LAST WEEK, CIT's new information-technology centre was opened with a flourish. The Minister for Education and Science, Micheal Martin, was on hand to do the honours at a ceremony which included a recital by a quartet from the Cork College of Music and an ecumenical prayer service.
The launch took place in the largest of the new centre's five lecture theatres. This one seats 300 and boasts retractable seating - the other four can each accommodate up to 100. The centre also houses 10 computer laboratories, with terminals to cater for some 262 students, and a number of seminar rooms.
Externally, the building is of brick; inside, though, it's all exposed concrete blocks teamed with beech woodwork and a terracotta coloured floor. The central corridor doubles as a gallery display area. The new IT centre, which was designed by the Dublin-and-Cork-based architects De Blacam & Meagher/Boyd, Barrett, Murphy-O'Connor, represents the second phase of a £25 million development plan. Phase one, already completed, is the college's 500-seater library. The IT centre is the final phase of CIT's technology library project. In building terms, it's the second half of a curve and completes the crescent shaped building - which provides a contrast to the bland and boring buildings on the campus. "The IT centre is a continuation of the library," explains Larry Fewer, the project architect. "What's lovely about the building is the quality of its light," he says. "The library's solid curved wall with vision windows faces the sun and means that the place never gets hot."
Large windows on the north side of the building light the library, where open bookstacks are in solid timber galleries. It is a nice building - shame about the discarded chewing gum strewn around the paved floor of the entrance hall. Expansion is proceeding apace on the CIT campus, which occupies a 77-acre site in Bishopstown and includes the city-based Crawford College of Art and Design and the Cork School of Music.
New buildings planned for the next three years will increase the college's 48,000 square metres' floor space by 50 per cent, according to buildings officer Donal Hunt. A new student centre, including bars, shops, students' union space and meeting places for societies, is at an advanced planning stage.
A £6.75 million catering and tourism-studies building will be located at the northern end of the campus. Also planned are an advanced technology skills centre and an administration building.
