Case study
GPO Plaza, O’Connell Street, Dublin
Project data
Project name: GPO Plaza (Phase 1 of the O’Connell Street improvement scheme)
Location: O’Connell Street, Dublin; the major street which runs north
from the River Liffey
Date completed: 2004
Landscape designer: Mitchell & Associates
Engineering design: Dublin City Council
Client: Dublin City Council
Overview
O’Connell Street is the most famous street in Dublin. Originally known as Drogheda Street, and later as
Sackville Street, it was renamed after independence in recognition of the liberator, Daniel O’Connell. It is
a wide avenue, which runs from the northern area of the city in a southerly direction, terminating at the
River Liffey. It is bordered by nineteenth- and early twentieth-century buildings, most of which have a retail
function. Many shop-fronts have been modernised. The central area reservation between the carriageways
contains statues of individuals significant in the development of Dublin and Ireland. These include the
O’Connell monument and the recently erected Dublin ‘Spire’ built to replace Nelson’s Pillar, a Doric column
which was blown up in 1966. The initial damage was carried out by former IRA men, who blew up the top
half of the statue, but two days later Irish Army engineers completed its destruction after considering it too
unsafe to repair. The timing of the attack suggests that it was done to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary
of the Easter Rising of 1916.
The featured project centres on the General Post Office forecourt and associated streetscape to the east.
The GPO is an imposing building on the west side of O’Connell Street, designed by Francis Johnson
(1760–1829), who also designed the ill-fated Nelson’s Pillar. The site is bounded on three sides by recently
planted pleached lime trees, with the fourth side of the rectangle formed by the frontage of the General
Post Office.
2.11
Elevated view of the site, showing the GPO frontage,
the Spire and the ‘room’ formed by the pleached
trees