RIBA East’s Conservation Group
We are excited to announce that our very own Monica Corcoran, who has a specialism in heritage buildings and conservation architecture, is now part of RIBA East’s Conservation Group. Monica is one of the five conservation specialists from the region that make up the group, “all members share a passion and dedication to creating positive dialogue, and supporting and enhancing knowledge sharing. Their objective is to increase understanding and awareness on conservation to inform future design”**.
We’re thrilled for Monica and have no doubt that with her on board this group will do great things. To learn a little more about Monica’s expertise from her perspective read on…
“Having studied my undergrad at the Macintosh School of Architecture at the Glasgow School of Art, my first Architectural position was in my hometown of Cambridge. At Freeland Rees Roberts, I worked on a mixed bag of domestic, City Council and college work, mostly within Conservation Areas and many listed buildings.
After my Diploma back in Glasgow, I relocated to London to work for Dixon Jones. Here I spent time working on the Liverpool 1 project, Saïd Business School II in Oxford and UCL multi use building, among other smaller domestic schemes.
Whilst in London I completed my final professional exams at the Bartlett and became a fully chartered Architect in 2008.
Early 2009 I began working at, Haysom Ward Miller where I worked on bespoke domestic work, some listed building work and many more schemes with a conservation element. I also got to do some fun work for the RSPB and Cambridge churches.
After becoming a mum, I was offered a job four days a week with Sibyl Thomas at her conservation practice Kay Pilsbury Thomas Architects which has a vast breadth of knowledge on working on Historic Buildings within East Anglia and into London. I worked there for 6 very happy years expanding my knowledge on Conservation Architecture and working with craftsmen and women. I primarily worked on the domestic side here but again there was a mix with Church and community work.
Since joining Mark and the Team at Benchmark in 2017, I have been kept busy working on a healthy mix of domestic, small-scale residential/housing schemes and a new crematorium in Huntingdon. We have been working on increasing the conservation work the practice takes on, which is very rewarding. The vernacular architecture of the local historic buildings is noticeably different and there is much to learn!”