Established in 2010, Hugh Kelly Architects is a design driven practice which operates from Limerick City. Building Ireland touched base with Principal Architect Hugh Kelly to learn more about the ins and outs of this award-winning practice and some of its on-going projects at the moment.
These are busy times for Hugh Kelly Architects and the plan for the practice at 46 O’Connell St, Limerick, is to try and keep things that way right through to 2022.
As principle architect, Hugh, together with former Murray O‘Laoire Architects colleague, Finbar O’Brien founded the practice in 2010. The small practice has gone from strength to strength working on education, healthcare, retail, office, leisure buildings and interior design/fit-out projects. Each project’s brief and site context are carefully probed. Client oriented workshops and consultation are central to each project.
Building Ireland caught up with Hugh Kelly recently to find out all about the company – from its origins to the overall state of business in what are unprecedented times.
“The company was founded in 2010 and, at the moment, we have between two to three full-time staff. We also engage students from University of Limerick School of Architecture,” Hugh outlined.
“The last year has been really difficult for everyone with Covid, but we’re lucky in that we have good clients in the Bons Secours Hospital Group the Office of Public Works (OPW), University of Limerick and a selection of private clients.
“We are fortunate that we have contracts on the books at present. We are conscious that contractors are going to be very busy for the next while. We are a small practice and that enables us to apply ourselves to every job with the client at the centre of everything that we do. We can offer a personal, detailed service and that is attractive to clients. The scale and type of projects we do can vary greatly from the Fit-out of Dunnes Stores flagship store in Jetland Limerick, office fit-outs for IT multi nationals, Interventional Cardiology extension to the Bon Secours Hospital in Galway, classrooms extension to St. Nessan’s school in Mungret to the more recently completed project the University of Limerick Climbing Wall Centre.
“Good architectural design is, for us, central to creating buildings that are responsive, maximising the potential of the sites with which we work and the well-being of our clients,” continued Hugh. “The team will push the potential of every project, working closely with clients to deliver optimal living, working, therapeutic and comfortable environments.”
For Hugh Kelly Architects user comfort, environmental based design, value engineering, cost control and life cycle costs are central to building design.
“I’m from Dublin originally and I came to Limerick, in 1996, originally for a short period. I ended up staying because, as a sports enthusiast and participant, the place has so much to offer. There was also plenty of work in the region at that time and I have been lucky that this has continued,” said Hugh.
“When I started Hugh Kelly Architects, the company was born out of the demise of a large practice which had fallen fowl of the economic crash of 2008/9. When we started in 2010, we faced a great deal of adversity, and it was undoubtedly a challenging time in which to start a new practice. We were fortunate that some clients believed in us especially the Bon Secours Heath Group with whom we have maintained a good working relationship with since 2002 working on their hospitals in Galway and Limerick.
“Our first couple of projects were with the Bon Secours Hospital in Galway and Cork, completing the Department of Defence headquarters in Newbridge and Mary Immaculate College, Limerick. These really helped us get off the ground, and thankfully, we were able to grow.”
Some 11 years on and Hugh Kelly Architects has won many awards in that time and is arguably as busy as ever with the projects it has on its books at the moment.
“It was quite difficult (during the lockdowns of the past 18 months),” said Hugh Kelly. “We worked from home, kept going and the government schemes along the way were very helpful. Right now, we’re doing work for a couple of public projects with the Office of Public Works. We also work with private clients and cover a broad spectrum of work.”
Last year saw Hugh Kelly Architects complete work on the Climbing Wall Centre at the University of Limerick’s Sports Arena – a project which earned national recognition this past May.
Hugh and his team would earn the award for ‘Building of the Year – Tourism, Leisure and Hospitality’ at the annual Building and Architect of the Year Awards.
“The Climbing Wall Centre is a good example of how we work. An inclusive consultative process which included all three client bodies: UL Student Life, UL Outdoor Pursuits Club and the University of Limerick. Through a series of engaging workshops, we developed the project brief and concept design, which provided the platform to allow us to push the boundaries of the project to create a building that surpassed expectation. The climbing experience is 360 degrees, surrounding the climber with surfaces reminiscent to the experience of climbing within a gorge. The challenge on this project was to incorporate a compendium of climbing disciplines into a building with a footprint of 210m2; bouldering, caving, single rope technique (SRT), speed, and lead climbing. A moon board (a standardised interactive climbing training wall) and training room was also squeezed into the linking corridor between the Climbing Wall Centre and the UL Sports Arena. A compendium of climbing challenges suitable for novice to international competitive climbers,” said Hugh.
On completion of the project Paul Lee, Head of Student Engagement, UL Student Life noted: “The students enjoyed a 100% stakeholder experience, and their views and opinions were fully respected and valued as the experts within this discipline of sport. They were immersed and involved in the decision making with Hugh Kelly Architects from start to finish, most notably demonstrated in meetings in the Architects Office and numerous accompanying emails.”
Completed in October 2020, having naturally been delayed because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Climbing Wall Centre at University of Limerick is a perfect example of how Hugh Kelly Architects work as a practice.
The Climbing Wall Centre caters for the three Olympic climbing disciplines (Boulder Wall, Lead Wall and Speed Wall) that made their debut at the recent Olympic Games in Tokyo.
“The climbing wall became an Olympic sport for the first time this year, so it’s very exciting that we have this facility here in Limerick.”
Speaking on the award success that followed the UL Climbing Wall, Hugh Kelly commented: “The award was presented in May at an online event, and it was fantastic recognition for the practice. There was a long list of contributors to this project, and it was very much a team effort in the way that it was carried out.”
So, the burning question is what has been the secret to success for Hugh Kelly Architects over these past 11 years?
How has a small start-up in Limerick grown into a thriving venture which now has multiple national awards to its name?
“I think the first thing is that the team has remained the same so clients have come to expect and know consistency across all of our services. The clients deal with myself and Finbar O’Brien from the first conversation through to each project completion,” Hugh pointed out.
“You try to bring a different perspective to each job. We thoroughly research each project, carry out a vigorous site investigation and bring this thoroughness to each interaction with the client. We aim to bring a freshness to every task that we undertake and to bring added value to each interaction with our clients.”
Looking towards the coming months for the practice, Hugh is optimistic about what’s to come and says the priority, as ever, is to continue to build the practice and to see out its current portfolio projects.
“Looking forward, we have some very interesting projects on our books right now and we’re very much looking forward to bringing them to fruition,” Hugh concluded.
Hugh Kelly Architects
Third Floor
46 O’Connell Street
Limerick
Tel: +353 (0)61 276789
E-mail: [email protected]
This article was published in Building Ireland Magazine, December 2021, Vol 7 No 12
