1887 – Derry Guildhall

The Guildhall was originally built in 1887 by The Honourable The Irish Society at a cost of £19,000.00 and was officially opened in July 1890. Originally designed by J.C Ferguson, elaborate Gothic windon to the south is by M.A. Robinson. Bombed twice in 1972, the building was refurbished and reopened in 1977 at a cost of £1.7m. Fashioned in neo gothic style it is one of the most striking buildings in the northwest. Housed in the Guildhall are some of the finest examples of stain-glass windows in the whole of Great Britain. Decorated with Drumfrese sandstone, marble, oak panelling and ornate ceilings, the Guildhall is the premier tourist attraction in Derry.

Architect: J.C. Ferguson / M.A. Robinson

Two Dublin buildings win major architectural awards

Two contemporary works of architecture in Dublin, the Alto Vetro residential tower on Grand Canal Quay and the Elmpark complex on Merrion Road, have won awards from the Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design. They are among 97 distinguished projects and major urban schemes worldwide selected for this year’s International Architecture Awards – billed as “the most important barometer for the future direction of new architectural design and thinking today”.



Co-presented by the Chicago Athenaeum and the European Centre for Architecture, Art, Design and Urban Studies, this year’s award winners were chosen by an all-Finnish architectural jury from hundreds of submissions. The 16-storey Alto Vetro tower was designed for Treasury Holdings by Shay Cleary Architects, while the mixed-use Elmpark scheme is by Bucholz McEvoy Architects. Its client was Radora Developments Ltd, headed by builder-developer Bernard McNamara.

Coincidentally, Merritt Bucholz was born in Chicago; he set up practice with his wife Karen McEvoy and now heads the University of Limerick’s School of Architecture. Their projects include Fingal County Hall and Limerick County Council’s headquarters in Dooradoyle.

Vagg Residence: Interior Design by Matt Gibson

This project involved the sub-division and renovation of a semi-detached Victorian bluestone cottage with an individual heritage listing. The client purchased this property with pre-existing Planning & Building permits to sub-divide the site and construct two 2 storey precast- concrete dwellings over 2 property Titles.





The existing site contained a 19th century derelict bluestone fronted Victorian Cottage residence that was severely run down. A Special Heritage Overlay was placed over the front bluestone bedroom that fronts Highett Street. The brief meant dealing with from one end – the notion of a 2-storey utilitarian pre-cast concrete box normally common place in multi-res / high rise construction, versus at the other end a now Heritage Listed single storey bluestone cottage front. A decision was made to restore the interior of the existing construct in a clean but typically Victorian detailing, whilst the interior of the new pre-cast construct contains a newly inscribed contemporary architecture – open, light filled, flexible.



The junctions between the two spaces are played off against each other quite directly and literally accentuating and heightening the sense of transition and indeed telling a tale of the site’s history. These elements combined to encourage an interior architecture concerned with both ‘continuity’ and ‘newness’.