Page 22 - The Gonzaga Record 1986
P. 22
always take the shortest distance between any two points! It would be a
continual war. In the end, it all came down to a choice between two sites.
One suggestion was to run the building just beside and parallel to the
theatre. This site had two displeasing aspects: first, there would be a gable
end of a building right beside the main entrance to the school. It would
be ugly, however one tried to disguise it. Secondly, the theatre is also used
for physical education, which is always a rather noisy activity. It was felt
that the classrooms on that side of the new building would bear an unfair
share of this noise.
The other alternative was to run the eight classroom building across
from the main entrance, beside the present headmaster's office over
towards the Community house. When this was measured out it left a sur-
prisingly small gap between the Community house and the proposed
building. There was mention even of fire hazard in the sense that a fire-
engine would have great difficulty in getting to the back of the buildings
in case of serious fire. Down at the bike shed the space for the passage
of a fire engine was even less with large trees close to each other.
Alteration in perspective of the grounds
The most serious objection to running the building across towards the
Community house was the psychological effect of cutting the grounds in
half. From almost anywhere in the front of the school one had a view,
first of a magnificent stand of trees, then of the back playing fields, and
to top it off a view of the Dublin mountains as a backdrop. Running the
proposed building, even a one-storied affair, from school to Community
house would cut off that view. One would surely have the feeling that the
school grounds were suddenly halved. We had already experienced
something like this. Before the boys' chapel was built there had been a
magnificent sweep of parkland from the edge of the Milltown grounds
right across past the two Bewley houses and over to Park Drive and the
back gate. It really was magnificent, and in springtime with the trees in
their new green frocks it was a joy to behold. The boys' chapel had to
go where it did. Apart from other considerations, the tower demanded
it. But something valuable had to be sacrificed. Now as one looks across
from Milltown the boys' chapel interrupts the line of that view. Only
those who can remember the early years will appreciate this argument.
Now we were facing again something rather like that sense of losing
something. A building stretching from the school across to the Commun-
ity house would surely have the effect of suddenly cutting the grounds
in half. However, no matter how often one went back and forth over the
same arguments, in the end there really wasn't any other choice.
Appearance of the new building
The builders for the new classrooms were Cooney Jennings. The architect
was once again Mr Andrew Devane. There could be no question of
20
continual war. In the end, it all came down to a choice between two sites.
One suggestion was to run the building just beside and parallel to the
theatre. This site had two displeasing aspects: first, there would be a gable
end of a building right beside the main entrance to the school. It would
be ugly, however one tried to disguise it. Secondly, the theatre is also used
for physical education, which is always a rather noisy activity. It was felt
that the classrooms on that side of the new building would bear an unfair
share of this noise.
The other alternative was to run the eight classroom building across
from the main entrance, beside the present headmaster's office over
towards the Community house. When this was measured out it left a sur-
prisingly small gap between the Community house and the proposed
building. There was mention even of fire hazard in the sense that a fire-
engine would have great difficulty in getting to the back of the buildings
in case of serious fire. Down at the bike shed the space for the passage
of a fire engine was even less with large trees close to each other.
Alteration in perspective of the grounds
The most serious objection to running the building across towards the
Community house was the psychological effect of cutting the grounds in
half. From almost anywhere in the front of the school one had a view,
first of a magnificent stand of trees, then of the back playing fields, and
to top it off a view of the Dublin mountains as a backdrop. Running the
proposed building, even a one-storied affair, from school to Community
house would cut off that view. One would surely have the feeling that the
school grounds were suddenly halved. We had already experienced
something like this. Before the boys' chapel was built there had been a
magnificent sweep of parkland from the edge of the Milltown grounds
right across past the two Bewley houses and over to Park Drive and the
back gate. It really was magnificent, and in springtime with the trees in
their new green frocks it was a joy to behold. The boys' chapel had to
go where it did. Apart from other considerations, the tower demanded
it. But something valuable had to be sacrificed. Now as one looks across
from Milltown the boys' chapel interrupts the line of that view. Only
those who can remember the early years will appreciate this argument.
Now we were facing again something rather like that sense of losing
something. A building stretching from the school across to the Commun-
ity house would surely have the effect of suddenly cutting the grounds
in half. However, no matter how often one went back and forth over the
same arguments, in the end there really wasn't any other choice.
Appearance of the new building
The builders for the new classrooms were Cooney Jennings. The architect
was once again Mr Andrew Devane. There could be no question of
20
