Soap empire's homage to art strikingly restored

Looking at the newly restored Sunlight Chambers on Dublin's Parliament Street, it is impossible to believe that when this romantic Italianate building was first unveiled at the turn of the century, a contributor to the highly influential Irish Builder magazine called it "the ugliest building in Ireland".

For Lever Brothers, the Irish headquarters of their Sunlight soap empire had to be both impressive and improving. The exotic Florentine design with its red terracotta roof was clearly in contrast to the Georgian buildings it replaced, while the glazed terracotta faiences or friezes on two levels, which show the toils of man and the making of soap, fit in with W H Lever's philosopy that "good art should enrich everyday life".

The newly repainted and reglazed friezes are the most visually striking aspect of the building's restoration which was carried out over the past year by Gilroy McMahon architects. The intricately moulded figures are made of terracotta and for the restoration, the architects enlisted the help of the National College of Art & Design, which provided colour advice and hands on expertise.

According to project architect Dave Richards, they worked from the roof down. All the red terracotta roof tiles were removed and unusually, 80 per cent of them were reused. The remainder were sourced from Italy. Tucked away nearly out of sight under the eaves are elaborate wooden carvings depicting the elements, and thanks to their sheltered position, these were found to require only minimal repair and refurbishment. The wooden windows were in surprisingly good condition and there are plans to triple glaze them at the lower levels, purely for noise reduction purposes.

Apart from essential maintenance, including stabilising the chimney stacks, Richards found the building to be in good condition despite its age and the level of traffic thundering by on the quays. Stone specialist Dave Stapleton was consulted and, under his supervision, the building was made watertight, though it was not generally repointed. One of its problems was simply dirt.

The friezes particularly were clogged with years of traffic grime; general inner city smog helped influence the architects in their choice of overall colour for the building. According to Sean Rothery in his book Ireland & The New Architecture, it was originally painted white. But while he was chipping away at the layers of paint and grime, Richards found evidence of an original peach colour which certainly fits in with the Florentine style.

In any case, Gilroy McMahon had a cautionary experience of using white for the exterior of a quayside building: five years ago they designed the modern block of apartments that now adjoins Sunlight Chambers and had it painted white. Pollution from passing traffic has made the building look filthy, and the restoration architects simply didn't consider it an option.

Instead they chose a soft buttery yellow colour described by Richards as a light umber; it contains a black pigment in the hope that this might counteract the inevitable build-up of grime. The new colour also highlights the lilac blue of the glazed French tiles which are part of the frieze.

The building was designed by Liverpool architect Edward Ould in 1899. Four years after Irish Builder gave it its first mention, the magazine revisited its opinion and declared that Sunlight Chambers was "An extraordinary and at once pretentious and mean building".

Structurally, its current architects found it to be typical of its time. Steel structures were starting to be used in the building industry and Ould used this new technique to erect his four storey over basement structure. It was then clad in masonry and finished with Portland stone for the finer detailing and granite at the lower base and he was faithful to his Florentine inspiration, even setting the top storey windows back from the main elevation. In Italy this is done to minimize the impact of sunlight, in Dublin for authenticity.

The building is owned by solicitors Michael E Hanahoe, who have had their offices there for the past 20 years. Prior to that, the building was used as offices for the Revenue Commissioners and for the Racing Board.