Survey Data
Reg No
20906325
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Social, Technical
Original Use
Hospital/infirmary
In Use As
Hospital/infirmary
Date
1950 - 1955
Coordinates
172410, 77844
Date Recorded
31/07/2007
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached L-plan multiple-bay single-storey hospital ward, built 1954, with projecting bow south-east corner of front block, verandah to front (south) elevation and to bow with cantilevered roof, and multiple-bay lower block to rear with canopied entrance bay with glazed supporting walls. Flat roofs with rendered chimneystack and cast-iron rainwater goods. Roughcast rendered walls and pilotis on rendered plinth wall to veranda. Square-headed openings to front elevation and bow with vertically divided steel fixed windows with swivelling overlights. Square-headed openings to front and east elevations with glazed steel double doors and swivelling overlights. Entrance to rear formed by square-headed opening with glazed timber double doors flanked by fixed steel windows. Square-headed openings with steel fixed, casement, swivelling and pivoting windows to rear elevation and west elevations.
Appraisal
Part of large coherently planned group of hospital structures, built as Tuberculosis Sanatorium under Doctor Noel Browne as Minister for Health. Frankly modern in style, the flat roofs, strip windows, pilotis, large glazed areas and minimal adornment are typical of mid-twentieth-century institutional architecture and evidently informed by Le Corbusier's work. Large south-facing verandas such as this were an integral part of the treatment in sanatoria, here a notable curved example. Retains steel windows and doors. Part of a remarkably complete and well preserved scheme, enhanced and contextualised by mature grounds.