Moore Ruble Yudell selected to masterplan Grangegorman

The Grangegorman Development Agency has announced that architects/planners Moore Ruble Yudell from the USA, in association with DMOD (formerly Duffy Mitchell O’Donoghue) from Ireland, are the winners of the competition for the re-development of the 73 acre Grangegorman site in the north west inner city. The winning team will now be awarded the contract to prepare the Grangegorman Master Plan. Amongst Moore Ruble Yudell award-winning projects are: the Master Plan for the University of Washington Tacoma; and the United States Embassy, Berlin, Germany.

The Grangegorman Development Agency is the statutory agency that was established in 2006 to re-develop the Health Service Executive (HSE) lands at Grangegorman in Dublin city centre to develop a new city quarter incorporating all of Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) in one location, new primary and community health facilities for the HSE, as well as new facilities for the local community. The aim is to create an integrated development on the 73 acre site focused around education and health but with a diverse mix of uses, in a manner that is sensitive to the context of the site, its surrounding neighbourhood and the existing community.

Announcing the winners, Gerry Murphy, CEO of the Grangegorman Development Agency, said: “Moore Ruble Yudell is one of the leading American architectural and planning practices. In 2006, the firm was awarded the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Architecture Firm Award, which is the highest honor that the AIA bestows on an architecture firm and recognizes a practice that consistently produced distinguished architecture for at least 10 years. We are also especially pleased that the principal-in-charge of the project will be a native of Dublin city, James Mary O’Connor, who grew up in Phibsborough, close to the site, and graduated as an architect from Dublin Institute of Technology.”

“Team members, DMOD, are a distinguished Irish architectural practice with a range of achievements, including projects at Grand Canal Square and Darndale. Following their winning of the international design competition for the Darndale Village Centre project, the firm garnered the RIAI award in 2002 for best contribution to urban design for that development.”

Commenting on the announcement of their appointment, James O’Connor of Moore Ruble Yudell said: “This is a rare opportunity to contribute to the development of a new city quarter in the centre of an historic city like Dublin. As a Dubliner myself, who moved to California twenty five years ago, I am really looking forward to playing a part in such an important and exciting project for the city.”

Referring to the relatively high elevation of the site, he said new buildings there – which are to be arranged on a network of streets as an extension of the city – would offer “extraordinary views towards the mountains” as well as “connecting everything together”. In order to open up Grangegorman and make new links with other institutions in the inner city, notably King’s Inns, he said it would be essential to engage CIÉ as the owner of Broadstone station to the southeast.