The winner of Architectural Practice Of The Year, Commercial for 2024 was Collins Rolston, another prize for a company with a significant history in Belfast.
Founded in 1994 by Harry Rolston, a new team now heads the projects delivered by the team at James Street South.
The firm described their recent moves in their awards entry. “Having laid the foundations for expansion in 2022, Collins Rolston has seen significant growth in terms of people and clients as well as the scope, scale and diversity of commercial projects which now stretch right across the UK and Ireland,” the firm said.
“The firm’s senior management team took a strategic decision midway through 2022 to achieve better representation on the wide range of commercial frameworks in Great Britain, NI and the Republic of Ireland.
“During the period under consideration Collins Rolston secured places on 11 major commercial frameworks which drove major growth.”
Sponsor Mills Selig
A group of staff took to the stage to accept their award, including owner Mark Collins, project architect James McConnell and architect Gemma Beattie.
They offered a range of emotions on winning the award, describing it as “great” and “unbelievable,” and adding that they were “delighted” and “humbled”.
They described business as “crazy” over the past year, and “growing all the time”.
Speaking about how the industry has performed recently, Mark Collins said: “We haven’t seen any change really, if anything it’s stronger.
“I think people can talk themselves into recession and talk themselves into negativity. The most important thing is to have a positive mental attitude and keep on pushing through.
“If you’re want to be pessimistic, you’re just going to stay there. But if you’re positive, positive things happen to you, it’s very simple.”
Mr Collins said that vision was very important to successful architecture: “You have to inspire yourself and inspire others.”
In an ebullient mood after winning the award, Mr Collins said their plans for next year were “world domination”. “We are going to conquer London, then Europe, then the world,” he said.