College of Technology, College Square East, Belfast, BT1 6DJ

College of Technology, College Square East, Belfast

This is a large, free-standing five-storey building in the Baroque Revival style, built between 1900 and 1906 to the designs of Belfast architect Samuel Stevenson. The builders were W.J. Campbell & Son; leaded lights and stained glass were supplied by Ward & Partners of Belfast; and the ornamental stone and wood carving was carried out by Purdy and Millard of Belfast. It is an impressive Edwardian building, one of the finest examples of the short-lived Baroque Revival in Ireland, and is especially notable for retaining not only most of its original architectural fabric and decorative features intact, but also a rare and still-functioning early example of the 'Plenum' mechanical ventilation system installed at the time of construction.

HISTORY AND CONSTRUCTION

Designs were submitted to Belfast City Council in August 1900. Tenders were invited in February 1902, building work began in May 1902, and the foundation stone was laid on 24 November 1902 by the Lord Lieutenant and Lady Dudley. During construction in 1904 the design was altered to accommodate an additional fifth storey. Part of the building was in operation by September 1906 before construction was entirely complete. The official opening took place on 30 October 1907, performed by the Lord Lieutenant, Lord Aberdeen. Tenders for extensions were invited in January 1909 and those extensions were opened on 3 May 1910 by the Lord Mayor of Belfast.

Before preparing the plans, Stevenson visited a number of similar buildings in England and Germany to study room arrangements. As originally completed in 1907 the building contained 128 rooms. It was ventilated and heated by the Plenum system, lit by electricity, and equipped with a complete system of intercommunication telephone lines. Each room was fitted with a clock dial, the hands of which were electrically controlled by a master clock located on the ground floor. The building originally accommodated departments including Building Trades, Textile Industries, Physics and Electrical Engineering, Pure and Applied Chemistry, Mechanical Engineering, and the School of Art. Each department was grouped together in a suite of rooms, with the exception of heavy machinery, which was placed on the ground floor regardless of department. The entire top floor was given over to the School of Art, as it could be fully top-lit by rooflights. The possibility of future extension was apparently anticipated in the layout of the rear wing, which was originally finished to only one storey in the central bays.

EXTERIOR — EAST ELEVATION (MAIN ENTRANCE FRONT)

The main entrance faces east. The elevation is symmetrical, with a nine-bay, five-storey main front. The central entrance bay projects slightly, and the composition is flanked by projecting pedimented single bays, with a circular corner tower at each extremity. Each tower rises to an open sixth storey and attic, surmounted by a domical copper roof. The main roof behind is hidden behind a balustraded parapet.

The walling is of Portland stone, with a projecting battered and moulded plinth. A moulded stringcourse runs at first-floor level, and a moulded cornice at second-floor level, above which rise giant Ionic columns with moulded bases and carved capitals. These columns run through the second and third storeys and are surmounted by the main cornice, which has modillions and dentils. Above the main cornice is the attic or fourth floor, which has moulded brackets between the windows continuing the line of each column below, surmounted by an entablature with moulded cornice and stone balustrade. The projecting flanking square bays are blind at fourth-floor level, marked by a segmental pediment above which is a blocking course surmounted by a pair of massive copper urns.

The circular end bays have short Doric pilasters between windows at fourth-floor level instead of brackets. Above the balustraded parapet the circular bays continue as circular towers, each with single semi-circular rusticated arched openings set between pairs of diagonally placed coupled Corinthian columns carrying a pulvinated frieze and cornice. Above the cornice are scrolling brackets with circular openings between them in keyblock surrounds, the whole composition terminating in a dome-shaped copper roof crowned by a large copper urn finial.

The main entrance is set in a projecting two-storey bay with rusticated quoins to the extremities. It comprises a semi-circular rusticated arched doorway with a keystone bearing a carved stone cartouche, recessed between attached rusticated Doric columns carrying pulvinated frieze blocks and an open segmental pediment with dentil cornice, which contains a large stone relief carving of the arms of Belfast. Above the pediment is a large carved stone cartouche inscribed 'Municipal Technical Institute'. The doorway now contains a pair of later modern glass doors set immediately in front of the original ornamentally treated wrought iron grille gates. Modern ramps parallel to the main front lead up to the main entrance from each side; these are brick-paved with four steps up to a short terrace in front of the entrance, and have moulded stone curving plinth walls with plain railings and modern steel handrails.

