Quadrangle Building, National University of Ireland, Galway

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The Quadrangle Building, formerly Queen’s College, was commissioned by the Office of Public Works and constructed in 1845 to designs by John Benjamin Keane. The schedule of accommodation included a residence for the College President, a great hall, lecture rooms, a laboratory, a museum and a library.

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Thought to be loosely based on Christchurch, Oxford, the buildings is two storey, local limestone faced with a pitched slate roof and forms an enclosed quadrangle. The facade has mullioned windows, and crenellated parapets flanked at either end by octagonal turrets. Entered via an archway surmounted by a Clock Tower, to the centre of the East Wing, the initial vista presents the Aula Maxima to the centre of the West Wing, flanked with single storey arcades. The North and South Wings are of simpler style. The windows to the principal elevations are in cast iron, though a small number have been replaced inappropriately. The roofscape is embellished with various limestone pinnacles, chimneys, castellated and copper domed turrets and crenellated parapets. The Quadrangle Building was added to the Galway City Council Record of protected Structures in 2000.

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Conservation of the exteriors of the building commenced in 2002 with the re-roofing of the North Wing and the repairs of the parapet stonework and associated features. This work continued in 2008, with the completion of similar re-roofing and repairs to the South Wing, and to the West Colonnade in 2011, which works included repairs to the vaulted ceilings below. Also in 2011, the works to conserve and restore the Aula Maxima Bay Window were completed.