The eye peering over the easel in this photo is that of Oscar Kokoschka. He was commissioned to come to Berlin shortly after the second world war, and to make a painting of the city from the top of a newly constructed building. He had last seen Berlin during its hey-day before the war and was shocked and saddened by this destroyed beautiful city. This photograph in some way seems appropriate in talking about Niall McCullough.

We see an eye to the future grown out of the past. It is no ordinary eye. It somehow has a life of its own, sceptical, incisive, focussed, riveted to its subject. Given that the practice of architecture is 95% about ‘seeing’ , ‘seeing beyond’, ‘seeing afresh’, 'seeing with innocence and joy’, ‘seeing each time for the first time’. This ability to see was reflected in the glint in the eye of Niall McCullough. 

The painting Kokoschka made of the destroyed City of Berlin shows beauty despite destruction. It is transformative through perception, through seeing, through colour, texture, light - through the act of painting itself. Niall could always see beyond, see the big horizon, see beauty or the potential for beauty.

[quote from Dublin, An Urban History]

Dublin remains, although depleted, a social city where individuals can maintain a sense of place; it could never be described as anonymous, But is no longer beautiful. This is deeply to be regretted, and there are many reasons why it is so, but I think most people, sensing that we are on the edge of great change, would prefer to ask how we should draw the threads of its identity together for the future. This book is meant for them.

The beauty of Niall McCullough’s writing flows like a river, weaving in and out of passageways, lanes, great rooms, staircases, eccentric spaces. His book gave us back our city in a fresh way, describing the past always with a clue or a sliver of light revealing what the future might be.

[quote 2 from Dublin, An Urban History]

Dublin is one of the world's great cities. This is partly because its own bittersweet intimacies are spread across the literature globe, but also because somehow, sometime it has acquired the status of the heroic, became memorable in the world’s imagination.

This text made us feel proud and excited about our city.

We collaborated with McCullough Mulvin in 1991 as part of Group 91 and then there was a gap of 30 years before GA engaged with McCullough Mulvin again. While we admired their work over the years, it was from a distance. And then in 2021 we found ourselves working on a competition with McCullough Mulvin.

It was a re-use project in Dublin. He said it needed “a blast of magnificence”. We were exchanging images and drawings and when this particular image arrived we thought “what’s this about?” Is this Niall in his big overcoat floating in an industrial space or is it straight out of Tarkovsky? 

It is of course the latter, we thought it sort of typical that an image like this might be put forward by Niall and immediately ‘got the point’ without actually understanding it. It made sense to juxtapose the real and the surreal and to draw on Tarkovsky’s dream like visual imagery and preoccupation with memory. Of course the title of Tarkovsky’s book “Sculpting in Time”, one could say is the story of Niall’s life as an architect.

At the time of this recent collaboration, we knew absolutely nothing about Niall’s illness. During the competition, we rediscovered and discussed among ourselves his erudition, his delight in ideas, his coming at things ‘sideways’. Born out of love of history, he had a healthy irreverence and complete lack of nostalgia with an unrelenting belief that existing structures had the potential for an exciting new life. He carried his scholarly baggage lightly, like a parachutist uses the ‘pilot chute’ to create a wing and generate a lifting motion.

During this recent collaboration, we enjoyed the imaginative and radical quality of Niall’s thinking and really looked forward to how this would continue to manifest itself in the years ahead. He seemed younger, more energised. When we heard of Niall’s death we were struck dumb. We were saddened by this great gap left in the architectural reservoir of thought But then of course we know that McCullough Mulvin is not just Niall. Valerie’s own steely talent, passion and inimitable spirit together with the McCullough Mulvin team will continue to make great work, on into the future, building on the legacy already made by both Valerie and Niall together. 

—Shelley McNamara, Grafton Architects