Category: Fit Out or Refurbishment Up to €5m
Project: GCID, Portershed, Bowling Green, Galway
Contractor: MJ Conroy Construction
Client: GCID PorterShed
Engineer: John Britton Consulting Engineers (Structural & Civil)
Architect: Diarmuid Cronin Architects
The non-profit Galway City Innovation District (GCID) supports a growing innovation cluster in Galway’s inner city. They provide a supportive and connected environment which attracts creators, innovators and entrepreneurs including technology companies with strong growth potential. Since its opening in 2016 , the Portershed building has supported the creation of over 820 jobs in the West Region and has been home to more than 70 start-up and FDI tech companies.
Portershed Galway are a hugely successful community which provide coworking & collaborative space for technology focused innovation driven enterprises where the focus is to build, grow, scale and innovate the Galway Tech ecosystem where community, collaboration and coworking are at the heart of their ethos.
Kinvara based Diarmuid Cronin Architects, oversaw the design process to re-purpose an existing vacant warehouse on Bowling Green, Galway for Galway City Innovation District(GCID), and the Portershed.
The project involved the complete refurbishment, extension, and associated ancillary works to the existing warehouse building and resulted in the creation of a modern, co-working space for technology focused enterprises with a focus to build, grow and innovate the Galway Tech industry.
Given the challenge of repurposing this old derelict building in the heart of the city into a vibrant, collaborative workspace for start-up businesses was an enormously proud undertaking for main contractors MJ Conroy. At the heart of the old city, the nature of the restricted site provided considerable challenges to the successful planning and execution of this wonderful project. Furthermore, the project of ‘adaptive re-use’ was a great opportunity to regenerate, save and honour the heritage of the city ‘Bowling green’ area, which has a history of being a place of trade and commerce.
