now flagged in pale Portuguese limestone, picking up the same subdued tones used elsewhere in the building, where galleries in the old section have retained their floors of pitched pine and those in the new one have been given oak floors; in both instances, the wood has been limed.
Entering a large new lobby created by clearing away internal walls, the initial impression is therefore of ample space and cool light, this effect aided by the front's large south-facing windows. The most stunning section of the entire building lies off the entrance lobby up a short flight of steps.
Constructed from a number of exercise yards, mean of size and grim of character, this is a double-height atrium top-lit by a sequence of pitched glazed roofs. What makes this area especially attractive is its extravagance; it serves no function other than to give the structure a beautiful and bright central space.
The greater part of two walls have been retained from the original school and these are, therefore, of limestone and sandstone. The western wall is of lightly dressed concrete, part of which is concealed by a plastered screen, behind which runs the stairs leading to the first floor.
The remaining northern wall and part of the adjoining eastern wall are predominantly of red cedar, with a series of glass doors on the former's lower section leading into what will be a cafe. Add the floor of off-white limestone into this mix and the risk of materials clashing with one another would appear unavoidable.
IN fact, this does not occur for two reasons: the area is big enough to absorb the contrasts in texture and colour, and all those contrasts have been kept on the outer limits of the space - the greater part of which is left uncluttered.
If not to the same generous extent, the same quality of spaciousness can be found throughout the centre, not least in the entirely new Niland Gallery, constructed at the rear of the site. Northern lit, with plain white walls and a bleached oak floor, this substantial room - 22 metres long, eight metres wide and with hanging space four metres high - could hardly be plainer and, therefore, more suited to its role as a setting for the centre's historic collection of paintings.
An adjoining gallery to the east has a semi-transparent polycarbonate ceiling set below the glazed roof and so offers more diffused light for the display of work.
Inevitably, the new galleries and those installed in the older, front section of the building exhibit certain differences, but these are less powerful than might have been the case, thanks to the same understated approach being taken to the design and decoration of both sections.
A suite of three small rooms on both the ground and first floor in the south-west corner of the building now serve as galleries perfectly suitable for the display of more intimate work. On the upper storey, these lead into a pair of bigger spaces which together approximate an L-shaped gallery - so giving the venue still more exhibition space.
In fact, creation of abundant space has been one of the most distinctive features of the entire redevelopment. In addition to the galleries, the centre also holds a very large auditorium which can act as a lecture hall or cinema, a big picture store, six artists' studios - one of which is residential - offices, a bookshop, a schoolchildren's workroom and the various other facilities required in such a building.
The Model Arts and Niland Gallery lives up to its name by being a model example of redevelopment in which an old property is enhanced by the interventions made to its original structure. Despite the problematic nature of the site, which climbs at a dauntingly steep gradient, and the inevitable budgetary restrictions, the centre gives the impression of being luxuriously substantial.
In fact, now that construction work has finished, the challenge for the centre's administrative team will be to devise a programme worthy of the building.