NORTH COAST ODYSSEY

Hamilton Architects have left a profound footprint on the North Coast of Northern Ireland in recent years. We have worked to safeguard the environment, preserve historic features, provide new purpose for old buildings, and create new landmarks for the modern age. Here are just some of the highlights

Binevenagh and Coastal Lowlands Heritage Sites

Binevenagh and Coastal Lowlands Landscape Partnership appointed us to deliver Conservation Management Plans and concept designs to facilitate public engagment with heritage assets for five defence heritage sites. The areas contain defence heritage features (particularly Napoleonic, WWI and WWII) of local, national and international importance. The primary purpose of each plan, which included developed designs and cost estimates, was to ensure the heritage value of each asset was maintained or enhanced for the benefit of the local community.

1. Derry Visitors Centre

In 2020, we put the final touches to an exciting new £1m Visitors Centre for the Maiden City. The state-of-the-art centre at Waterloo Place was designed to service the needs of local and international visitors, and to act as an orientation hub in the heart of the city. We led the project team, which included an Interpretative Designer, to create an engaging immersive visitor experience which provides a gateway for the exploration of the whole North West of Ireland.

2. Walled City Lighting and Royal Bastion and Plinth

The Walled City is one of the Northern Ireland Tourist Board’s five key Signature Projects that align tourism investment in NI to developments that create international stand-out. The implementation of innovative, creative lighting solutions for this world-class project enhances the night-time visual appeal of the city’s key cultural, heritage and tourism assets with the aim of extending visitor dwell time throughout the year and boosting the evening economy. The Royal Bastion and Plinth is one of the city’s most historic monuments. We adapted it for educational purposes just in time for the 400-year Walled City anniversary. The Plinth offers unique views of the city, enhances public realm and improves access to some of Ireland's most iconic ramparts. Work included creation of a new access point, internal staircase, ornate railings and conservation to the historic fabric of the bastion walls.

Phase 2 is just completing at Northern Ireland’s first, groundbreaking Shared Education Campus, to provide a drama, media and sixth form centre in a new two-storey building at St Mary’s High School in the town. Phase I of Limavady SEC has already been completed at Limavady High School, providing STEM accommodation in a single-storey building. Both schools will share new buildings accommodating science, technology, drama and media classrooms, all accessible via a shared pedestrian entrance from Irish Green Street. The project is part of the NI Executive’s Together: Building a United Community strategy.

We are currently transforming a WWII bomber training dome at Artikelly, outside Limavady, into a unique multi-use community events space. Only six such domes survive in the UK, and this is the only example in Northern Ireland.

The domes simulated warfare conditions using sound effects and projecting imagery on to the curved interior surface, with trainees using a dummy gun unit to test their accuracy. The scheme is being rolled out under the Binevenagh and Coastal Lowlands Partnership Scheme with funding from the National Heritage Lottery Fund.

A new €5m Creative Hub for Ent Grade B1 listed Bushmills Court space for designer-makers and community. Constructed in 1834 derelict since the Sixties. The ne additional 1,200sqm of space fo and retail, and a large multi-purp of the River Bush.

8. Our Lady of Fatima High School

Construction is just completing on the new £3.5m Our Lady of Fatima Primary School at Tamnaherin. The single-storey, six classroom school on a greenfield site will accommodate up to 175 pupils through the amalgamation of the existing Mullabuoy and Listress Primary Schools. We are leading the Integrated Consultant Team for the project, which includes a multipurpose hall, dining room, changing room, computer hub, administration offices and resource spaces.

terprise Causeway at the old house will deliver a vibrant engagement with the wider 4, the Courthouse had been ew design will provide an or 13 micro businesses, café pose space with views

6. Magherintemple Gate Lodge

Built in 1874, the gate lodge of Magherintemple House, the historic seat of the Casement family, had become derelict and was ‘at risk’ before being rescued by Irish Landmark Trust. Our transformation of existing rooms and yard walls into comfortable holiday accommodation gave the lodge a new and sustainable future. The project was funded through a combination of grants from Heritage Lottery Fund, NIEA and The Pilgrim Trust.

7. Port Moon Bothy

This project presented a tiny, but unique challenge: to refurbish a vernacular building to provide a unique overnight experience for visiting kayakers and canoeists in a remote and breathtaking part of the world-famous Causeway Coast at Dunseverick.

9. Coleraine Library

In 2020, we put the final touches to an exciting £1m repurposing of this unique, fanned brutalist Grade B1 listed building erected in 1969 to create a much-needed educational and community resource. Our design provided a new entrance lobby, three storey fully accessible extension, multi-use community meeting room, hi-tech study areas, exhibition space and dedicated Heritage Room. Today, the library is fully accessible and provides health-related materials from professional support partners and hosts a variety of talks and events.