2009 Irish Landscape Institute Awards

The winners of the 2009 Irish Landscape Institute Awards were announced last week at City Hall, with Minister John Gormley in attendance. The ILI awards celebrate excellence in design of the Public Realm, design of Commercial, Institutional and Residential landscape schemes, Landscape Planning, Heritage Conservation and Landscape Research.

At the event, Minister John Gormley made specific reference to the important role that the Irish Landscape Institute plays in promoting a sustainable approach to place-making.

President of the Irish Landscape Institute, David Kirkwood, stated that he was deeply reassured to see the wide range of projects presented by a profession that has come of age.” He also warned of the need for coherent national policies and strategies for the Irish landscape, and spoke of the need to formulate strategies for areas such as Ireland’s boglands as Bord na Mona extraction ceases over the next decades.

The winners on the night included Desmond Fitzgerald for The Omagh Bomb Memorial, Dermot Foley for Sculpture in the Parklands at Lough Boora, Sophie Giglin von Maltzan for The Recession Prosperity Garden, Stephen Diamond for the walled garden at Dun Laoghaire IADT campus and Mitchell and Associates for the Dublin Dockland Development Authority Play Space Guidelines.

Highly Commended entries included the UCD Arts Block Entrance Deck (Stephen Diamond Associates), The Cork City Landscape Plan (Mitchell and Associates), Residential Courtyard, Rockbrook (Bernard Seymour Landscape Architects), Dorset St. (Mitchell and Associates), Dundrum Town Centre (Mitchell and Associates), Tullamore Town Park (Murray and Associates) and the Public Square, County Cork Library (Dermot Foley and Co.)

The student award was won by Michael Cunniffe for “In the Fields”, a landscape planning approach to North Dublin and Simon Ronan was highly commended for his “Model for the future form of Ireland’s suburbs”.

Commendations went to Kylemore Park Refurbishment (Dublin City Council), West St. Drogheda (Mitchell and Associates), Lower Chichester St, Belfast (Scott Wilson), Cortober Park, Roscommon (Murray and Associates), Joyce’s Court Pedestrian St, (Dermot Foley and Co.), Tallaght Zip and Plaza (Sean Harrington Architects), Riverfront Amenity Park (Stephen Diamond and Associates), Walled Garden Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology (Stephen Diamond and Associates), IDA Western Region Science and Technology (Murray O’Laoire Architects), Beacon South Quarter (Scott Wilson), Public Realm for Birr (Paul Hogarth Company) and student Marie Claire Kerrin for “Urban interactions with nature”.