Papers of James Meenan – Move of UCD to Belfield

70 U.C.D. and the Future

Appendix I

AN ARTICLE FROM THE 'IRISH BUILDER AND ENGINEER,' 25th JULY, 1959

Accommodation Needs of the National University By P. Callinan, F.R.I.C.S.

The Minister for Education, in September, 1957, appointed a Commission of nine members to enquire into the accommodation needs of the three constituent colleges of the National University of Ireland and to advise as to how these needs could be best met.

The university colleges in Cork and Galway have been in existence since 1849. University College, Dublin was established after the Irish University Act, 1908, came into force. This is now the largest of the three colleges. Its principal building is at Earlsfort Terrace and was completed in 1919. Estimates made before this building was planned were for 1,000 students. This number was exceeded in 1917; in 1927 the number was still under 1,200; in 1934 the number exceeded 2,000; in 1945, 3,000 and now has reached nearly 4,000 full-time students.

According to the report, only 45 per cent of the 1912 building programme was carried out. In 1926, the College of Science was transferred to U.C.D., and a building adjoining it was made available to the university in 1951. The report goes on to say that, in 1945, a comprehensive survey was made of all possible sites in the Earlsfort Terrace area, and owing to various difficulties the college authorities decided not to proceed further on the lines of a layout plan then prepared by Mr. J. V. Downes, F.R.I.A.I. Efforts were next made to purchase the site of Mespil House (5 1/2 acres), with the intention of transferring to that site the engineering and architectural departments. These efforts failed, and the next move was to look for a site outside the central area of Dublin. Land was purchased in the Stillorgan Road area and, including the Belfield sports grounds, the college came into possession there of 252 acres (at a cost of £255,438).

'The architectural advisory board to the Commission have prepared a layout plan siting the college buildings at Belgrove. The net floor area in use at Earlsfort Terrace, Merrion Street and Newman House is given as 207,000 sq. ft. but 43,334 sq. ft. represents accommodation mainly taken over from the defunct Royal University of Ireland, which is not of satisfactory construction-- leaving only about 164,000 sq. ft of sound construction. This excludes the Albert College, where the third and fourth year agricultural students are accommodated. The net working area estimated to be required by the several departments of the College is 610,630 sq. ft. The new building will be provided on a site 2 1/2 miles from St. Stephen's Green and Merrion Street. Trinity College, Dublin College, Dublin, which has 1,800 students, has a site of 35 1/2 acres. Queen's University, Belfast, with 2,000 students, has 87 acres.

The desirability of finding a solution of the college accommodation problem in the vicinity of existing college buildings was the subject of a submission to the Commission by Dr. R. McHugh, U.C.D. lecturer in English, on the ground that the college was associated with the city, that the present site ensured that night students (who number 400) and the general public had easy access; the college was in close proximity to hostels and lodgings and to libraries and museums, etc., and that, in view of the capital cost of replacing existing buildings, their retention was desirable.

Appendices 71

Extension Nearby Rejected

The Committee (on p. 35 of their report) give the reasons that influenced them to reject a proposal for the extension of the college adjacent to its present location. On reading this the present writer can only regret that there was no architect member of the Commission, or a valuation surveyor experienced in the acquisition of property. To anyone experienced in such matters the Commission's attitude could only appear as that of persons inexperienced in economics of land use. If the College had an experienced valuer to consult, they would not have allowed the Mespil House site to slip through their fingers, so to speak. The college should long ago have had granted to it powers for the compulsory purchase of property, as whatever objections can be raised to the granting of such powers, they are trivial when compared with the handicap on a statutory body of being without them. Although the Commission expresses the view that, with the Mespil House site, the College would not have sufficient accommodation without other property, it could with proper advice have acquired such additional property nearby. The Commission are obsessed with the importance of what they term the physical unity of the college, an arrangement that very few of the universities in these islands have attained in practice (with the present trends in medical education, accommodation for lectures for medical students will have to be provided in the hospitals).

One member of the Commission (Mr. A. O'Rahilly) would solve the space requirements of U.C.D. and T.C.D. by amalgamating them and rationalizing the courses. He points out that extensions to the Earlsfort Terrace building could be made gradually by acquiring the property towards the canal and that the central grounds of Trinity College could be expanded by acquisition of property along Pearse Street and Westland Row. The suggested amalgamation raises points other than accommodation, but judged from that standpoint the proposed solution could not be bettered.

The Cork College requires an additional 67,000 sq. ft. of building at a cost of over £500,000; Galway College 99,000 sq. ft. at over £600,000. In some respects the needs of the Galway College were placed more clearly before the Commission than those of the other colleges--thanks to the preparation of drawings by their consulting architects.

Not to be Considered in Isolation

The Commission, by their terms of reference, could consider only the question of accommodation. The urgent need for additional space is obvious, but in the light of present trends in university and higher technological education the matter cannot be considered in isolation. The Commission make no reference to the fact that other universities (notably Edinburgh, Glasgow and Manchester) have instituted a degree in technology and utilize existing technological colleges. Here, in Dublin, a full timecourse in building has been established at the Bolton Street Technological Institute. The building industry on the management side, is in need of higher education no less than is agriculture. No existing course at a university meets fully the industry's special needs; probably the best course so far established is that at the Manchester Technological Institute where, incidentally, great attention is given to the study of at least one continental language, in addition to studies in engineering, architecture, surveying and economics.