2024-12-22T04:04:20-05:00 https://archinect.com/news/article/150291366/o-donnell-tuomey-architects-founders-honored-with-riai-gold-medal-for-belfast-s-lyric-theatre Josh Niland 2021-12-15T19:26:00-05:00 >2024-10-25T04:07:38-04:00 <img src="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/a0/a002ecd394abe2ecb6200f3316b7b55a.jpg?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&enlarge=true&w=1200" border="0" /><p>Following news this morning about the <a href="https://archinect.com/news/article/150291274/photos-first-v-a-east-building-tops-out-in-east-london-ceremony" target="_blank">topping out</a> of one of the firm&rsquo;s highest-profile projects in recent memory, Dublin-based <a href="https://archinect.com/firms/cover/109716704/o-donnell-tuomey-architects" target="_blank">O&rsquo;Donnell + Tuomey Architects</a> has been awarded the Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland&rsquo;s Gold Medal for their 2012 Lyric Theatre project in Belfast.</p> <p>Featuring a brilliant CLT auditorium, the building is sited on a slope along the River Lagan and is defined by a distinctive irregular shape and time-tested materials that respond to the area's contrasting brick streetscape and lush green parkland which surrounds the 54,100-square-foot structure on either side.</p> <figure><p><a href="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/66/6681549e1e5a202d031c481456514a43.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;enlarge=true&amp;w=1028" target="_blank"><img src="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/66/6681549e1e5a202d031c481456514a43.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;enlarge=true&amp;w=514"></a></p><figcaption> The Lyric Theatre by O Donnell + Tuomey. Photo: Dennis Gilbert</figcaption></figure><p>The RIAI&rsquo;s Peter Hynes commended the theater as a &ldquo;deeply considered and exquisitely crafted building which responds to and engages with its physical and cultural contexts and enriches both,&rdquo; adding that &ldquo;it combines the welcome of arrival with the drama of movement and the surprise of discovery on many levels. It integrates public funct...</p> https://archinect.com/news/article/109715900/sheila-o-donnell-john-tuomey-win-2015-riba-gold-medal-for-architecture Justine Testado 2014-09-24T13:30:00-04:00 >2018-01-30T06:16:04-05:00 <img src="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/dx/dxa2tg9i43afjuuk.jpg?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&enlarge=true&w=1200" border="0" /><p>Irish architects Sheila O'Donnell and John Tuomey have been named the 2015 recipients of the prestigious RIBA Royal Gold Medal for Architecture. Awarded since 1848 and personally approved by Her Majesty the Queen, the Gold Medal recognizes a lifetime's work of an architecturally influential person or group.</p><p>After training at the University College Dublin, O'Donnell and Tuomey previously worked together at Stirling Wilford Associates and Colquhoun &amp; Miller in London. They then co-founded their practice <a href="http://archinect.com/firms/cover/109716704/o-donnell-tuomey-architects" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">O'Donnell + Tuomey Architects</a> in Dublin in 1988.</p><p><img title="" alt="" src="http://cdn.archinect.net/images/514x/6z/6zahb8n1z9nz1nd0.jpg"></p><p>Taking part in "Group 91 Architects" in the early '90s, the husband and wife pair first gained recognition for their first permanent building, the Irish Film Institute (1991). Since then, O'Donnell and Tuomey have built private homes, schools, public housing, and community buildings -- many of their projects crafted in the couple's signature style of smartly arranged brick and sharp-lined geometric forms.</p><p><img title="" alt="" src="http://cdn.archinect.net/images/514x/81/81e89v8kb58ijzc8.jpg"></p><p>O&rsquo;Donnell + Tuomey have been shortl...</p>