Athy Library, Kildare

This project involved the conversion of St. Dominic’s Church a Protected Structure in Athy, Co. Kildare to the proposed Town Library with associated external civic spaces. MPA were involved in the site assessment for this complex site and building. The site is located in the Barrow flood plain and a detailed flood assessment was required. Athy also suffers from traffic congestion and a detailed Traffic & Transport assessment was undertaken by MPA assessing traffic management and junction capacity designs. Also given the age and complexity of the building a detailed structural condition survey was undertaken. MPA are involved in the external works design which includes new parking, drainage and street furniture in the civic areas around the new library and car park, which contained 22 spaces. The site layout and external public spaces along with the traffic management system were designed to tie into the “New Town Centre Street” identified in the Athy Town Masterplan including the one way traffic system.

This project also involved MPA along with the design team working collaboratively to prepare detailed Architectural and Structural BIM Models for this refurbishment project in a Protected Structure. The BIM services provided were delivered on a voluntary basis as the client did not have a BIM Execution Plan in place for the project and had not requested the project be delivered using BIM. The project involves the upgrade of the existing drainage systems, provision of new floor slabs, new mezzanine floor and internal structural alterations to the concrete structure.