The team at O’Neill O’Malley had cause for celebration at the 2019 Irish Construction Industry gala awards ceremony which was held on Thursday, June 13th, at the Citywest Hotel, Dublin.
Launched in 2014, the Irish Construction Industry Awards is the long-standing platform for recognising and rewarding companies and their teams who strive for excellence within the Construction industry in Ireland.
The winners are made up of some of the leading organisations making an impact in the construction industry in Ireland today and the O’Neill O’Malley Architecture team – who scooped the Architecture Practice of the Year award – satisfied all the criteria.
With offices in Galway and London, O’Neill-O’Malley is an Architectural + Project Management Consultancy whose focus is on the delivery of bespoke, optimised project design and delivery solutions individually tailored to meet specific client and project requirements.
The secret of their success is their 20-plus workforce, according to John O’Malley who incorporated the practice, along with fellow principal John O’Neill, back in 2004.
“It’s nice that the hard work and diligence of all who work here in our practice was recognised with such a prestigious award,” he said in conversation with Building Ireland.
“I know it is a cliché but it really is a team effort here. We consider ourselves very lucky to have been able to recruit a dedicated and skilled workforce and we place a big emphasis on Continued Innovation and Professional Development. For example, we as a practice have utilised BIM software from the founding of our practice. We continue to invest significantly in both software, hardware and staff training to ensure we remain at the forefront of BIM ‘role-out’ in the Irish Construction Industry.”
John added: “We have been shortlisted over the last number of year in other national awards, such as the Building and Architect of the Year Awards. As our practice continues to grow it’s a great opportunity for us to get our name out there.”
O’Neill-O’Malley is a registered practice with the Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland which holds RIAI Project Supervisor Design Process and Conservation Grade III accreditation.
Their project portfolio covers a broad range of development typologies including, Retail, Commercial, Industrial, Residential, Hotel & Leisure as well as various combinations of the aforementioned.
They have worked on projects throughout Ireland, the U.K., U.S.A. and Eastern Africa working with a range of public and private sector clients and stakeholders, gaining valuable and unique experience in the process.
The team consistently endeavour to apply this experience and adapt as necessary, in a pro-active and dynamic manner to meet the challenges of all new projects.
“While we are one of the larger indigenous West of Ireland practices, we are not a large practice by national standards, however, since our founding we have always held an ambition to ’punch above our weight’ when it comes to competing for larger and more complex projects, both nationally and internationally.
“We have intentionally used our relatively modest scale as a competitive advantage, rather than a hindrance in pursuing projects. This scale has facilitated O’Neill-O’Malley in delivering a high level of engagement, responsiveness and adaptability that might challenge larger, more complexly structured organisations when dealing with the varied real time challenges that projects generate.”
As Registered Architects, O’Neill-O’Malley strive to deliver elegant, contemporary Architectural solutions, using the latest proven technologies and innovative design strategies to consistently surpass client expectations on a diverse range of projects.
As qualified project managers, they utilise the latest industry standard methodologies to devise clearly structured project delivery strategies. They consistently monitor and evaluate progress against same, addressing all manner of challenges and managing the associated project implications.
Other services O’Neill-O’Malley provide its valued list of clients includes: Commercial Development Consultancy, Feasibility Studies, Master-Planning, Contract Procurement & Administration and Design and Build services.
Successfully completed recent projects include Jaguar Land Rover Software Engineering Centre Shannon (an 55,000 sq ft LEED Gold CAT ‘A’ office project on behalf of Shannon Commercial Properties), a 33,000 sq ft Cat ‘A’ refurbishment of Engine Lease Finance’s Shannon Offices and a 40,000 sq ft Clean Room, Office and Warehouse retro-fit for Edwards Lifesciences, also in Shannon.
“Business has been a lot better in recent years and accordingly we remain on a pattern alternating between growth and consolidation,” John answered when asked about the current economic climate. “Our workload is split roughly 50 / 50 between private and public sector projects. In the private sector a lot of our focus is mainly developer led residential and mixed use commercial projects, while public sector works tend to be more commercial and industrial in nature. We have also very much enjoyed being part of ‘not for profit’ projects such as the Mayo Hospice, which is now nearing full completion, and we very much look forward to starting the Roscommon Hospice soon thereafter.
“While no one can predict the future and the possible fallout from Brexit etc. our outlook for the practice is positive and the future forecast is likely further controlled growth. We will remain cautious having been through what we’ve been through. But it’s great to have an opportunity to apply hard lessons learnt and capitalise on the relationships forged over the last 15 years in a much improved economic climate.
“We view this recent award as an acknowledgment of the hard work and tenacity demonstrated by all members of the O’Neill – O’Malley team over the last number of years in growing what was a fledging practice, pre-recession, into one of the more progressive active Architectural practices in the West of Ireland present day.”
John concluded: “Further expansion of the practice will be on a focussed basis, targeting our core industry sectors of interest, driven by maintaining and improving where possible, the high quality and range of services we currently provide to our existing clients and offer to our future clients.”
Why change a winning habit?!
O’Neill-O’Malley
Republic Of Ireland
Second Floor, Technology House,
Galway Technology Park,
Parkmore, Galway
T: +353 – 91-771033
F: +353 – 91-771597
Taken from Building Ireland Magazine, September, Vol 5 No 9
