New €9.5m state-of-the-art further education college building opens on Main Street in Blackrock

Senior College Dún Laoghaire is moving to Blackrock and rebranding as Blackrock Further Education Institute.

A new €9.5m state-of-the-art further education college building has been completed on Main Street in Blackrock, County Dublin.

This major new development, which has been funded by the Department of Education & Skills, was designed by award winning architects McCullough Mulvin, and built by Collen Construction. It will become the new home for Senior College Dun Laoghaire which will move to the new premises in early June and will rebrand as Blackrock Further Education Institute.

The handover ceremony was attended by Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore; Deirdre Hanamy, College Principal; Cllr. Jane Dillon Byrne, Chairperson of the Board of Management and Paddy Lavelle, Chief Executive of the Dublin & Dún Laoghaire Education Training Board (DDLETB).

This new building combines the original Blackrock Town Hall, Carnegie Library and Municipal Technical School – protected structures from the 1860s and early 1900s which have been sensitively preserved and integrated by McCullough Mulvin Architects, into a modern new centre of education in Blackrock. The development includes the refurbished Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council’s Blackrock Library.

Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore said:
The Government is prioritising education, training and skills development as an essential element of Ireland’s economic competitiveness and growth, contributing to jobs creation and the recruitment needs of home grown businesses and foreign investing companies. This is an exceptional new campus which will meet the further education requirements of student and adult learners through the National Framework of Qualifications. I compliment the Education Training Board, the architects, builders and everyone involved in this new building on the overall very high quality that has been achieved throughout this entire development.