The co-founder of one of Ireland’s most successful architectural practices, Paul Burke-Kennedy died at his home in Booterstown Co. Dublin on 28 September 2023. Born in Tullamore in 1935, Paul’s father Gerry Burke-Kennedy was the popular manager of the Hibernian Bank (now part of Bank of Ireland) in the 1950s, well known for his hunting, horse racing and golfing enthusiasms and who, in later years, raised his family in the apartment above the bank premises on Bridge Street, Tullamore.
Paul studied architecture in University College Dublin and soon after graduation together with Joseph Kidney formed the practice Kidney Burke Kennedy which was later joined by Des Doyle. Paul’s designs were rooted in his awareness and respect for urban context and contemporary Scandinavian design. The firm became notable from the 1960s onward for its innovative housing development in Dublin’s Ringsend, the impressive first stage of the Dublin Docklands development together with hotels for the Jury’s Group and the Conrad and many office developments including the Harcourt Centre and Earlsfort Centre and the Tallaght Town Centre.
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