Michael Scott's 1947 Busarus HQ

Business parks, it seems to me, need to be out of town - near the airport, preferably, but anyhow not in full view of the centre. A shame, then, that they built one down by Custom House and called it the International Financial Services Centre, begun in 1990. It's not that it's irredeemably awful - it's just averagely bad and all too familiar. I'll concede that this Irish-American complex has been given an urban scale, but it seems to connect with the city in no other way: it excludes you. The greatest criticism of the project is a mute one, and it is uttered by the mere presence nearby of Michael Scott's masterly Busarus building of 1947-50. The Financial Services Centre at least makes you look at Busarus with freshly appreciative eyes. The building is a national treasure.

Irish Photographic Archive, Temple Bar, 1996: O'Donnell and Tuomey

Economic success, of course, is always what drives the development of any city. You can't wish away some of the things that have happened in the boom, since that would be to deny Dublin its undeniable vigour. It may have been more superficially attractive, in a way, when it was in decline, on the edge of things, but no city of world-class pretensions can capitalise on a culture of decline. It is a different thing, however, to wish that the architectural fruits of economic success should be high quality rather than just standard, low-cost floorspace, and I know that plenty of people in Dublin, right up to Government level, share that view.

The plans to civilise the magnificent but run-down thoroughfare of O'Connell Street seem both timely and thoughtful - though my gut feeling is that the ghost of the long-vanished Nelson's Pillar should remain a ghost, - pace the current competition to find a replacement. The winner of that contest had better be very good indeed - certainly better than the clumsy original, which with its massive base completely blocked the views down the street. What are the chances of that happening? Still, let's hope.