The Lexicon
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Dennis Gilbert (website) Download Original
Waterside library and park in the coastal town of Dún Laoghaire near Dublin
The building replaces the Carnegie Library built in 1812 by Lucius O’Callaghan and James Henry Webb.
Internally the plan is split in two by a series of piers containing services, including extracts which emerge on the inclined roof as a series of stepping cowls. The public spaces on the other side of these piers are more orthogonal and sober.
The division in the plan is echoed in the outside of the building. Brick is used to the south in an elevation that approximates the scale and pattern of the adjacent neo-Georgian terraces. In contrast, the other, more public, side presents a series of angular, planar geometries wrought in creamy stone panels.
Data
- Begun: May 2012
- Completed: Sep 2014
- Floor area: 6,327m2
- Sector: Arts and culture
- Total cost: £27.5M
- Address: The Lexicon, Dún Laoghaire, County Dublin, Ireland
Materials 
Professional Team
- Architect: Carr Cotter Naessens Architects
- Client: Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council
- Structural engineer: Horgan Lynch Consulting Engineers
- Services engineer: Arup
- Quantity surveyor: Deasy Walley Partnership
- Landscape consultant: Atkins
- Facade consultant: Billings Design Associates
- Acoustic consultant: Arup Acoustics
- Fire engineer: Jeremy Gardner Associates
- Conservation consultant: Carrig Building Fabric Consultants
- Ecological consultant: Natura Environmental Consultants
- Project manager: Willis Risk Management
- Main contractor: John Sisk and Sons
- Safety supervisor: White Young Green/Willis
- Theatre consultant: Theatreplan
