CLLR JOHN CLARE’S comments on the former DLI museum building at Aykley Heads ‘Rotting concrete box’ museum slur outrage (Echo, Jan 16) prompts some observations on the quality of the original building and its current form.

The original building was a very fine piece of contemporary architecture. It was built between 1964 to 1968, and started only a year after the relatively old-fashioned County Hall was completed.

It was designed by architects Tarren & Caller, or more specifically Anthony Burns, who won an internal practice competition.

Tony Burns, who later set up his own practice, was a distinguished North-East designer of many buildings, but some would argue that he never bettered this early commission.

It was a beautifully crafted composition of a large expanse of ground floor glazing, topped and framed by the solid white walls of the art gallery above. At the side, an elegant apsidal staircase.

So simple but so good.

Had it survived unaltered it would probably have been listed by now.

Regrettably when the DLI contents grew to the extent that more room was needed, rather than acknowledge the quality of the existing building and extend/ adapt accordingly, with national museum funding available, the ground floor was crudely boxed-in solid, thus destroying all the careful equation that balanced solid and void.

Fine architecture was sacrificed for more museum space - an unnecessary outcome when an architectural competition could have achieved both - respecting the original design while adding to its quality with a sympathetic extension.

Good museums should be so much more than just a dull box for their collections.

Martin Roberts, West Auckland