As an architectural statement, Cork County Hall is both loved and unloved. But whatever about its merits or demerits, it always evokes comment.
It certainly cannot fail to be noticed, rising as it does 212 feet into the sky on the western approaches to the city.
This week Cork Corporation will receive a planning application for a major refurbishment of the building and the erection alongside it of a new, six-storey edifice.
When it opened in 1968 the final cost of the building was £613,315.06, or the equivalent of £7.2 million in today's money. The estimated cost of the present proposals is about £30 million. Even if there are no objections and work begins early next year, it will take 2-1/2 years before the new-look County Hall emerges, together with its planned sister.
Originally the 16 floors were topped off, it is claimed, a few feet higher than Liberty Hall in Dublin, to make it the tallest working building in the Republic and a source of pride to local construction firms.
The original brochure prepared for the official opening was expansive in its description of a building that catapulted Cork into the high-rise era and which remains today one of the few examples of new-age architecture within the city precincts.
The concrete facade, considered ugly by many Corkonians, was to become a problem as the years wore on. But this was how it was described in the 1968 brochure:
"As the building is approached, the modelling of the facade created by concrete tracery emerges. Precise detail design and attention to accuracy of construction play a major part in the overall effect."
Nevertheless, extensive repair work to the concrete facade was necessary by 1981 because serious erosion had become evident.
By 1994, after chunks of concrete began to fall off the outside of the building, it was thought prudent for safety reasons to erect canopies over the entrances to protect people as they entered and left.
The cost of this work was £93,500. Cork's bold architectural leap in glass and concrete was becoming jaded.
It also became obvious that as a working environment County Hall had in-built deficiencies associated with high-rise, extensively-glazed buildings. These included overheating, glare and wind buffeting, making natural ventilation almost impossible.
On a windy day, files nearest an open window had a tendency to be sucked out and drift earthwards. Structurally, however, the building has remained sound and its core will continue to stand inside the new adornments.
When it was conceived in the early 1960s, the County Hall site was within the county boundary. Now, ironically, the county must apply to the city for planning permission because the city limits have been extended in the interim.
A competition organised by invitation by the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland and the management team at Cork County Council resulted in five submissions on the new project. The Dublin firm, Shay Cleary Architects, has been chosen to design the six-storey extension as well as to refurbish the exterior and refit the interior to modern standards.
An opportunity now exists to give County Hall a new look, to make it aesthetically more pleasing and improve the site on which it stands, overlooking the Lee river and the Lee Fields, one of the finest open spaces left in Cork.
The architects say they will introduce a skin of glass louvres on the facade which will respond to weather changes and allow, for the first time, for a naturally-ventilated working environment.
The ugly concrete exterior, therefore, will disappear, to be replaced, hopefully, by something less austere and more in keeping with its river environs. Additional office space and a new council chamber will be provided in the six-storey building. This will be linked to the existing County Hall by a new concourse.
There are plans for a multi-level car-park, landscaping of the site and restaurant and conference facilities. When completed, the scheme will provide office accommodation for some 600 people.
Safety, better working conditions and the need for more accommodation are paramount. The building, during more than three decades, has become an integral part of Cork.
Its height and the wonderment that it caused at the time are no longer an issue. The site on which County Hall stands lends itself naturally to environmental improvements, such as an innovative and well-maintained tree-planting programme.
If that happens and if the building is made to become visually enjoyable and attractive as a centre of recreation, then Cork will have been well served and a host of new friends will be won over during the next 30 years. In the meantime, the public will have an opportunity to examine the plans and make its views known.