Hello everybody !!
So this week I have been working on a project for Interior Conservation. A couple a weeks ago we got a brief where we got to investigate an era in medieval Limerick. We got put in groups of 3. The era me, Mamoon Mejar and Mariusz Adamczyk got are Edwardian.
We each got to pick an Edwardian building in Limerick and write a report on it. This Thursday the 21st we get to present in front of the class.
The building I picked is Glenade. Edwardian Era was processed by the Victorian Era, followed by First War I. Edwardian Era is well known for the great disparity between poor and rich classes as well as literature and art. The Edwardian period is knowing for its elegance, powerful in Britain, luxury among the rich people.
Glenade house is on O'Connell Avenue in Limerick city.
To this day it is still not sure who designed the houses fully. There are two theories that design the houses.
It was either John Horan who was Limericks county surveyor at the time. (1853-1919) or Welsh architect William Clifford Smith who came to Limerick in 1902 when he won an international competition to design the Shannon Rowing Club.
The here houses and the Terrance are good examples of Edwardian designed of a large-scale domestic terraced architecture in the inner suburbs of Limerick all the way back to the early 20th century. The terrace and the houses have huge architectural variety and heritage of the Edwardian and Victorian terraces on O’Connell Avenue.
Glenade is the three-story family home of 297.28m2 (3,200sqft), it also has 6 bedrooms, Glenade has been extensively renovated and extended to an exceptionally high standard by an interior designer.
A new extension has been put onto the rear of the property which houses the new open plan kitchen living/ dining and 2 upstairs bedrooms and en suite, guest WC and utility.
Glenade has been stripped back to its original 4 walls and rebuilt to today’s building standards and retaining the original period features throughout such as double-height skirting boards, cornice, coving, fireplaces, high ceilings and coupled with all-new modern conveniences such as surround sound, air to water heating and triple-glazed windows.
The pitched natural slate roof has terracotta ridge tiles and intersecting a secondary dormer gable roof with an elaborately detailed timber bargeboard that has a timber finial at the apex.
There is a redbrick chimneystack with a stringcourse and cornice beneath the concrete flaunching to the north gable wall and the south party wall, with molded clay pots.
A molded rendered stringcourse delineates the second-floor level, which is finished in a pebbledash render. There is timber strut work to the dormer gable. The house has a plain rear elevation.
The square-headed window opening over the front door has redbrick reveals, there is a flush chamfered limestone lintel and a sill and two-leaf timber casement window with over-lights and curvilinear glazing bars. The oculus above has a smoothly rendered surround and a fixed multiple-paned colored glass light. Bay window has limestone ashlar surround that includes piers, flush chamfered sills, and a lintel. The single and two-leaf timber casement window has over-lights and curvilinear glazing bars.
The covered front-door porch with a timber frame rising from a red brick plinth base, and with closed brackets and open tripartite light.
In the front garden as much of the original railings as they could, put down limestone paving to match the façade and recreated as much of the Edwardian look as possible.
The encaustic tiled entrance platform has a limestone step the doors have been replaced with uPVC door and frame, however, the house retains many of its original Edwardian features.
Renovation of Glendale
Glendale was bought in 2013 and it has been derelict for seven years and it was ruined, the house was full of wet and dry rot, the ceilings were falling down, the annex in the back had to be knocked down because it was in really bad condition. The renovation took 10 months.
The engineer gave the list of things that needed to be done to achieve an A energy rating for the house. The main thing is for the house to be warm. To achieve that maximum of the insulation is needed. The engineer insulated floors, ceiling, and walls, he also used internal and external insulation. To kill the dry rot in the house chemicals were applied to the brick.
Front of the windows has been replaced with PVC double glazing, while the back ones were replaced with triple glazing.
The interior of the building has been completely gutted, all the rotted woodwork and plasterwork has been removed from the house. The floorboards that had been put down on top of the earth have been saved. The salvaged floorboards were used to floor original rooms. The roof was also replaced.
There were a couple of items that they were able to keep are a cast iron bath, ornate fireplaces, and some doors and architraves. The Art Deco tiling in the hallways was in perfect condition.
Decorated in cream and gold it has an original marble fireplace with a huge gold mirror above it as well as a 12-arm gold chandelier and is furnished mostly with reproduction period furniture and has French oak flooring.
Original coving and plasterwork have been replaced and to make sure that the replacement arch in the hallway was close to the original as possible the designer visited the houses next door to make sure it was done properly.
Back of the Glendale’s annex that had kitchen, bathroom, and lean-to with a corrugated roof were demolished. A timber-framed two-story the extension was built instead. The extension provided space for a dining room and the kitchen at the ground level, and two upstairs bedrooms. While demolition the annex red bricks were saved from an old chimney, washed and used to build the back wall of the extension.
The extension at the rear has a long dining room with ceiling moldings, a large chandelier. Large triple glazed sliding patio doors and the windows give an indication that this is a modern addition.
When it comes to designing the house color schemes, curtains were carefully picked as well as searching out furniture and furnishing which would be appropriate for which Edwardian style of houses. The gold mirror was brought that are in every room of the house to go with Edwardian interior, 14 glass droplet chandeliers of various sizes were purchased to suit the interior too. Furniture and was carefully selected for Glendale too.
En Suite bedroom on the second floor that opens on to the front balcony to O’Connell Avenue. To the rear, there is a bedroom that has been turned into a games room with a pool table.
There are some features that are modern and typically not found in the Edwardian houses are CCTV system with five cameras, underfloor heating, and extended rooms. There is also an electric gate, and parking spaces for two cars. The owners of the house have brought in a prefabricated studio which is used as a gym.
It a listed county council building and it needs to be conserved to the same style.
Minimum intervention
Minimal intervention means as much as changing the building as little as possible. Over-restoration of buildings can be detrimental to their character and can result in a loss of features and charm. To prevent this, we should accept the worn appearances of the old features by avoiding removing the traces of deficiencies. The old adage “little and often” is especially relevant to old houses.
Repair rather than replace
The main goal is to retain old fabric that contributes to the special interest of a building. The unnecessary replacement of historic fabric can change the atmosphere of the building. If the replacement is necessary it should be kept to the minimum to make sure that the building is left structurally sound. Replacement of the fabric will never have the authenticity of the original even if the fabric looks the same as the original.
The honesty of repairs and alterations
Alterations and repairs to an old building should be of their rime the building was built. New additions or innervations doesn’t need to look old. Any attempts to disguise should be avoided.
They should be discernible on close inspection but should not detract from the visual integrity of the original structure. New additions or alterations will, in turn, form part of the history of the building, so they should make their own positive contribution by being well-designed and constructed.
Bellow, I attached some images of the Glenade House.
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