The completion of the new home for Trinity’s multi-million euro brain health institute is set to be delayed, with refurbishments to the Lloyd Building expected to finish later than planned at the end of September.
The purpose of the refurbishment is to provide Trinity’s new Global Brain Health Institute (GBHI) with the necessary facilities for up to 24 research fellows and scholars, with further space for 40 postdoctoral students as well as new laboratories and administrative spaces. Construction began in April and will not be completed in time for the new academic year as planned.
GBHI is a joint endeavor between Trinity and the University of California, San Francisco. The project’s funding comes from Chuck Feeney’s Atlantic Philanthropies Foundation’s €138 million donation to the college – the largest donation in Irish history. With this money, the scientists selected to be part of the GBHI will work towards reducing the scale and impact of dementia around the world.
In an email to The University Times, Paul Mangan, Director of Estates and Facilities, explained that the delay was due to the contractor having to work around both the existing building and its occupants. The building is considered the administrative and scientific hub of the Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience (TCIN).
Mangan said that the contractor had undertaken the work in three phases. Phase one, he said, is complete, while phase two is complete except for “the final cleaning, snagging and IT connections”.
Phase three is the farthest from completion with what is expected to be another two weeks worth of work left.
While it was hoped that work on the project would be completed in time for the start of classes, when finished, the refurbishments will see significant changes to the Lloyd Building. In addition to new administrative and laboratory space, there will be a seating area between the Lloyd Building and the Sani Nasr Institute of Advanced Materials (SNIAM). The refurbishments have also seen the replacement of the North Facades roller shutter with a window.
The refurbishments of GBHI is one of a number of building works currently happening on campus. The new Trinity Business School is well underway on the old Luce Hall site, while the planned site for Oisín House, a 250-bed accommodation project, was used recently by the Minister for Education, Richard Bruton, to launch the government accommodation strategy.
An upgrade to the College’s voltage system is also ongoing and will not be finished until December. The works on campus will continue in the hope of reducing the risk of power failure and also to support the increase in buildings and sites across Trinity.
