The restoration work on Market House in Stradbally saw the project highly commended at this year’s Irish Georgian Society Conservation Awards.
In his article in the Irish Times, Frank McDonald says: “The Market House in Stradbally, once derelict, is now one of the most attractive public amenities of the village, thanks to a community initiative supported by the Laois Partnership, and to the intelligent approach adopted by Dublin-based architect Richard McLoughlin, who is a native of the area”.
Mr McDonald is a member of IGS Conservation Awards Committee.
Mr McLoughlin is orginally a native of Jamestown, near Ballybrittas.
The Market House in Stradbally is an open shelter of very distinctive pagoda-roof design, built in 1899 of steel construction on the Market Square of the town.
Memorial
It was built as a memorial to Dr William Perceval, a respected local doctor who had died earlier the same year.
After graduating as an architect from UCD, Richard McLoughlin spent fourteen years in Berlin, from 1988 to 2002.
He spent four years in the office of the prominent German architect Prof. Josef Paul Kleihues, where he worked on a range of projects including the adaptation of a former fruit and vegetable market, the Deichtorhallen in Hamburg, as an art exhibition centre, and the new Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago.
He was project architect during the design stage of theChicago museum in the Berlin office, and subsequently spent six months in Chicago where he helped set up a local office for the design development stage of the project.
In 2000 Richard completed a Masters degree in architectural conservation at the Technical University in Berlin.
He returned to Ireland in 2002 and joined Blackwood Associates as senior conservation architect, where he was in charge of a variety of conservation projects outlined in this submission.
In 2007 he joined Lotts Architecture and Urbanism as co-director.
Ceremony
The winners of the Irish Georgian Society’s 2017 Architectural Conservation Award and Original Drawings Award were announced by Michael Wall, Chairman of the Irish Georgian Foundation, at a well-attended ceremony presided over by Dr Edward McParland in the Irish Architectural Archive last week.
The awards were launched in 2009 and are open to Irish architects or architectural practices, building surveyors, contractors, engineers and other professionals involved in the conservation of historic buildings in Ireland.
Their purpose is to encourage excellence in the area of conservation and to celebrate those conservation professionals and practitioners responsible for projects of merit.
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