The Treasury Building is an office block and historic site at the corner of Grand Canal Street Lower and Macken Street in

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

. The site used to be the main site for

Boland's Bakery Boland's Bakery was the largest bakery in Dublin in the late 19th century. It was founded by the Boland family. The company sold a number of products, such as bread, biscuits, cakes, confectionery and flour, although over the years biscuits became ...

and site was occupied during the

Easter Rising The Easter Rising (), also known as the Easter Rebellion, was an armed insurrection in Ireland during Easter Week in April 1916. The Rising was launched by Irish republicans against British rule in Ireland with the aim of establishing an ind ...

Éamon de Valera Éamon de Valera (; ; first registered as George de Valero; changed some time before 1901 to Edward de Valera; 14 October 1882 – 29 August 1975) was an American-born Irish statesman and political leader. He served as the 3rd President of Ire ...

. During the late 1980s, the building was redeveloped by

Treasury Holdings Treasury Holdings was an Irish property development company headed by Johnny Ronan and Richard Barrett. The company, which was insolvent with a huge amount of debt, was wound up in October 2012. History Treasury Holdings was formed in 1989 with ...

. The building was stripped back to a concrete structure and converted into offices.

Rowan Gillespie Rowan Fergus Meredith Gillespie (born 1953) is an Irish bronze casting sculptor of international renown. Born in Dublin to Irish parents, Gillespie spent his formative years in Cyprus. From conception to creation, he works alone in his purpose-b ...

was commissioned to create a sculpture for the outside wall of the building. The statue, named 'Aspiration', was originally of a naked man climbing the outside wall, but

Johnny Ronan John Ronan is an Irish businessman and property developer known for establishing Treasury Holdings in 1989 along with Richard Barrett. Following the Irish property crash in 2008, the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) took over the loans ...

insisted that the sculpture be changed to a woman. The statue was made of

fibreglass Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass ( Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass c ...

. The sculpture was removed in 2020 when the building was sold. The building was used by

Fianna Fáil Fianna Fáil ( ; ; meaning "Soldiers of Destiny" or "Warriors of Fál"), officially Fianna Fáil – The Republican Party (), is a centre to centre-right political party in Ireland. Founded as a republican party in 1926 by Éamon de ...

as their headquarters for the 2007 election. After the

Post-2008 Irish economic downturn The post-2008 Irish economic downturn in the Republic of Ireland, coincided with a Post-2008 Irish banking crisis, series of banking scandals, followed the 1990s and 2000s Celtic Tiger period of rapid real economic growth fuelled by foreign dire ...

, the Irish government created the

National Asset Management Agency The National Asset Management Agency (NAMA; ) is a body created by the Government of Ireland in late 2009 in response to the Irish financial crisis and the deflation of the Irish property bubble. NAMA functions as a '' bad bank'', acquiring ...

as a

bad bank A bad bank is a corporate structure which isolates illiquid and high risk assets (typically non-performing loans) held by a bank or a financial organisation, or perhaps a group of banks or financial organisations. A bank may accumulate a large p ...

to deal with the collapse of the property bubble in Ireland. In 2011 the registered office of NAMA was the Treasury building.

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

bought the building from Ronan Group Real Estate in February 2020. In February 2022

Dublin City Council Dublin City Council () is the Local government in the Republic of Ireland, local authority of the city of Dublin in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. As a city council, it is governed by the Local Government Act 2001. Until 2001, the authority was k ...

granted planning permission to Google Ireland to increase the height of the building from six to eight storeys.

References

{{Reflist Buildings and structures in Dublin (city) Dublin Docklands Information technology places Places in Dublin (city)