Cooltara

Detached irregular-plan two-bay two-storey International Style house, built in 1937, originally on a butterfly plan of two rectangular blocks at ninety degree angles with a curved middle section facing south. Comprising recessed block to north-west and bow having recent porch to rear (south-west) elevations. Flat roof with rendered chimneystacks and parapets to front (north-east) and south-east elevation. Roughcast rendered walls. Square-headed opening to first floor having red brick partition, concrete sill and replacement uPVC windows. Square-headed openings to rear, north-west and south-east elevations, first floor, with concrete sills and replacement uPVC windows. Square-headed openings to ground floor, rear elevation, having red brick pilasters and replacement uPVC windows. Entrance comprising concrete canopy, brick walls and square-headed opening with timber battened door. Pair of square-profile roughcast rendered piers to north-east having double-leaf cast-iron gates and roughcast rendered boundary walls.

Cooltara is one of five International Style houses that were built in the suburbs of Limerick City in the 1930s. They were built for a specific socio-economic group of middle class professional men and in this case, it was built for the stockbroker Vivian St Clare Gloster. The architects were Messrs Clifford and Newenham. Cooltara is an appealing, modest scale house which exhibits many of the characteristics of the International Style. All the main living rooms and bedrooms faced south to maximise sunshine. The large corner windows set in angles also allowed maximum air and sun. The reinforced projecting eave on the front and back elevations emphasises the house's horizontality which was an important consideration for these Modernist houses. Cooltara is well maintained and has retained much of its original massing and form.