Waterways Ireland HQ

Location: Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh

This Flagship building for Waterways Ireland provides a modern office environment for Waterways Ireland staff and houses conference & exhibition facilities which are open the general public. Situated on the banks of the Erne at Enniskillen, with its own floating jetty the building is accessible to waterway users as well as road users.

This state-of-the-art landmark building complies with the Government’s ‘Achieving Excellence in Construction for Northern Ireland’ initiative which promotes design quality and sustainability in construction whilst achieving best value for money. The design for the building was awarded an ‘Excellent BREEAM’ environmental rating by the Building Research Establishment (BRE), one of Northern Ireland’s first Excellent’ and was awarded the RICS Construction Award 2009 for Sustainability.

The 3 storey building provides Office Accommodation along with a Tourist Information Centre and Exhibition Facilities. The first & Second floor office accommodation which is access controlled includes Chief Executive & Directors offices, open plan offices, conference/meeting/interview rooms, library, archive stores, reprographic & storage rooms, Comms room, computer suite & gymnasium. The ground floor, which is open to the public, houses the Tourist Information Centre & Exhibition Facilities along with the reception, kitchen/dining & public amenity facilities.

Siteworks for the contract included external car parking, retaining walls, fencing, riverside walkways and paved areas, jetties and water features. This was a highly environmentally sensitive site with works carried out on the banks of the Erne and sensitive landscaping was included in the scheme. The building levels were tied closely to the adjacent water levels.