Grangegorman Development Agency (GDA) is a statutory agency established in 2006 by the Irish Government under the Grangegorman Development Agency Act 2005 to redevelop the former St. Brendan’s Hospital grounds in Dublin City Centre. The GDA aims to create a vibrant new city quarter with a diverse mix of uses, in a way that is sensitive to the context of the Grangegorman site, its surrounding neighbourhoods and the existing community. The challenge is to plan for and implement a complex, multi-phased development that provides:
- A high quality area with physical linkages to Smithfield, Phibsborough, Prussia Street and the City Centre
- New health care facilities for the Health Services Executive (HSE)
- A new urban campus for Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT), bringing together all students and staff into one location
- New arts, cultural, recreational and public spaces to serve the community and the city
- A primary school, public library and children’s play spaces
- Complementary mixed-use development.
The Grangegorman site is an area of approximately 73 acres located in the Arran Quay Ward of Dublin in the district of Grangegorman. It is north of the River Liffey and south of the Royal Canal, and approximately 1.5 kilometres from Dublin’s City Centre. The Grangegorman site is bounded by the North Circular Road to the north, Prussia Street and Stoneybatter to the west, and Brunswick Street to the south.
It is unique because of its location in the core of the city and, other than the Docklands and the Poolbeg peninsula, is the last remaining large undeveloped land bank in the city.
Much of the site is undeveloped and can be considered brown-field with approximately one third of St. Brendan’s West being used until recently as recreational playing fields. These lands contain many mature trees together with an array of protected buildings under the current Dublin City Development Plan, all of which date from the nineteenth century or before.
The Grangegorman site has a diverse architectural, historical, and land use character.