Westport school wins architecture awards

TEAM EFFORT  SJK Architects team of Ruth Fox, Ann King, Maeve Curley, Peter Lyons, Eoin Kavanagh, Lisa Fox, Michael Scott, Blair Stanaway are pictured with directors Edel Tobin and Dermot McCabe at the awards. Co-director Elaine Naughton was absent due to her new arrival.

Ciara Galvin

EVERYONE at Westport national school Scoil PhΡdraig is delighted with the news that the school’s new build has been honoured at the Irish Architecture Awards. The school was the overall winner in the education category, while coming second place in the Public Choice Award.  The building was designed by Westport and Galway based SJK Architects.
The school was awarded the overall education prize at the awards gala event held at Dublin’s Mansion House on Friday last after being chosen by a jury of professional architects.
Described as ‘a major coup’ for Westport’s new school, it was the only building outside the Dublin region awarded and in the final shortlist of 32 entries for the Public Choice Award.
“It was a pleasure to visit Scoil PhΡdraig, with so much joy designed into every room,” stated the jury, who visited the school.
The awards featured children’s voices talking about their new school and SJK Architects accepted the awards on behalf of the Scoil PhΡdraig’s Board of Management and the community of Westport.
Speaking to The Mayo News about the win, Director of SJK Architects Dermot McCabe said the team were ‘over the moon’ about the wins.
“It’s lovely to see projects coming to fruition, but our motivation isn’t to win awards, it’s to do the best job as possible. This recognition shows that whether it is big projects like schools, office blocks or hotels, our expertise is every bit as good as those in Dublin, so we would be encouraging people to ‘shop local’,” said Mr McCabe.