This article is from page 2 of the 2008-05-13 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 2 JPG
AS CLARE County Council cele- brated the official opening of its civic offices on Thursday last the conver- sation among guests was dominated not by the architecture, the environ- mentally friendly heating system or the disability access but the walls – the very green walls.
While the building itself was green in the environmental sense of the word, the bright green paint high- lighted the modern architecture and guests were evenly divided into two camps – those that loved it and those that favoured magnolia.
Whatever the feelings it certainly
made a conversation piece for those in attendance for the afternoon par- AY
The no-show of Minister for the Environment John Gormley didn’t dampen the spirits as Clare’s first citizen Mayor Cllr Patricia McCa- rthy opened the €25 million civic building.
Aras Contae an Chlair now pro- vides accommodation for 300 staff, as well as meeting rooms, staff canteen, laboratory, Mayor’s office, Council Chamber and three party rooms for the elected members. 320 car parking spaces are provided at the rear of the building.
Director of Services David Timlin,
who oversaw the building project, outlined how the Corporate Head- quarters building incorporates a number of environmentally friendly measures and operates as a naturally ventilated building. Solar panels and a wood chip heating system have been installed.
While many former local authority members and staff from the county were in attendance at the opening one former county councillor, who served with the county council for 11 years, took pride of place.
One time councillor, now success- ful businessman Bernard McNa- mara, was involved in the building as Michael McNamara and County
Building Contractors won the con- tract to construct the prominent building on New Road.
“T am delighted to be here because I probably took a bigger scelp off this job for old times sake when we were tendering for it. I think it was fortu- nate that it was the times that were rete
“It was a design build finance job and the financial rates that were available at the time were extraordi- narily more benefited than they are at the present.
“So the delivery of cost per foot here is half to two thirds to what some of the local authorities have spent in these buildings,” he said.