Roscommon Rolls! A foyer with a difference

One of the more interesting ‘furnishings’ that Stewart had to work with was installing the central piece for the foyer of the new Roscommon County Council headquarters.

Pride of place in the foyer is an antique Steam Roller which dates back to the early 1900’s.  Originally the steam roller stood outside Roscommon Court House and was very much identified with the building. In 2014 restoration work was undertaken on the roller to preserve it as a key feature for the new headquarters building. Bringing this piece into the new foyer provides a wonderful and unusual contrast between the antique roller sitting as the centre feature inside a building of such a contemporary design.

Bringing the steam roller into the foyer was an interesting challenge, to both install and then protect this antique piece whist the building works continued around it.

The building concrete frame was constructed to roof level before the roller was installed. Installation was difficult as the roller had to be pushed over a fair faced concrete retaining wall and onto a polished concrete screed plinth. Following installation timber protection was put in place around and over the roller to prevent damage while the building was being completed; including the balance of the polished concrete screed with under floor heating to the entire ground floor foyer area with the roller in situ throughout.

The appearance of this antique roller provides a wonderful link between the old and the new and will no doubt generate much interest.