SONICA’S greatest asset is its people. So when Senior Project Manager Douglas (Doug) Ito scooped the coveted ‘Fit Out Project Manager of the Year’ award at the recent 2021 Fit Out Awards, it didn’t come as a surprise to anyone.
The Fit Out Awards celebrate excellence in the execution of world-class fit outs, and the people and clients who drive these projects. Also shortlisted in five other categories, including ‘Fit Out Contractor of the Year’ and ‘Fit Out Project of the Year – Large Office’, SONICA has established itself as a market leader in high-end commercial interior fit out.
Founded in 2013, SONICA’s owner and Manager Director Donnacha Neary started the business with a view to “transform working lives, one business at a time.” Doug explains: “This is achieved by placing the client at the centre of each project. We believe that working collaboratively and strategically with clients is the key to success. On these foundations, we create inspiring workspaces which are engineered around their needs. It means always going above and beyond to provide a better offering, better service, and better experience for our clients. This is what sets us apart.”
These constant improvements allow the Skerries-based contractor to operate at the pinnacle of the office, leisure, residential, industrial, pharma and retail sectors.
SONICA’s clients are global leaders that in true partnership provide it with opportunities to learn and grow.
“I feel privileged to be part of such a great team and to have won this award,” says Douglas, who has been a part of over 250 projects in his long and illustrious career.
“SONICA is such a progressive company. I love the culture that we’ve created. We’re encouraged to think differently, to challenge the fitout industry norms. We never settle – in everything we do, we challenge our ideas of what’s possible in order to better meet the needs of our customers. I joined the company seven years ago and it has certainly brought out the best in me,” Douglas says.
A native of Australia, Doug relocated from Melbourne to Dublin in 1991 and has lived in Ranelagh ever since. He is married to an Irish woman, Blaise, and has two daughters. He is an avid proponent of the Prince2 Project Management methodology and a Certified Prince2 practitioner, a qualified Structural Steel Fabricator, and a member of the Institute of Project Management of Ireland.
If you have worked in the Irish Fit Out industry at any time in the last 20 years, the chances are you have heard of or worked with Doug Ito. Having delivered Google’s first-ever Irish office on Barrow Street, Dublin in 2003 to now running multi-million-euro office fit outs for SONICA, Douglas can lay claim to being one of the true pioneers of Fit Out Project Management in Ireland.
Not only is Doug’s award-winning track record the envy of his peers, he continues to be the “go-to” PM for many of SONICA’s multinational repeat clients. His knowledge of complex construction, programme and cost management, sub-contractor selection and coordination, team building and resolute ability to get the job puts him in a league of his own.
Doug has overseen and led the delivery of three Fit Out Award-winning projects in the last six years alone. In 2015, he won ‘Tourism & Leisure Project of the Year’ for SONICA’s work at the 3Arena. In 2018, he delivered four consecutive projects for HubSpot that won SONICA ‘Fit Out Client of the Year’. A year later, he won his second ‘Tourism & Leisure Project of the Year’ award for delivering the 30,000 sq. ft. National Sport and Science Centre Explorium.
With a capacity of 14,500, 3Arena is the fourth busiest music venue in the world. The challenge for SONICA was to bring the Three brand vision to life by making an already award-winning venue and its associated customer experience areas even better.
The single biggest challenge Doug faced was turning SONICA’s concept into a reality in just eight weeks onsite. Those eight weeks overlapped an intensely busy time at the venue with international acts and sell-out shows booked all through the construction period. However, his handover and opening night date had to correspond with the biggest show of the year. The Lady GaGa concert on October 17 2014 – a date that could not be extended or moved. He met the challenge head-on and delivered a full 48 hours ahead of schedule.
Having already delivered over 100,000 sq. ft. of cumulative office space across four-separate city centre locations, HubSpot engaged SONICA again in early 2018 with a very specific brief – select, secure and deliver an international HQ building that has a prominent riverside location, is from brand new stock, has a world-class environmental energy rating, will act as a symbol of HubSpot’s phenomenal growth in the Irish marketplace and most importantly, “appoint Doug Ito as our Project Manager”.
Doug acted as Lead D&B Project Manager & Client Representative for interaction with the Boston-based HubSpot Real Estate Leadership Team. He managed the onsite construction, MEPS and H&S teams and was the owner of the overall project spend (€21.5m) and programme (18 months).
Nestled in the foothills of the Dublin Mountains, Explorium is a world-class centre of innovation and sensory interaction. Doug’s brief was to bring to life the client’s vision for a pioneering centre of learning, adventure, imagination and wonder by integrating Sport and Science through brand new ideas, high-end finishes, bespoke exhibits, and ground-breaking complex new technologies. The list of complex components he delivered is immense and the finished space speaks for itself.
SONICA’s ‘First Landings’ HQ is another stunning project which has a special place in Doug’s portfolio of works. The talented Project Manager delivered a cutting-edge 30,000 sq. ft. space that included the development of key features such as a 125-seated auditorium with Ireland’s largest LED screen, a hospitality lounge and bar, high-tech Podcast studio, VR Studio, and flexible meeting spaces. The finished product was duly nominated for a 2021 Dezeem Award and was featured in US-based ‘Interior Design’, the largest interiors publication in the world.
Between 2000 and 2012, Doug was integral in the delivery of some of the earliest and most recognisable FDI companies setting up HQs in the fledgling IFSC and Docklands area of Dublin. His past-project list includes Google, SONY, EA Games, Treasury Holdings, Northern Trust, Irish Times, Glandore House, Vivas Health, Edward Dillion, Klas Telecom, UniCredit, CITCo, Tetra Pak, Max RE, UMB, Hays Solicitors, Brown Brothers Harriman, and CITRIX. He joined SONICA after a three-year stint running pharma build-outs in Bristol Myers, and remains a hugely valued member of the team today.
The affable Australian takes great pride in leading Project Teams but mentoring young SM’s that are at the beginning of his professional career is a key strength. He speaks with passion on the attributes of effective Site Management and provides relatable and easy-to-understand practical examples of good habits of managers onsite learned from his many years at the coalface.
Doug’s latest project is the €10 million revamp of the six-floor-over-basement Indeed SSG Office on St Stephen’s Green. The project has proven to be quite challenging as he explains: “It has involved taking out the existing M&E and replacing it with new M&E. It has been especially challenging from a logistical point of view. We’ve had to close down St Stephen’s Green between 10pm and 5am each day to get tower cranes and materials in and out.
“Good planning and having the right people are essential for a job like this. If you don’t work as a team, you won’t get the job done.”
SONICA
‘First Landings’
Skerries,
Co. Dublin,
K34 KC92.
Telephone: +353 (0)1 676 5007
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.sonica.ie
This article was published in Building Ireland Magazine, April 2022, Vol 8 No 4