The windows vary by floor. At ground and first-floor level they are rectangular timber sliding sash windows, vertically hung, one-over-one with horns, set in rusticated surrounds with flat-arched heads containing keyblocks. At second-floor level the windows are three-light, divided by small stone Doric columns containing rectangular fixed lights with top-hung vents (the central lights are modern replacements not matching the original pattern), with the columns carrying a frieze and dentil cornice, and small bowed open stone balustrades projecting between the pedestals. At third-floor level the windows are three-light, set in semi-circular rusticated arches, with rectangular timber fixed lights and three-pane semi-circular arched fanlights. At fourth-floor or attic level the windows are three-light timber Diocletian windows set in stilted semi-circular arches with moulded architraves and keystones. The attic windows to the curved end bays are rectangular-headed, containing two-light timber windows set in lugged surrounds with a keystone.

EXTERIOR — SOUTH ELEVATION

The south elevation is of similar character, style, materials, and storey heights to the entrance elevation but with a different arrangement and some differences in detailing. The arrangement comprises a seven-bay central breakfront flanked on each side by two-bay recesses, leading to projecting pedimented single bays similar to those of the entrance front, including a pair of massive copper urn finials surmounting each projecting bay. The composition terminates at the right-hand end with the domed circular corner tower shared with the entrance elevation, and at the left-hand end with a two-bay recess. In detailing, the south elevation differs from the east in its use of Ionic pilasters to the giant order running through the second and third floors rather than attached columns, and in its use of segmental arched three-light windows to the second floor of the main walls rather than tripartite windows with a Doric order carrying a flat entablature.

EXTERIOR — NORTH ELEVATION

The north elevation is similar to the south elevation, except that there is no central breakfront between the projecting square bays. The detailing to the fourth floor also differs in part: in the main recessed plane of the fourth floor there is no balustraded parapet; the window head height is taller than in the extreme right-hand end bay; the windows are large rectangular twelve-pane lights set in broad plain surrounds, with a projecting Doric pilaster between each window; and the pilasters support a plain entablature and blocking course parapet, with a segmental pediment over each alternate window between short pedestals in line with each pilaster. At ground level, the second window from the right in the recessed main wall has been opened down to ground level to form a later doorway.

EXTERIOR — REAR (WEST) ELEVATION

The rear elevation is of plain character compared with the other three elevations. It rises to five storeys, with a sixth storey in the central bays, which were added in 1910 from first-floor level upward. The walling is of red brick with parapet roofs, except for rectangular spandrel panels of concrete bricks in the second and third floors of the central bays, which are modern replacements for original shallow oriels. Short returns of Portland stone quoins and cornices from the north and south elevations appear at the extremities. Above parapet level, to the left of the 1910 extension, rises a square red brick chimney of tapering profile; to the right of centre of the elevation is a short red brick chimney above the parapet. Downpipes are both cast iron and PVC; there is also a later large modern metal flue pipe running the full height of the elevation.

Window openings are mainly segmental arched, except for the upper two floors of three bays at each end which are semi-circular arched; three large projecting rectangular central bays to the first, second, and third floors formed part of the 1910 extension; and some windows have rectangular concrete lintels with segmental brick relieving arches. Windows include original arched timber sliding sash, two-over-two with horns; original timber fixed lights with arched toplights; and later replacement modern windows in both timber and PVC.

