The eastern side of the Windle Way with welcoming canopy (photo: Tomás Tyner, UCC)

The Windle Way forms a key pedestrian east-west route underneath the Hub to the Kane Building. It is named in honour of Sir Bertram Coghill Alan Windle (1858-1929) MA, MD, DSc, LLD, PhD, FRS, FSA, MRIA, KSG, who was President of Queen’s / University College, Cork, from 1904 until 1919.  A medical graduate of Trinity College, Dublin, he was Professor of Anatomy at Queen’s College, Birmingham, and first dean of medicine at the new University of Birmingham. A formidable administrator, Windle established the department of Archaeology at UCC in 1910 and was its first professor. He was also briefly chair of the department of Anatomy, newly separated from Physiology. His tenure as President saw a new breadth of subject disciplines across the University including a department of Music. Windle transformed the University with the creation of the first catering facilities for students, social events for staff, the addition of several buildings and the acquisition of the Athletic Grounds on the Mardyke in 1911. He was a member of the Dublin Commissioners who were responsible for drafting and overseeing the Irish Universities Act 1908, which created the National University of Ireland of which UCC is a member. A convert to Catholicism, Windle was deeply involved with the extra mural chapel funded by the Honan Bequest. Despite his agitation for a University of Munster, this did not succeed and his frustration about this, allied with the new political situation in Ireland, led to his resignation in 1919. Windle emigrated to Canada to teach at St Michael’s College, Toronto, where he died and was buried in 1929.

Prior to the opening of the Hub, the Windle name was associated with the former Medical Building, the limestone building which has been fully conserved and incorporated into the Hub. This building, the original part of which dates back to 1850, was originally known as the Clarendon Building following a donation by Lord Clarendon, then Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.  It was designed by Sir Thomas Deane and Benjamin Woodward, who were architects of the Main Quadrangle. The building was modified and extended between 1866 and 1980. In 2005 the School of Medicine moved to the Brookfield Health Sciences Complex and in 2011 the Department of Anatomy moved to the Western Gateway Building.

The conservation of the former Windle Building and the extension of it to form the new Hub was delivered by the Capital Projects Office, Buildings & Estates, UCC, in December 2019 with occupation from January 2020. 

The Hub has been nominated for the 2022 European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award (EUmies Award).

Location

Latitude 51.8931656; Longitude -8.4932964

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