Bringing decades of experience to every project, S. Hanniffy & Associates Consulting Engineers is a one stop shop for innovative architectural design and structural and civil engineering solutions. We dropped into their head office in Maree, Oranmore, County Galway and touched base with director Shane Hanniffy to get an insight into this exceptional father-and-son-fronted operation.
Established in 2005 by Shane Hanniffy alongside his father Sean, S. Hanniffy & Associates Consulting Engineers provide cost effective, client-friendly and efficient architectural design, civil engineering and structural engineering services across Galway, Connacht and beyond.
Full Architectural, Civil & Structural design services are provided for domestic houses, housing estates, extensions and refurbishments, commercial developments and mixed-use developments, including project management and certification upon completion.
Between them, the founding directors have accumulated almost 70 years of experience of design and engineering. Sean began his career in 1965 as a draftsman in the roads department of Galway County Council, while Shane – who has worked both in Ireland and abroad – graduated from NUI Galway with a B.E. Degree in Civil Engineering in 1999 and gained Chartered Membership status with Engineers Ireland.
Renowned as both architects and engineers, S. Hanniffy & Associates Consulting Engineers cover a broad range of disciplines, bringing a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the residential and commercial sectors alike, encompassing architectural design; passive house design; planning permission applications, ; chartered civil and structural engineering; Health & Safety, supervision of construction works, etc.
A complete design service is provided from initial concept through to the final design and S. Hanniffy & Associates offers practical, professional advice and support to clients throughout the design process. To aid in the visualisation of a project, 3D imaging can be supplied if required.
Hanniffy & Associates Consulting Engineers utilise a specialised in-house Quality Assurance System, which guarantees that clients receive the highest level of quality at all times. All components of a project, including designs, drawings and documentation are produced, maintained and reviewed in accordance with in-house procedures which form part of the overall Quality Management System.
Since 2005 S. Hanniffy & Associates Consulting Engineers has enjoyed much growth and 2017 was another positive year for the Oranmore, County Galway based firm: “The business has gone well and we have expanded greatly in the last three years,” Shane confirms. “Things have really picked up since the recession and we have six full-time employees, having been forced to cut back to just the two of us when the downturn hit. Business is booming again thankfully and we’re very optimistic going forward.”
Only the strongest have survived and S. Hanniffy & Associates Consulting Engineers certainly bear all the hallmarks of a viable business right now. “One of our strengths is that we provide a complete service,” Shane continues. “We provide architectural design as well as civil and structural engineering and we also do civil and structural engineering for many other architects.”
At the time of writing, S. Hanniffy & Associates Consulting Engineers were working on two new housing estates in Galway. “Most of our work is in Galway at the moment, as well as into Mayo and Roscommon, although we have completed projects as far away as Clare, Offaly and Dublin in the past,” says the co-founder.
Their client list also includes a number of medical device companies “We do a lot of that kind of work and hope to do more of it in the future,” Shane notes. “We do a healthy mix of commercial and residential, including a lot of private one-off houses and extensions. The mixture is good to keep you busy.”
At present they are working on a new office block in Ballygar as well as providing civil and structural engineering services for an Adventure Centre in Moycullen. .
“There’s a fair bit of commercial work going on at present and the order book looks very healthy for the next year,” Shane is pleased to report.
The key to S. Hanniffy & Associates Consulting Engineers’ enduring success and popularity since their inception 13 years ago can undoubtedly be attributed to the quality of the services provided. They just keep their heads down and focus on delivering high-quality solutions that result in absolute client satisfaction. The bottom line is that their reputation for excellence precedes them:
“We’ve never had any need to advertise, bar our website and Facebook page,” Shane confirms. “So it’s really through word of mouth, because of the quality of service that we provide to our clients that our name has spread. That is passed on to others and we gain a lot of work through recommendations.
Another obvious strength is that we can provide all services from start to finish on any project – architectural, civil and structural. We can design all aspects of it in-house, including Health & Safety and Fire Safety, etc.”
Which is more important – creativity or practicality? “It depends on the client. We’re doing a lot of large, modern houses, where clients like some creative thinking and imagination employed whereas other just want the basics. With commercial projects, often they want something spacious and efficient and they don’t want to spend any more than they have to.
“We can provide external 3Ds for clients if they want us to and Sean is the man who looks after those. He actually started doing drawings by hand years ago but has moved with the times and embraced that technology. Nobody else can do them as well as he can. I’m also fortunate in that my P.A. is also a Legal Executive and she draws up the contracts on all the projects for us.”
Covering all bases in architectural, civil and structural design and engineering, S. Hanniffy & Associates Consulting Engineers is a broad-reaching, progressive market leader, backed by decades of experience and expertise. The future prognosis for this highly-accomplished, client-friendly practice is extremely positive:
“Due to all the commercial projects that we’re taking on, we anticipate that we will remain very busy and the probability is that we will have to expand,” Shane concludes. “There’s a shortage of skilled labour at the moment and experienced technicians are particularly hard to come by, but I’m confident we’ll find the right people to move the business forward as and when we need them.”
Hanniffy & Associates Consulting Engineers,
Cottage,
Maree,
Oranmore,
County Galway.
Tel: 091 790452
Fax: 091 388480
Email: [email protected]
Facebook: facebook.com/shanniffyengineers
Web: www.shanniffy.com
Taken from Building Ireland Magazine, March 2018, Vol 4 No 3
Hanniffy & Associates Consulting Engineers