In the bay to the left of the chimney stack, the ground floor contains a pair of modern flush timber doors set in a cement-rendered infill panel. Above this, at first-floor level, the window opening contains a decoratively treated wrought iron grille backed by filter material; at second-floor level the opening contains a similar grille in front of a three-light window. The fifth ground-floor opening from the left contains high-level louvres. The fifth ground-floor opening from the right contains an original glazed and panelled segmental-headed timber door, the glazing of which is now broken and boarded over on the inside. The third ground-floor opening from the right contains a pair of rectangular flush timber doors with an arched four-pane fanlight, reached by a flight of concrete steps. The wide central opening on the ground floor has been later bricked up, and to the left of that there is a rectangle of modern brickwork containing four modern louvred openings.

INTERIOR OPEN COURTS

The exterior faces of the interior open courts, visible only from within the building, are of glazed white brickwork and contain segmental arched window openings with original arched timber sliding sash windows, vertically hung, one-over-one and two-over-two, with horns. The exception is the large windows of the Central Hall running through the first and second floors, which are of decorative leaded lights.

ROOFS

The roofs of the single-storey rooms on the ground floor within the open courts are of hipped form and glazed. The roof of the transverse wing containing the Central Hall is double-pitched, covered in Bangor blue slates in regular courses, with flush rooflights. The roofs of the east, south, west, and north wings are flat, covered with asphalt, with glazed north-lights. Chimneys are of red brick with original red pots. Large circular conically capped metal ventilators serve the stairwells.

INTERIOR ALTERATIONS

The original marble flooring to the entrance hall and vestibule has been replaced with terrazzo, though the date of this replacement is not recorded. A timber coffered ceiling has been inserted in the vestibule; this was the result of a terrorist explosion which reportedly caused cracking to the original barrel-vaulted ceiling above, though again the date is not recorded. The original timber doors between the vestibule and entrance hall have been replaced by modern metal-framed glazed doors, at an unrecorded date.

THE PLENUM VENTILATION SYSTEM

The 'Plenum' system of heating and ventilation installed in this building was of special technical interest at the time of its installation. The principles of the system had been established only as recently as 1889 and were employed in some large-scale buildings during the 1890s. It was introduced to local architecture in the design of the Royal Victoria Hospital in 1899, which remains the only other large-scale use so far recorded in Northern Ireland. The plant used here was manufactured and installed by Musgrave & Co. of Belfast.

As originally installed, the plant consisted of a duplicate set of Musgrave's patent 'Rainbow' type air purifiers, which drew in a supply of fresh air at high level. The air, after being washed and screened, entered the heating chamber where it passed over tempering coils, and was then distributed throughout the building by a pair of large 'Ulster' Centrifugal Fans. Distribution was achieved by air-ways running under the ground-floor corridor, from which the air supply was carried by shafts to the different rooms and departments. The temperature of each individual room was further controlled by separate subsidiary heaters placed at the base of each flue leading to the rooms. Fresh air entered the rooms at approximately eight or nine feet above floor level, and the stale air passed out near the floor into the corridors, from where it found its way out of the building through large turret ventilators at the heads of the staircases.

The heating medium was low-pressure hot water, and the installation was specially designed so that the system could work either naturally by gravity or under forced and accelerated circulation by mechanical means. The fans were arranged to be driven together or independently. The principal drive was by a 60 horsepower direct-coupled steam engine, the exhaust from which was utilised in the heating system. A 45 horsepower electric motor was provided as a standby and for driving the fans when no heat was required. The installation was specially arranged so that heating of the rooms in the art section on the fourth floor could be carried out independently of the rest of the building, by an auxiliary system of direct radiation. Almost all of this original machinery and equipment remains intact and is still functioning.

SETTING

The building stands in a central urban area of the city, facing directly onto two main roads on the east and north sides. To the south it overlooks the large front lawn of an adjacent school, and to the west it overlooks a tarmac access road to the school and the school buildings themselves. The setting to the south allows medium-range views of the entire south elevation, while from much further south, looking north along Great Victoria Street, the domical roofs of the building are conspicuous on the skyline. On the north side the building faces a range of early 19th century buildings; on the east side it faces late 20th century modern buildings. In long views from the east along Wellington Place, the building forms a prominent element just in front of, and partly obscuring, the main front of the Royal Belfast Academical Institution.