Dublin City Council unveils scaled-up plans for College Green plaza
Dublin City Council (DCC) has taken the wraps off the latest proposal to pedestrianise College Green, turning it into a flagship European-style plaza for the capital.
The early plans include extensive public seating and a large paved events space in front of Trinity College and the Bank of Ireland building.
The entire space between Trinity College and the junction of South Great George’s Street/Dame Street would become pedestrianised under the plans, with emergency vehicle access via the western end of the plaza.
Transport movements across the plaza
A new route for cyclists will run along the southern edge of Dame Street, before crossing north at the Bank of Ireland building and following a similar line to the existing cycle lane.
Luas trams will continue to cross in front of Trinity College, but bus services which currently enter College Green are in the process of being rerouted by the National Transport Authority (NTA) as part of a major network redesign.
Existing taxi ranks and disabled parking spaces in the project area will be moved to neighbouring streets.
Unlike previous iterations of the plan, a series of green spaces are being planned between the western side of the Bank of Ireland building and South Great George’s Street.
These will have walkways, grass areas and extensive planting throughout, and will allow meeting places and play spaces to be provided as part of the project.
Proposed greenery throughout the plaza
While new greenery will be added throughout the scheme, there will also be a focus on preserving existing trees, according to documents accompanying the announcement.
The latest plans represent a far greener vision for the area than past designs, which incorporated public fountains and tree-lined paving, and only stretched as far as Anglesea Street.
Despite recent comments from council officials indicating that public toilets would be incorporated into the new plaza, there is no mention of toilet facilities in the plans.
DCC said their overall goal is to “transform this important public space into a compelling, attractive destination for everyone to enjoy”.
"The project is significantly broader in scope, scale and ambition than the initial project brought to planning in 2017,” it said.
"It also has the benefit of driving significant and impactful changes for the area as it will capitalise on the opportunities for the space that will be realised by the NTA’s network redesign, which will remove all buses from College Green on a phased basis.”
The council reiterated the estimated costings of €80m for the project, but said its budget will be reviewed and refined when the preliminary design is complete.
The authority’s design team is aiming to complete the preliminary design by the end of the year and submit a planning application in the first half of 2026.
DCC has put the early plans out for non-statutory public consultation, with members of the public encouraged to contribute their thoughts on the scheme here until July 13.