The Lewis Glucksman Gallery by O'Donnell and Tuomey

The Lewis Glucksman Gallery by ODonnell and Tuomey
University College Cork is the location of Ireland's most intriguing new art space.

Designed by O'Donnell + Tuomey, the Lewis Glucksman Gallery-named after the Wall Street trader and patron who owns a holiday house in the region-has been awarded a whole rake of prestigious honors, including a RIBA Stirling Prize nomination, the United Kingdom's most prestigious architecture award.

The gallery is one of the few cultural institutions that stand apart from the current worldwide crop of celebrity architect-designed extravaganzas that so often overshadow the art they are meant to house.

The university sought proposals for a gallery-based cultural complex that would promote a discursive relationship between academic disciplines and art.

On applying for the job, Dublin architects Sheila O'Donnell and John Tuomey declared that if they were commissioned they would work around every tree and restrict the gallery to the footprint of two old and underused tennis courts that sat on the site at the time; and they would build the galleries skyward-all to mitigate the project's impact on its picturesque meadow site along the River Lee and below a wooded precipice dominated by Deane & Woodward's 1849 limestone - cladgothic quad.

With the commission in hand, O'Donnell + Tuomey's proposal crystallized further, prompted by