Ministers with the development plans
Plans for the redevelopment of Dublin’s Parnell Square and the provision of a cultural quarter there including a new city library and cultural centre have been unveiled.
The proposed development has been termed possibly “the most important cultural development in Dublin for 100 years,” by City Architect Ali Grehan.
Consultation on the €60 million scheme is now invited by Dublin City Council, the Office of Public Works and Kennedy Wilson, a US real estate investment company, which has its main European office in Dublin.
Key to the plans are the relocation of the city library to a new development incorporated into Colaiste Mhuire and the upgrading of other notable Georgian buildings on the north side of the square to make what its advocates call an “intercultural district”.
The plans were publicised in Dublin yesterday by Lord Mayor Naoise Ó Muirí along with City manager John Tierney and City Librarian Margaret Hayes. Joining them wasPeter Collins from Kennedy Wilson, which is providing the € 2.5 million seed capital on a philanthropic basis.
The existing city library at the nearby Ilac centre, opened in 1986, is deemed to be used well beyond its capacity and is not of a stature to match the needs of Dublin or its role as a Unesco City of Literature.
The new library, a striking circular design, will act as a focal point for greater civic involvement in literature and the arts generally. It will incorporate an innovation and enterprise hub, a story house, music centre and a digital library.
The new-look Parnell Square will consolidate what planners term the city’s Civic Spine which will run eventually from Dublin Institute of Technology at Grangegorman on the north side, through the square and along O’Connell Street towards College Green, Christchurch and, eventually, to the Irish Museum of Modern Art at Kilmainham.
Dublin | City of Literature 