O’RIORDAN STAEHLI ARCHITECTS — 30 buildings and projects

ed. Tom Hegarty; essay by Des O’Sullivan

ISBN 978 0946846 986     108pp (pb)    22.5 x 24.5 cm    250 colour illus

This handsome book celebrates thirty years of the innovative Cork-based architectural practice, O'Riordan Staehli. They have designed many buildings for educational and healthcare institutions, and have worked extensively in the residential and commercial areas. Twenty-eight of their main projects and buildings are featured here, including the Cork University Maternity Hospital; IDA Business & Technology Park, Fermoy; Cliffs of Moher Visitor Centre, Co Clare; and the extensive development at Murphy Barracks, Ballincollig.

EXTRACT

"The first decade of the 21st century has started out very well for this practice. The variety of current projects ranges from the Maternity Hospital at Cork University Hospital to the creation of a new town centre in Ballincollig, and a major hotel and spa in Castlemartyr. In Ballincollig, the fine square of the former Murphy Barracks is undergoing an inventive transformation to a town centre. Due to come on stream around the same time as the much-needed bypass is completed, it promises to be an exciting development for the fast-expanding town. In Castlemartyr, a major 170-bedroom hotel and spa development is skilfully integrated into a historic landscape. Since its foundation in 1972, this firm has risen to the varying complex challenges posed by a wide range of projects and buildings, large and small. In 1979 Donogh O’Riordan Associates took over the practice of Desmond Staehli in Limerick. The Limerick office did not survive the recession of the 1980s, but the name Staehli continues to be synonymous with good architecture. Not every building can be a landmark, but those designed over the past thirty years by ORSA are architecturally significant. The buildings featured here vary enormously in style, function and scope. Whether they are self-effacing or landmarks, big or small, part of an urban landscape or standing in the countryside, they share something important. What is characteristic in all these designs is the intrinsic energy, vitality and appropriateness that are the hallmarks of good architecture. The work of ORSA pleases the eye. It is very much of our time and yet it provides a much-needed antidote to the unimaginative and downright boring structures which have proliferated in too much of modern Ireland."

— from the essay by Des O’Sullivan