Number 36 is a five-bay, three-storey brick building, roughly 12.5 metres wide and the same in height to its parapet, and what makes it unusual is not its size but its architectural pedigree: it is considered one of the earliest examples of Palladian architecture in the city, a style that takes its name from the Italian Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio and is characterised by symmetry, proportion, and the formal vocabulary of classical antiquity. That such a building appeared here, on what was then one of Dublin's busiest commercial thoroughfares, suggests a patron and a builder both operating at the more ambitious end of early Georgian taste.

The house was built around 1715, at a moment when Dublin was beginning its long expansion into the city we recognise today, and the notes describe it as probably the work of a professional architect rather than a craftsman-builder working from pattern books alone. The front façade was originally rendered, a finish that would have given it a more formal, stone-like appearance than bare brick, and that render was only recently removed, altering the face of the building once more. It has been through several significant interventions since its construction: a refurbishment around 1886, a more substantial reconfiguration carried out between 1937 and 1942, and, as of 2018, works connected to a student housing development. A replacement shopfront at ground level, as is common with Georgian town houses that survived into commercial use, obscures what the building's lower storey once looked like.

Thomas Street is a working street rather than a heritage trail, and 36 sits mid-terrace without signage drawing attention to its age or significance. The upper storeys are the thing to look at: the five-bay arrangement, the proportions of the windows, and the flat roofline give a clear enough sense of what was intended in 1715, even with the alterations that followed. The removal of the front render has changed its character somewhat, exposing the brickwork in a way that would have surprised its original builders, but it also makes the structure itself more legible. Anyone walking the street with an eye on the upper floors rather than the shopfronts will find it without difficulty.