1864 – National Gallery of Ireland, Merrion Square, Dublin

The original building was an exact elevational copy of the Natural History Museum by Frederick Clarendon across Leinster Lawn. After a falling out with the Board of Trustees, the engineer turned architect Griffith was replaced by Charles Lanyon who designed the magnificent interior staircase leading from the sculpture gallery.

Described in Whammond’s Illustrated Guide of 1878 as “a handsome oblong building, with chiselled granite rusticated basement, blank windows with Portland-stone dressings and ornamental frieze and cantilever roof. It corresponds in shape and appearance with the Society’s Museum building “ii tie opposite or southern side. The gallery comprises sculpture hall on the ground floor, a noble and appropriately arranged apartment, beautified with columns and paved with tiles, whose rich hue contrasts favourably with the coldness of the surrounding objects. The light from a series of side windows can also, by an ingenious device, be regulated as may be desirable. The general appearance of this hall strikingly resembles the classical courts at the Sy denim in Crystal Palace. At the end of this ball, a splendid double-lighted staircase leads to the great Picture- Gallery overhead. For its extent, about 200 feet, this Gallery is one of the handsomest and best arranged of any in the kingdom.”

Lanyon was then replaced by Francis Fowke whose galleries were so technologically advanced with regard to their lighting and ventilation that the NGI was one of the most advanced in Europe.

The gallery was further extended in 1904 by Sir Thomas Manly Deane who designed the porch and the Milltown Wing. Later extensions were added in 1969 (Frank du Berry of the Office of Public Works) and a restoration programme started in 1989. A new extension by Benson and Forsyth to nearby Clare Street opened in late 2001.