Southgate Associates have spent their 30-year history engaged in heritage-led regeneration processes, which have transformed heritage buildings and areas into important cultural and economic resources. There is a growing awareness that built heritage represents an important asset for those communities in which it is located, whose regeneration can foster a sense of community belonging and civic engagement, and act as a catalyst for improvement in the wider area, bringing with it significant economic advantage.
Southgate Associates have acted as conservation consultant for both the development of Temple Bar as a cultural quarter in the early 1990s, and the heritage-led regeneration of Cork Historic Centre in the mid-1990s, two of the highest profile heritage-led urban regeneration projects ever carried out by the Irish State. In addition, we have project managed the conservation of large derelict national monuments, in order to create the basic conditions within which urban regeneration could occur.
Most notably, the company project managed the conservation and necessary archaeological works to both the medieval Waterford City Walls (allowing for the development of tourist-oriented branding of ‘The Viking Triangle’ in Waterford City), and at Elizabeth Fort in Cork’s City Centre, thereby providing an important cultural and tourism resource to aid regeneration of the surrounding area.
In addition to working for the various bodies engaged in heritage-led regeneration and management, we also work directly for all of those individuals to deliver activation projects in targeted areas, such as those within the Living in the City Regeneration Scheme currently in operation.
We also work with street-trader associations or community groups who are managing their delicate relationship to built heritage, especially where there is a significant impact (both positive and negative) from tourism, or from the perceived blockage to development and growth that is seen as coming from having too much heritage in your area.
Our projects are examples of best-practice conservation, and we take pride in delivering beautifully conserved buildings to our clients. Whether commercial or residential, we deliver on time and on budget.
