The Times

Sam Stephenson was arguably the most outstanding architect based in Ireland of his generation; he was certainly the most controversial. In 1962 he and his partner Arthur Gibney won a competition to design the headquarters in Dublin of Ireland’s Electricity Supply Board. This involved the demolition of a dozen or so 18th-century houses that were in the middle of a quarter-mile streetscape with mountains in the background — it was one of the glories of the Georgian city. All hell broke loose as the Irish Georgian Society and kindred preservationists flexed their muscles for the first time. Princess Grace of Monaco was among the thousands who signed a petition to halt the destruction. Sir Albert Richardson came from London to lend support. The Sunday Times correspondent wrote that no London vandal had done worse. Stephenson entered the fray, calling down a bubonic plague on preservationists and asserting boldly that Georgian buildings were not worth keeping. He voiced a crude nationalist resentment towards Dublin’s colonial heritage as well as the self-interest of a new class of native entrepreneur who wished to make a killing out of redevelopment.