Cathedral building firm wins top award

Omagh-based Woodvale Construction Company won the Construction Excellence Restoration Category Award at the CEF + Specify Awards ceremony held at the Culloden Hotel, Belfast, for the restoration of the historic Cathedral.

The ‘Grade A’ listed building was the oldest building in the competition. Completed in 1633, St Columb’s is the first Post-Reformation Cathedral to be built in the world and, thanks to a painstaking conservation and restoration project, undertaken by Woodvale in collaboration with Mullarkey Pedersen Architects, this major tourist attraction is now the jewel in the City’s crown, and is completed in plenty of time for the 2013 UK City of Culture.

Brian Kelly, site manager for the restoration project, said that a pre-requisite of the project was for the Cathedral to remain open for tourists as well as services at all times. During the re-vamp140,000 visitors passed through the Cathedral.

The team’s vast experience in the conservation of historic buildings facilitated the preservation of 98 per cent of the original windows, 90 per cent of the original stonework, 90 per cent of the original floor tiles and all of the original interior woodwork.

Very Reverend William W Morton, Dean of the Cathedral, said: “I could not thank Woodvale Construction sufficiently for their brilliant work and for their respectful, personal, friendly, helpful and accommodating manner with which they carried out the restoration.”

Meanwhile, Karl Pedersen, a partner in Mullarkey Pedersen Architects, said: “The standard of finish achieved by the contractor and his team has been first class.”

Desmond Scott, managing partner of Woodvale Construction and the Scott & Ewing Group said they were delighted to have won the Construction Excellence Award and acknowledged the excellent efforts of his complete team.