WIT Press Release
Title: New €25m building to enhance campus facilities at WIT
Release date: Thu, Apr 03, 2008
Prof Kieran R Byrne, Director, Waterford Institute of Technology today welcomed the official handover of the new €25m tourism and leisure studies building at the Institute's Cork Road campus.
The building handover was also attended by John McConnell on the day when he retired as the Institute's Assistant Principal; Tony Dalton, Director (Contracts), Brian McCarthy Contractors Ltd and Paddy Fletcher, A & D Wejchert Architects.
The high-profile 7,700-sq m (82,882-sq ft) building occupies a visible site at the Cork end of the campus and provides an architectural counterpoint to the landmark Walton ICT building; the Luke Wadding Library and the health sciences building at the city end.
The state-of-the art facility will accommodate 50 staff and 1,050 students pursuing courses in the increasingly economically vital services sector. Space in the new facility will also be available for languages, recreation and leisure students with teaching areas, lecture theatres, lecture rooms, computer and language laboratories, support areas and staff accommodation all provided for in the design.
Speaking today, Prof Byrne said that the new building at the Institute's main campus would greatly enhance services on offer to both students and staff and would facilitate the provision of programmes to strengthen Ireland’s economic performance in the tourism, hospitality and leisure sector.
"In the southeast and countrywide, this is an increasingly important sector through which the region earns considerable foreign and domestic revenue. A major capital investment such as this one allows the Institute to develop academically in the areas of tourism, hospitality and leisure studies and add further to the prestigious reputation that has already been won at national and international level. This, in turn, will allow us attract and retain further high-calibre students and staff in the future," he said.
"Waterford will now be further strengthened as an internationally-recognised centre with specialist capabilities in tourism, hospitality and leisure studies. This new facility will also facilitate an increase in our international student population in the southeast," added Prof Byrne.
According to Mr McConnell, who has seen the Institute’s campus environment transformed during the 35 years he has spent there, the plans for the new facility were prepared after close analysis of international models. "This substantial building will accommodate a variety of purposes and flexible uses and as it is being completed. I want to pay tribute to the entire project team within the Institute and our various professional advisors and contractors for their work in bringing it to completion in the less than two years since we had the announcement of funding for the project in late May 2006."