The consultancy joined an Irish team which came second in an international competition to redevelop the Electricity Supply Board’s (ESB) headquarters on Fitzwilliam Street in central Dublin. It was a controversial proposition which was to replace a concrete modernist building by a famous Irish architect, Sam Stephenson, aided by Sir John Summerson and Sir Hugh Casson in the 1960s.

The controversy began when the concrete structure displaced 17 Georgian houses in an otherwise complete and premier Georgian Street. Having seen the consultancy’s work for the unsuccessful team, the project manager for ESB asked us to join the winning team led by Grafton Architects, now Pritzker Prize winners, Royal Gold Medal recipients and recent curators of the Venice Biennale.

We provided advice on height and bulk, assessed the scheme from a design quality, townscape, heritage, and visual standpoint and became a public advocate for it. This included combating a stringent new policy attempting to only have a repeat of the 17 houses; countering other bodies wanting to retain the 1960s as a modernist icon, and some societies wanting it retained as an everlasting example of how not to treat heritage. Following our representations as expert witness at the Planning Board’s hearing, the scheme finally received permission and is now under construction.