Ellucian, 45 Mespil Road

Ellucian is charting the digital future of higher education with a portfolio of cloud-ready technology solutions and services. Working with a community of more than 2,700 customers in over 50 countries, Ellucian keeps innovating as higher education keeps evolving, visit Ellucian at www.ellucian.com.

Appointed on a Design & Build basis and working in partnership with JLL, Mola and Axis, we were tasked with delivering Ellucian’s aspirations for their new Dublin headquarters on the second floor of 45 Mespil Road.

Due diligence of the space revealed very restricted ceiling and floor voids. This created the basis of a revised design intent to remove existing ceilings, exposing the services to create the intended brief of an open, bright, collaborative working space.

The layout concept adopted was to create a solid sculptural form around the central core containing quiet and cellular spaces wrapped by the open plan and break out areas enabling optimum light and views to be enjoyed by all employees.

Desks were grouped into clusters with acoustic ceiling rafts suspended overhead to contain noise. Booth seating was located off the circulation area surrounding the central core to allow informal meetings and collaboration off the open plan area. Careful and detailed coordination of all services was required to ensure maximum head height and clear uncomplicated lines of sight throughout.

Construction consisted of the formation of all new rooms, installation of glazed screens, removing and exposing the ceilings, new flooring, wall and ceiling finishes along with works to the existing mechanical and electrical servicing to suit the new layout. Particular consideration was given to the acoustics both within the open plan and cellular spaces as this was a particular focus for Ellucian.

During the initial stages of the project on site, lockdown occurred as a result of COVID-19 putting a halt to the programme. During this period, design and procurement continued along with the team putting in place procedures to counteract the spread of COVID-19 once the site re-opened.

The adoption of our SMART innovative processes was of particular benefit to this project, ensuring open and transparent collaboration and real time information was shared with key decision makers who were largely based in the US and unable to travel due to the impact of COVID-19. Live and up to date information was available to them 24/7. The team kept Ellucian in the loop of progress with daily/weekly progress photos uploaded to our digital management platform.

“Ardmac asked detailed questions from the beginning to really understand our requirements for the space…. Ardmac were crisp in their communication of when decisions were required and reminded Ellucian of impending deadlines for decisions…. This was very much appreciated”

Joe Bellman, Elucian