The practice was established in 1986 by Michael Leahy with the aim of providing professionally qualified expertise in the fields of architecture, planning and fire safety in the Mid West region, celebrating our 20th anniversary in 2006. In working with commercial, institutional, private and public bodies, we have established a wide range of expertise in these fields. In 1992, Paul Conway added his considerable ability in interior design, project management, conservation and arbitration, becoming a full partner in 1996.

The firm has grown from a "sole practitioner" in the early years, and is now among the leading Architectural firms in the Mid-West Region, being on the Consultants List for Government Departments, Semi-State Bodies and Local Authorities. We have a wide range of commercial and private clients, based locally, nationally and internationally. We choose to carry out our services mostly to projects in Clare, Limerick, Kerry, Galway and Tipperary, in order to concentrate on the particular local environmental and climatic conditions, and to be fully familiar with the planning policies, regimes and personalities in the mid-West.

We currently have 6 professional, including the partners, and 2 administrative staff personnel, all suitably qualified, based at our Ennis office. We have a policy of retaining staff so that they can be fully familiar with our work methods, and we encourage them to take professional development courses on a vide variety of subjects. In addition, since 1996, we have had associations with international architectural practices, firstly in Canada, but now currently in New Zealand since 2000, and also, more recently, in Poland. Using a broadband connection to the Internet, we can transfer drawings and specifications by e-mail. Because of the time zone differences, they can work during our night, which gives us the facility to turn documentation around very quickly, and gives us the capacity to handle greater volumes of work in an efficient and orderly manner.

We have the skills within our office to prepare 3-dimensional paper models, line drawings and digital drawings for design purposes and for presentation, and have specialists available to prepare virtual reality walk through videos, if required.

We have worked with a wide range of other construction professionals including such conventional design team members as civil and structural engineers, mechanical & electrical engineers, interior designers and quantity surveyors through to archaeologists, environmental engineers, landscape designers, traffic engineers, acoustic engineers, etc. and have come to understand and integrate their special skills into the design process. We have, also, worked with a wide range of building contractors from the small scale “man with a van” variety through to the largest corporate organizations, and have come to understand the positive advantages, but also the potential disadvantages, at the different extremes and everywhere in between.

We have embraced the challenges brought on by the many changes to the legislative structure affecting the building industry in the past 20 years, from the increased scope and complexity of the Planning and Development Legislation; to the welcome introduction and extension of the Building Regulations; and the Health and Safety Legislation. In addition, we have tried to take the lead in the field of Architectural Conservation, Sustainability,Universal Access, and Building Energy Assessment, with two qualified BER assessors. The Partners and staff regularly attend lectures and courses on all of these subjects organized by the RIAI and others, and maintain vigilance in reading the relevant trade literature.

The practice has been a Registered Practice of the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland since 1986.

www.leahyconway.com