Trinity has applied for planning permission to remodel part of the ground floor of the Lloyd Building in order to accommodate the new Global Brain Health Institute (GBHI).
Speaking to The University Times by email, Paul Mangan, Director of Estates and Facilities, said that “this planning application relates to a project to provide a facility for Global Brain Health Institute in Trinity”.
The space will be “refurbished to a high standard”, Mangan said, to provide new facilities and administrative offices alongside laboratory spaces for 40 postdoctoral students, seating for 24 Fellows and Scholars and with other meeting and break-out spaces.
The global institute is an initiative funded by a €138 million donation from Chuck Feeney’s foundation, Atlantic Philanthropies, the largest donation in Irish history. A collaboration between Trinity and the University of California, San Francisco, the institute is in the process of training Atlantic Fellows on a range of issues including prevention, diagnosis and management of dementia, a disease that affects an estimated 47.5 million people worldwide.
The planning permission required will be for replacement of nine existing windows along the west of the building, facing the Sami Nasr Institute of Advanced Materials (SNIAM) building, and replacing the roller shutter door on the north facade with a new window.
Free standing planters and new seating will also be installed in the walkway between the SNIAM building and the Lloyd Building.
Construction is also currently ongoing in Fellows Square, outside the Arts Block. Mangan explained that the work is to “widen and extend” the existing ramp. Its base having already been put in place, construction of the ramp’s paving and handrail is still underway. Signs are in place around the site advertising “Improved Accessibility for All”.
These smaller projects are the latest in a series of infrastructural changes Trinity has undertaken recently. Construction is due to begin shortly on the new Oisín House accommodation project, while work continues on the new business school beside the Lloyd Building.
Work has also began on the upgrade to the College’s voltage system, which is set to continue until December and will see construction take place across campus. It promises to bring a new system which will reduce the risk of power failure the current system presently represents, and support large-scale building projects on campus, including the business school.
