Sligo Rotary Club

This year's annual Sligo Rotary Club Dinner Dance was presided over by Rotary President Barry Cannon, of Hamilton Young Architects.  Over eighty members, partners and guests attended at the Sligo Park Hotel, raising funds for the Jaipur Limb Project charity.

Joseph Martin, Barry & Grainne Cannon, Andrea Martin, and Trevor McDaid

Trevor & Imelda McDaid with Fiona McCarthy & Andrew Judge

The Rotary club comprises approximately 50 men and women, drawn from the professional, business and service community in Sligo. Membership of Rotary provides an opportunity for friendship, within a club dedicated to the betterment of society through humanitarian, vocational and educational service both locally and internationally. Find out more at http://sligorotary.com/

The Big Draw

The Big Draw event which took place in Sligo on Thursday, 4th November and Saturday, 6th November, attracted over 60 people who took part in a guided tour of the town centre followed by a drawing session. Participants were encouraged to think about, re-create and re-invent Sligo's public spaces the way they'd like to imagine them.

Hamilton Young Architects took part in guiding the participants on a circuit of the town before helping out in the workshops over the course of the two days.  The aim of The Big Draw is to encourage people of all ages to explore ideas and express their creativity, and we were delighted to help artist Lucy Brennan-Shiel in achieving this with the enthusiastic crowds.

The Big Draw took place in conjunction with the Walking Matters conference in the Glass House Hotel in Sligo on 5th November. Hamilton Young director, Andrew Judge, was invited to speak about his experience with The Big Draw alongside other guest speakers including Minister of State Ciarán Cuffe and Senator David Norris.

Find out more about The Big Draw at www.campaignfordrawing.org.

Blue Raincoat Theatre Company

Congratulations to the Blue Raincoat Theatre Company on their 20th anniversary this month.  Based in the heart of Sligo, the Blue Raincoat is one of the few theatres in Ireland with a permanent venue to its name, along with The Abbey, Gate and Druid Theatre Companies.

Hamilton Young Architects involvement with the Blue Raincoats extends back more than a decade.  The development of the Factory Performance Space in Sligo was overseen by former director David Lawlor and was completed in 2000.  The Blue Raincoat Theatre Company were the outright winners of the national AIB Better Ireland Awards for the development project in 1999 and Hamilton Young Architects won the national COTHU Business Sponsorship of the Year award for our contribution to the project.

So, happy birthday Blue Raincoats, from all at Hamilton Young Architects!

Forbo Visit to Amsterdam

As part of their annual visit to the Netherlands, Forbo Ireland Ltd. invited Andrew Judge as part of a 23 strong contingent of building professionals to visit their manufacturing plant in Krommenie. An impressive tour of the plant showed the natural materials used in the manufacture of the Marmoleum flooring material being processed from the raw state to finished product, as well as a visit to the highly automated distribution centre which handles orders worldwide.

An architectural highlights tour of Amsterdam included a number of recent buildings in which Marmoleum was used to great effect, including the OZW university building and the Zuwe Hofpoort Ziekenhuis hospital.

OZW by Jeanne Dekkers Architectuur

ING Bank by Meyer & Van Schooten Architecten

National Third Level Student Wood Awards

A record number of third level colleges entered this years national Student Wood Awards. Sixteen winning college entries from ten universities and institutes of technology throughout Ireland – north and south – made it to the national awards.

Andrew Judge, a director of Hamilton Young Architects, was part of the judging panel, with Duncan Steward and Valez Picardo, who selected the winning entry in the architecture category.

The winner of this year’s architecture award was Brendan Joziasse (Dublin Institute of Technology) for producing a comparative study on the application of engineered wood products (EWPs). The project examined the application of EWPs in a community centre in Clongriffin, North Dublin.

From left, Andrew Judge, judging panel, Duncan Stewart, chair of the judging panel, Brendan Joziasse (DIT) winner of the engineering section at the 3rd Level Student Wood Awards, Sima Rouholamin, lecturer and course co-ordinator, DIT, Christy Conway, Chairman Wood Marketing Federation and Valez Picardo, judging panel.

