Project experience and career summary.
Dónal has over 25 years of experience in Australia and Europe on a wide variety of projects including public facilities and infrastructure. At Billard Leece Partnership his responsibilities have included residential, office and retail developments, and health masterplanning.
He is currently the Project Architect responsible for the Homemakers SupaCenta in Belrose north of Sydney, a $100m, 38,000sqm, bulky goods retail centre under construction. This project has presented major challenges, in particular during the tenancies fitout stage. Within months of opening, significant changes demanded quick and flexible responses and careful review of fire protection systems and fire engineered solutions associated with the design. In particular, one entire tenancy floor was converted to a single tenancy incorporating warehouse accommodation needing careful analysis of the fire engineering solutions with marked increases in the level of hazard.
He has been the Senior Project Architect responsible for several residential projects. College Square, an $85m student accommodation project by the Becton Corporation for the University of Melbourne, was completed in 2000. Located on the former VicRoads site, Lygon Street Carlton, it comprises 690 apartments under the administration of the YMCA.
Other residential projects with Billard Leece have included Copelen, Becton’s $18m apartment and townhouse development in South Yarra, Melbourne; a $4m townhouse development at Mona Vale, Sydney; The Port, an apartment development at Port Melbourne, Stage 7 of a $30m project. Dónal was also the Senior Project Architect for a $30m development in North Ryde, Sydney for CRI Australia, comprising an office development and serviced apartments, for an $18m office development in North Ryde, Sydney for Cornerstone Property Group, and a residential-retail-commercial development on Sydney’s northern beaches for Cornerstone Property Group.
He was Senior Project Architect responsible for Melbourne’s Royal Women’s Hospital Masterplan and Options Analysis 2002, Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital Masterplan Strategy Review 2002 and the Royal Women’s Hospital Feasibility Study 2003. In recent years he has worked on Victoria Harbour, a retail, commercial and residential project in Melbourne’s Docklands, Botanicca Corporate Park Development and the Royal Women’s Hospital Redevelopment Project PV Bid.
In Europe, Dónal worked with Dublin County Planning Department and leading architectural practices Scott Tallon Walker, Delany McVeigh & Pike, and Burke-Kennedy Doyle in Ireland. Projects included a hospital for the handicapped, conversion of a listed brewery to corporate offices, new office developments, the renovation and extension of a hotel, experimental solar housing in Tipperary, and local-authority housing projects. Joining Y.R.M. Architects & Planners in the UK, to work on the $400m new North Terminal at Gatwick London Airport, he went on to become team leader on a $50m Satellite Communications Offices project in London Docklands.
With Daryl Jackson Pty Ltd he worked on Melbourne-based projects including the Museum of Victoria at Southbank, residential developments at Eastside in Jolimont Stages 2–5 ($25m) and Toorak Rd ($12m), serviced apartments at Jolimont ($13m), Royal Melbourne Hospital Redevelopment, Stage 2B, Department of Oncology, and a shopping centre at Sunshine ($50m). Affiliations Associate, Royal Australian Institute of Architects Technician Member, Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland Education C Arch Tech, Dublin Institute of Technology, 1975