Full planning permission has been granted to the Office of Public Works (OPW) for a new decentralised headquarters building on a greenfield site in Trim, Co Meath. There was no appeal against the decisions by Meath County Council and Trim Town Council to approve the project, which is estimated to cost about €30 million. The OPW has selected Mullingar-based Bennett Construction Ltd as the preferred tenderer on a client-led, design-build basis, and it is anticipated that a contract will be signed before the forthcoming general election. The four-storey building, which has been designed by an OPW architectural team headed by Pat Boyle, has a circular plan with a full-height atrium and a civic plaza in front. It will be naturally ventilated for environmental reasons. The brief for an in-house architectural competition among OPW architects in 2004 required that the building would be "an exemplar of all that is best in modern office design environments and sustainable building techniques".
