Offaly offices suffused with spirit of Finland

The Irish Times

Offaly County Council's bright new County Hall in Tullamore is bound to win awards for its architects, ABK. When the new County Hall in Tullamore was under construction, local people likened the council chamber to a handball alley for the simple reason that its form, now completed by a monopitch zinc roof, echoes one of the more familiar enclosures in the landscape of Irish towns. Inside, it is suffused with the spirit of Alvar Aalto, the great Finnish architect. John Parker, of ABK's Dublin office, who designed the building with Paul Koralek, freely admits that he had Aalto's timeless town hall in Saynatsalo (1952) on his mind when he opted for a high-vaulted chamber.

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