College Green Plaza

Dublin City Council's College Green Plaza aims to provide Dublin with a 'world class' civic space; a place at the heart of the city for the use and enjoyment of citizens and visitors alike.

Following a 2016 Europe-wide tender, the commission was awarded to a joint-venture team led by Paul Keogh Architects and the Dixon Jones London practice, with Roughan O'Donovan as traffic and engineering consultants.

The centre-piece of the PKA / DJ scheme is a trapezoidal, granite-paved, pedestrianised area, designed to accommodate 15,000 people for concerts, performances and civic events.

The plaza will have a grid of 32 fountains and the statues of Henry Grattan and Thomas Davis will be repositioned to free-up the central area, the latter to the centre of a new 'circus' on the Foster Place / Church Lane axis.

On its south side, the plaza will have 20 mature plane trees that will define a cycle-route forming part of the evolving Dublin city cycle network.

A 2017 EIA application to An Bord Pleanal was turned down - on traffic grounds. In its ruling, however, An Bord Pleanala stated that the proposal was acceptable in principle, that the PKA / DJ plan would deliver a high quality public realm, and that it would "facilitate the appreciation of the architectural and cultural heritage of this important site".

Dublin City Council recently announced that a fresh application will be made to An Bord Pleanala. In a statement to the Irish Times, the chief executive, Mr Owen Keegan, said that he is confident the new plan will be approved.

Client: Dublin CityCouncil

Value: €12,000,000
Size: 1,400 Sq. m
Reference: Ms Ali Grehan, Dublin City Architect
Design: 2017
Completion: 2022