The Irish Times

Architecture is the most visible of all the arts. We live with it, for good or ill, every day of our lives. Sam Stephenson was one of its foremost practitioners in his heyday, an awe-inspiring architect of powerful conviction. He was also never afraid to defend even the most controversial of his designs - notably the ESB headquarters on Fitzwilliam Street, the Central Bank on Dame Street and the first phase of the Civic Offices at Wood Quay. These were all buildings of their time. In the 1960s, with a public thirst for modernisation, few but Micheál MacLiammóir and the Irish Georgian Society were sorry to see 16 Georgian houses replaced by a purpose-built office block. It was only later, in the battle to save Hume Street, that the tide of public opinion turned against the wanton destruction of Dublin's heritage.