OPW: Office of Public Works
Oifig na nOibreacha Poiblí
OPW HQ, Trim, Co. Meath
On Thursday May 15th 2010, Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey TD, officially opened the new headquarters of the Office of Public Works (OPW) in Trim, County Meath. The building covers over 8,000 square metres, and stands four storeys tall in its unique circular shape, with a full height atrium through the core and a civic plaza to the front creating the focal point in the planned new Trim Town Centre. It will cater for over 300 staff and many visitors.
The site was purchased from Meath County Council for €3.6M. The headquarters building is 8,325 M sq. and located at Jonathan Swift Street, Trim, County Meath. The car park building is 9,225 M sq. comprising of 348 car spaces and 64 bicycle spaces. The contractor for both main construction and fit-out works was Bennett Construction Limited, Mullingar, County Westmeath. The cost of the building was €32.2M and the construction (to handover to client in August 2009 ) took 24 months to complete.
The headquarters building is designed for office accommodation and includes an exhibition space, archive storage, library, canteen and support functions. The central atrium acts as an entrance focus and hub of activity. A suspended bridge crosses the atrium. The circular plan form crossed by the bridge ensures that all sections of the building are in relative close proximity to one another.
The building has an energy rating of A3, a very high rating by commercial building standards. For a prestige office block, the OPW HQ Trim, has been designed and constructed to be best-in-class when it comes to energy performance compared to buildings of similar type. The entire building has been designed to be naturally ventilated and the structure has been used as much as practicable to provide passive cooling in order to pre-cool the building before occupancy during the summer months. Special solar controlling glass and shading systems reduce the solar gain as much as possible.
High efficiency lighting with daylight linking and occupancy control has been installed throughout. The entire lighting installation is controlled by an advanced lighting management system.
A wood pellet boiler is installed to provide most of the heat to the building. A high efficiency gas boiler is also installed. Solar panels are installed on the rooftop for water heating. Heat exchangers are used on ventilation air systems to reduce heating demand. Water savings systems have been used in all washrooms.