1971 – Stephen Court, 18-21 St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin

Stephen Court is a purpose-built speculative office complex of three blocks that replaced four Georgian buildings, Nos. 18 to 21, on the northern side of St Stephen’s Green. Designed by Andy Devane of Robinson Keefe Devane and constructed as an investment rental office for Irish Life Assurance. The main entrance leads through the building to a courtyard and the two connected blocks to the rear. It was the architect’s intention that the landscaped courtyard would become part of the streetscape as a route through the block. To either side of the passageway were two commercial units. Finished in brick with dark anodised aluminium and glass sitting on a white concrete base, it shares much of the same design language of their later complex on Lower Abbey Street.

“One does not have to be either a modern development vandal or an aesthetic moron to welcome the proposed office block complex which the Irish Life Assurance Company hopes to start constructing on the north side of St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin, next month. The buildings to be demolished are, for the most part, drab, ill-proportioned and an eye-sore without even the marginal virtue of faded graciousness. All but the most extreme of preservationists in any event, will be placated by the considerable pains to which Irish Life have gone to make the planned building harmonise in scale and materials with existing properties. At the very least, the completed structure cannot be as aesthetically offensive as the shabbiness of that portion of the Green today.”
The Irish Independent, January 14 1971

Frank McDonald has stated that the building “is still generally recognised as an exemplar of contemporary architectural infill in a historic setting”. Permission was granted in 2023 for its demolition.