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Left: Aviva Stadium, Lansdowne Road,
August 2009
Right: (l-r) Tom Costello, managing
director of John Sisk & Son ireland;
Tánaiste Mary Coughlan, TD; and
John Power, director general at the
institute of Engineers ireland on the
occasion of Sisk becoming the 100th
firm in ireland to be accredited for
continuing professional development.
The presentation took place on site at
Lansdowne Road
Des McMahon of architects Gilroy McMahon and a former Tyrone footballer was
duly rewarded for his creative work at Croke Park when he was presented with the
RiAi Gold Medal in 2009.
The original Lansdowne Road Stadium, opened in 1878, is the oldest rugby stadium
in the world. When the tender to build the new stadium (now known as Aviva
Stadium) came to the market in 2007, Sisk assembled a team under the direction
of Michael Barnwell who had led the Croke Park project. The confidence of having
completed Croke Park so successfully helped the team to take a balanced view of
the challenges of building a stadium even though the trials and tribulations of the
Wembley project were very much in the news at the time.
“it was a great project to win and it has been a great project to work on. Right from
the start the client, design and project teams have shown an absolute commitment
to the project and a pride of being involved in what will be a stadium to match or
even exceed any stadium internationally,” says Michael Barnwell.
in summer 2010, 50,000 patrons can look forward to their first match in the Aviva
Stadium and admire the splendid quality of the design and construction.
HOk Sport, who were also involved at Croke Park, were the architects in conjunction with
Scott Tallon Walker at Lansdowne Road. Engineers Buro Happold did an outstanding job
in the design of the very complex structure. The main package contractors were SiAC-
Cimolai (steelwork), Williaam Cox (cladding), Mercury (mechanical) and kentz (electrical).
“While the completed projects may look similar, the creation of Croke Park and
Aviva were very different,” says Costello. “The skill level in the industry has developed
hugely in the past 10 years. Now the management of safety, schedule and quality are
right up there with the best in the world. The challenge is to maintain this valuable
resource in the country.”