More than 30 years ago, the London-based Architectural Review produced a special supplement on Dublin at a time when the city was being badly knocked about. It was an important reminder of what we had that was precious and a clarion call to halt needless destruction of the urban fabric. Kenneth Browne, who edited the extensive, illustrated supplement, A Future for Dublin, published in 1974, was particularly eloquent about the Liffey Quays. "Without question," he wrote, "it is the quays which give topographical coherence to Dublin. They are the frontispiece to the city and the nation. "These riverside buildings are the essential Dublin . . . grand, yet human in scale, varied yet orderly, they present a picture of a satisfactory city community; it is as though two ranks of people were lined up, mildly varying in their gifts, appearance and fortune, but happily agreed on basic values. "Individually unremarkable as works of architecture, collectively they are superb, and form a perfect foil to the special buildings such as the Four Courts and the Custom House. "If they are allowed to disintegrate, to be replaced by unsympathetic new buildings, the most memorable aspect of the city will be lost."
