Re: Re: Harcourt Terrace to be ballsed up ?

Yes it’s a very pleasant example of 1940’s OPW architecture, and ought to be retained as part of the scheme. While I’m almost equally as reluctant to see the charming Film Censor’s office go, it must be accepted that it has always been a scandalous waste of inner city space. Its merit is largely derived from the peculiararity of a suburban domestic design being applied to the office of a state body – a nice indicator of its times. Just one of the many curiosities that makes Harcourt Terrace so unique, and a sad loss for this special place: a shame it’s not being incorporated some way or another, as with the Garda Station which hopefully will be overturned.

Indeed on a wider level we are at risk of losing a lot of the OPW’s best work from the 1930s-1950s, often by the architectural team including the likes of Oscar Richardson, Harold Leask and JB Maguire. So often limited to restoration, reproduction and predictable pastiche jobs in the major reconstructions of the era, it’s a shame to lose the few examples of their work where they were allowed free reign in new-build projects, often buildings full of innovation on account of shoestring budgets, trade embargos and wartime constraints. The same as with our distinctive and unique State schoolhouses of the era that are being mauled left, right and centre. Nobody seems to give a damn about these 20th century buildings that so helped define the built environment of this nation in its infancy.