Catriona O'Neill

Catriona studied at Edinburgh College of Art and the University of Edinburgh. She joined Simpson & Brown in 2013 and is an ARB-registered Architect, with RIAS Accreditation in Conservation Architecture. She became an Associate of the practice in 2018. She was named ‘Young Architect of the Year’ at the Scottish Design Awards 2020.

Catriona’s passion lies in sensitive contemporary design for historic contexts. Her experience spans private and publicly-funded arts, culture, and heritage sector projects throughout the UK. Her portfolio includes community buildings, churches, museums, and visitor centres such as Rievaulx Abbey Visitor Centre & Museum. She has been the lead architect for several NLHF-funded projects, including the multi-award winning St Albans Cathedral ‘Welcome & Learning Centre’, and the Thackray Museum of Medicine in Leeds. Catriona takes pride in attention to detail and design coordination; with experience managing complex technical design and construction stages of large-scale projects such as Johnnie Walker Princes Street.

Catriona is currently leading our project team working on the transformation of Thomas Hamilton’s Category A listed Royal High School site into the new National Centre for Music in Edinburgh.

 

KEY PROJECTS:

NATIONAL CENTRE FOR MUSIC 

The transformative reuse, conservation, and restoration of the iconic Thomas Hamilton-designed Old Royal High School on Calton Hill in Edinburgh, into the new National Centre for Music.

 

ST ALBANS CATHEDRAL WELCOME AND LEARNING CENTRE

A new welcome building at St Albans Cathedral designed to sympathetically connect the main Cathedral building to its 1980’s Chapter House, and provide much-needed accommodation and modern facilities to support the varying needs of the Cathedral congregation, visitors and staff.

 

THACKRAY MUSUEM OF MEDICINE

The Thackray Museum of Medicine in Leeds is a museum of the history of healthcare adjacent to St James's University Hospital. Simpson & Brown were appointed by the museum to undertake the complete refurbishment of the museum areas together with the addition of a new light-filled circulation atrium.