NICE TO SEE the top brass of Ireland’s longest established construction consultancy taking a bit of the limelight in the Grand Canal Theatre this week.
Davis Langdon PKS was being honoured on the main stage of the new auditorium to mark the 150th anniversary of the firm, ahead of the official opening of the theatre next week.
PKS may not might be a household name, but it has been a major player in the cost consultancy market since the 1860s.
It has had a hand in lots of interesting building projects over the years, including rebuilding the GPO and the Metropole Hotel after the 1916 Rising, and has been close advisors to the Guinness family since 1875 – it handled the rebuilding of Ashford Castle in 1886. In this case the estimate of £8,000 was finally trimmed back to £7,635 – a rare enough occurrence in the building industry.
PKS has also been closely linked to Trinity College over the years, being involved in the building of the Graduates Building in 1887 up to the restoration of the Dining Hall after a fire there in 1984.
PKS even had time to look after The Irish Times, helping it deal with "rebellion damage" in 1919. Managing director Norman Craig explained that PKS can trace its activities right back to 1860 because it has archived its files since its foundation.
These files were transferred for safe-keeping to the Irish Architectural Archive in the late 1970s. Here’s wishing them well for another century and a half, at least.
