Prize-winning Irish Architects O'Donnell + Tuomey to Present UB Martell Lecture

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Sheila O'Donnell and John Tuomey, principles in the Irish architectural practice O'Donnell + Tuomey, will present the Martell Lecture in the University at Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning March 22 at 5:30 p.m. in 301 Crosby Hall, UB South Campus. The illustrated talk will be free and open to the public.

O'Donnell and Tuomey established their partnership in 1988 and it has since developed an international reputation for outstanding cultural and educational architecture.

Among the firm's best-known works are the Irish Film Centre, Dublin; the Ranelah Multi-Denominational School, Dublin; the Furniture College of the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology (Letterfrack Campus, Galway); the Sean O'Casey Community Centre, Dublin, and the Lewis Glucksman Gallery at the University of Cork, noted for its durable cladding of precious Amazon woods. The firm also won a competition last year to design the new student center for the London School of Economics.

The practice has been selected for more than 50 national and international awards and commendations over the past 20 years, and has been shortlisted as finalists for major European awards. It has won the AAI Downes Medal for Excellence in Architectural Design six times in the 12 years in which it has been awarded, and in 2005 received the RIAI Gold Medal, the highest award in Irish Architecture.

The Martell Lecture is funded by the Martell Endowment, founded in 2005 with a gift from Christopher Michael Martell, who holds a bachelors' degree and a master's degree from the UB School of Architecture and Planning, and his wife, Sally, to support a program to bring architects of international significance to the school to work with graduate students and give an annual school-wide lecture.