At their worst the 1960s saw a lethal combination of poor quality industrial building techniques, abstract architectural theory and councils obsessed with quantity over quality.
The council commissioned architectural, mechanical and electrical experts to investigate the issues, at a cost of nearly £19,000.
But "architectural top," the category the council uses to officially crown the tallest building, is less clear; it includes "spires," but not "antennas, signage, flag poles or other functional-technical equipment".
The following year, the city council hired the local architectural firm of Bundy, Young, Sims & Potter to stabilize the crumbling structure, amid steadily growing talk of demolishing the building.
He then took a job as a designer for Coventry city council before qualifying as an architectural technician.
There can be a mismatch between the architectural variegation and the uses contained: Camden council has located its headquarters here into an unobtrusive building, whereas Chipperfield's block is the one that looks like a town hall.
Every project is developed in close consultation with the future tenants, he says, with one estate so engaged they organised their own architectural competition and presented the shortlist to the council.
These days, Holmes works for an architectural practice that specialises in making 1960s and 70s council homes compliant with today's much more rigorous energy conservation rules.
It said that to date, "Castlereagh Borough Council has spent £1,219,291 on planning and architectural fees during the course of the project".
Kerri Culhane, an architectural historian and associate director of the Two Bridges Neighborhood Council who wrote the report that led to the designation, calls the Bowery "the city's oldest streetscape".
