Cullen Payne are delighted to announce a number of Senior Architect appointments. These appointments recognise the outstanding individual contributions of the personnel involved and gives increased responsibility for the strategic development of the practice to a young and dynamic leadership team.

Caitriona McGilp, Senior Architect

Caitríona joined Cullen Payne Architects in 2014. She studied in University College Dublin and became a Registered Architect in 2019. Caitríona performs a key role in the practice by mentoring younger staff and managing in-house standards.

Caitríona has worked on a number of large residential projects such as Albert Wharf and Goodluck Hope in London. Both were collaborations with Allies and Morrison during which Caitríona managed our team in Dublin, leading them in producing numerous packages for seven of the blocks. She also has experience of working on commercial projects such as the MediaWorks and Garden House, in London, and led the team in production information.

Caitríona has been Project Architect to many projects at University Hospital Galway, including MRI suites, theatres, wards, and laboratories. These projects demonstrate her ability to manage highly complicated projects, with large design teams, in a sensitive hospital environment.

Ruairi Gaffney, Senior Architect

Ruairí joined the practice in 2014, having graduated from the University of Dundee in the previous year and became a Registered Architect in 2016. His serious and professional approach to problem solving constantly impresses those who work with him.

In his career to date Ruairí has gained experience working on projects of a variety of types and scales across all work stages. He was Project Architect on several diverse projects, including a large refurbishment and office fit out for KSN Construction Consultants, a commercial fit-out for KKR, a global financial services company, and a new Visitors Centre for the Pearse Lyons Distillery on James Street. In 2021, Ruairí led our collaboration with Allies and Morrison at St Helen’s Phase II, a 343 unit residential scheme at Adamstown in Dublin.

Ruairí holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Building Performance (Energy Efficiency Design) and provides in-house expertise in material science and energy use.

Brendan Spierin, Senior Architect

Brendan has worked with us since graduating from the Dublin School of Architecture at Technological University Dublin in 2015. He became a Registered Architect in 2019. During his time with the practice, Brendan has won the respect of his peers and collaborators for his comprehensive grasp of the projects on which he is engaged.

Brendan has worked on a variety of projects of different types and scale through all project stages. He was the Project Architect for the extension and refurbishment of Ballymote Community Nursing Unit in Sligo, completed in 2019. He has worked on complex healthcare projects, such as a maternity theatre for National Maternity Hospital Holles St; and a radiology department and mortuary at Letterkenny University Hospital. He is the Project Architect for a residential health centre on an architecturally sensitive site in Clifden and Project Architect for a new 100-bed Community Nursing Unit in Cork.

Brendan has been to the forefront of Cullen Payne’s move to working through BIM, pioneering the use of Revit and recently performing the role of BIM Manager for the simultaneous production of three fully co-ordinated Revit Models for three large Community Nursing Units in Cork and Kilkenny.