Launched in 2006 by the Wood Marketing Federation in association with Wood NI, the awards are now much sought after by third level students of architecture, engineering and design in Ireland who incorporate wood as an inherent element in their projects.

The objective of the awards is to encourage students to explore functional, aesthetic and design aspects of wood and wood products. The awards are judged by professionals in the fields of architecture, engineering, design, forestry, wood processing, craft and manufacturing.

Official Opening of Special School

The official opening of St. Dympna's & St. Nicholas' Special Schools, designed by Trevor McDaid of Hamilton Young, took place recently in Ballina, Co. Mayo. The investment of €5.7m of taxpayers' money in the development of a state-of-the-art new special education centre in Ballina is “money well spent” according to An Taoiseach Brian Cowen.

Minister of State Dara Calleary TD, An Taoiseach Brian Cowen TD,

Mary Loftus, Enda Kenny TD, Michael Ring TD

The Taoiseach was speaking at the official opening of the special schools, which are "accommodated in spectacular new buildings on a shared campus at Convent Hill", according to the Western People newspaper.

Trevor McDaid, the project architect and director in charge of the design and construction of the schools, was thanked publicly by An Taoiseach, and by principal Maureen Quinn for his "outstanding design" and his "professionalism and tremendous contribution to the project".

An Taoiseach Brian Cowen, with Trevor McDaid

and members of the Design Team

Read the full story in the Western People

See more photos of the project on our Education webpage

The Model

To celebrate the re-opening of The Model gallery in Sligo on 1st May 2010, twenty-two international artist collectives were invited to transform the building into an all-encompassing art project.

As part of the project, WochenKlausur, a collective from Austria proposed extending the project into the city of Sligo. With only a week in which to prepare their proposals, WochenKlausur connected with local academics, students, community activists and professionals, including Hamilton Young Architects, in order to identify small scale but nonetheless very concrete and implementable proposals for the city.

These ideas were presented in a public forum on 5th May in The Model, attended by representatives from local government, coucillors, the mayor, the senior town architects, Sligo Parks, The Sligo Arts Service, and the local press.

Among the presentations were proposals for improved accessibility for cyclists to the city centre by Andrew Judge and a project to highlight the hidden views of Sligo by Seana Clarke, both of Hamilton Young Architects.

Andrew Judge, Hamilton Young Architects,

presenting at the forum

The findings can be viewed at WochenKlausur's booth at the Dorm Exhibition, showing until July 4th.

Contract signed for new Castlerock National School

Vincent Lee & Brendan Henry, Kilcawley Construction; Trevor McDaid; Fr. John Glynn & Patricia Gawley, Castlerock NS.

The Board of Management of Castlerock National School near Aclare has signed a contract with Kilcawley Construction, Sligo, for the construction of a new state of the art primary school facility which will be located on green field site at Drummartin, at the junction of the Tubbercurry/Ballina Road with the Aclare Road.

The official contract signing took place on 18th May at the offices of Hamilton Young Architects in Sligo. Work is expected to start by the end of the month and the school is due to be completed by December this year.

According to the school’s Principal, Patricia Gawley, “the new building will provide much improved facilities for both the pupils and staff for many years to come.” Ms. Gawley also paid tribute to school's Board of Management, the parents and to the school’s hard working fund raising committee.

The Chairperson of the Board, Fr.John Glynn, wished to acknowledge “the efforts and support of our local politicians in getting the project to where it is today”.

Hamilton Young Architects are the architects that designed the building and they will also oversee the construction of the project. Project architect, Trevor McDaid said, “The new school will comprise three classrooms, a general purpose hall, library/resource room, a staff room, an office, as well as all the usual ancillary accommodation. The project also includes a new grass playing field, a ball court and play areas, as well as a staff/visitor car park and a proper lay-by at the front of the school for the safe set-down and picking up of the pupils. The site itself will be well landscaped in a combination of shrubs and trees providing an attractive overall environment for all the users.”

Simon Open Door

We were delighted to take part in this years Simon Open Door fundraising event. This is the fifth year Hamilton Young have taken part. We opened the doors to the public on Saturday 24th April 2010 and spent the morning providing one hour consultations for charity.

It was a great success and the entire event managed to raise more than €50,000 across the country as over 600 architects donated their services.