Mayo native is architect behind major $1bn project

The $1 billion Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza, Egypt, which recently opened its doors after two decades in the making, was designed by a US firm co-founded by a Mayo native.

Heneghan Peng Architects, founded in New York by Shih-Fu Peng and Roisin Heneghan from Erris, was chosen from more than 1,500 entries for the museum contract over 20 years ago and it brought their company onto the international stage.

The Grand Egyptian Museum is located close to the Pyramids of Giza and is the largest museum in the world dedicated to a single civilisation.

In an interview with the Western People last year, Ms Heneghan, a graduate of University College Dublin and Harvard, said the Grand Museum project was a gamechanger for Heneghan Peng. The company has since gone on to design major projects such as the Giant's Causeway Visitors' Centre on the Causeway Coast World Heritage Site, the National Gallery of Ireland's historic refurbishment, and the Palestinian Museum at Bir Zeit.

“That was probably the project that we got best known for because it was a huge international competition. It had 1,500 entries, which is still the largest number of entries for an architectural competition for a project that’s built. It was a huge one. It’s like 100,000 square metres or a million square feet,” she said.

The Grand Egyptian Museum had been due to open in 2012 but the launch was delayed due to political and economic turmoil and then later the Covid-19 pandemic.

On the day of its grand opening, Ms Heneghan told RTÉ News it was amazing to see the museum come to life, noting that it was designed to blend into its historic surroundings.

."We didn't want to interrupt the profile as you're coming out of Cairo and seeing the pyramids against the desert, so, we stayed low.

"That way, the pyramids became the largest piece in the collection," she said.