The roofing, cladding and façade partner of choice, Crown Roofing & Cladding Ltd is delighted to have Lee Ryan shortlisted for an Irish Construction Excellence Award in the ‘Construction Project Manager’ category.
An old head on young shoulders, Lee is a Senior Project Manager with the Roundwood, Co. Wicklow-based firm who has been nominated for his efficient and high-quality delivery of a data centre roofing project in Switzerland for client DRP Construction. Lee’s exemplary performance on this project is just one example of his high standard of work which he has delivered for Crown on many projects across Ireland and Europe over the last four years.
The affable Moate, Co. Westmeath man has developed and implemented project management plans and systems that allow for the highest quality project delivery, which are being replicated across Crown’s Project Manager team. Lee fosters a positive working culture and has led several different teams across the company’s Irish and European projects to great project success.
Celebrating 30 years in business, Crown is a leading commercial roofing, cladding and façade contractor which is fronted by brother-and-sister Owen O’Gorman and Emma O’Gorman-Wall, and employs up to 300 people, on both a direct and subcontract basis. With director-led involvement on all projects, the external envelope contractor offers innovative solutions and boasts an enviable reputation for carrying out quality projects safely, on time and within budget.
The company’s prestigious and extensive portfolio includes data centres for the top names in digital technology, landmark projects and work carried out over live, occupied and sensitive buildings in the pharmaceutical, industrial and mission critical sectors. The Crown team of highly-trained, qualified and experienced professionals have the expertise to deliver to the highest standards, ensuring complete client satisfaction on every project.
“It’s a great company to work for. Everyone puts their shoulder to the wheel and teamwork is key,” Lee says.
The Irish Construction Excellence Awards (ICE Awards) are the original and premier recognition of performance excellence for the construction sector in Ireland, and provide an opportunity for the industry to showcase and reward best practice across the full range of construction disciplines and project categories. The nomination is a tremendous honour for Lee Ryan whose construction journey began as an 11-year-old working with his grandfather, who was a builder by trade.
Lee spent his school holidays working with his grandfather who, throughout the years, taught him the fundamentals of the industry. His mother and grandmother then encouraged him to enrol in Construction Technology & Management at TUS. There, he learned all aspects of the industry and, in particular, techniques for managing both projects and people. After graduating with a Level 8 Honours Degree, Lee began work as a Junior Project Manager with a roofing and cladding contractor in Dublin on a large school project. While challenging, this experience taught him to resolve any scenario, think on his feet and push himself to work harder and more efficiently. Over three years with this company, he learned a great deal and was promoted to Project Manager before taking up a new role with Crown.
Lee’s first project with his new employers was a data centre in Dublin. Following the successful delivery of this project, he relocated to Malmo, Sweden in October 2019 where he worked on a large-scale data centre with cladding, roofing and curtain walling. Despite borders shutting and widespread lockdowns due to the Covid-19 outbreak in March 2020, the site remained open and Lee and his team of 25 continued to work for this period. Indeed, they were the only Crown operatives active in Europe at this time.
It was an important point in Lee’s career as he had to take the reins and manage the project on the ground without any onsite help. The team supported each other and saw the project through to its successful completion. Over the next two years, the Westmeath man worked on other projects in Barcelona, Zurich, Lulea, Vienna and Copenhagen, taking the lead as Project Manager on each job.
From his early career managing roofing and cladding, Lee has now progressed to managing the installation of cladding, roofing, curtain walling, windows, rainscreens, doors and louvres as well as labour, resources, materials, costs and time.
The Swiss data centre project, for which Lee was nominated, was a large complicated roofing system. The roof build up was a Soprema tapered scheme system involving more than four layers of boards for the majority of the main Data Hall area. The scheme build up was primer onto the concrete deck, EVA 35 Flam VCL, Soudatherm 170 glue, packer boards and tapered boards, Vapro Stixx underlay and HT-O-Jardin Cap sheet felt.
For the upstands, a 50mm Sopratherm T board was installed with the above felt build up. Lee’s role was to review the IFC documents along with the tender details, complete a scheme with Soprema, create a project programme and create the delivery schedule to ensure programme dates were adhered to.
Lee and his team delivered the roof build up both on schedule and to a high-quality standard. They overachieved their projected net margin, with the project being one of Crown’s most successful in recent years. There were, however, significant challenges to be overcome in relation to the Swiss legal framework and a small site footprint.
Given such constraints, Crown had to plan and manage its works very precisely, and adhere to the given timelines.
As a result of the small site footprint, Lee was required to carefully plan and execute the delivery and movement of materials, the installation of the (watertight) roofing system and his labour force. Working alongside several other subcontractors completing their own works, Lee utilised his in-depth plan to ensure all aspects of work were completed on time and to the highest standard. In spite of all of these challenges, the project was a resounding success and provided great learnings in terms of successfully working in foreign markets. This planning process has been emulated on other Crown sites to the same degree of success, regardless of the site footprint.
“Working with Crown roofing was a pleasure, a very responsible contractor that keeps up with the safety standards, high quality of work and best practice. With Crown, the impossible becomes possible,” said Alex Herteg, CSA Superintendent for DPR Construction.
High praise indeed for the successful Co. Wicklow company which continues to go from strength to strength. Here’s to the next 30 years!
Crown Roofing & Cladding Ltd
Lough Dan Lodge,
Roundwood,
Co. Wicklow,
A98 D522.
Telephone: 01 281 8357
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.crownroofing.ie
This article was published in Building Ireland Magazine, June 2023, Vol 9 No 6
