NEW CAMPUS:THE DEVELOPMENT of the 73-acre Grangegorman site that will provide a new home for the Dublin Institute of Technology represents the single largest educational project in the history of the state.
Provisions being made for it are so large that they are included within the National Development Plan.
The site has a long history going back to the 1700s as a mental institution and a prison. Most recently it served as a home for St Brendan's Hospital under the ownership of the HSE.
Health elements will remain on the site and also facilities for nearby residents, but most of the site will be given over to the DIT campus.
It is hoped that its entire 20,500 student population and 2,000 staff will have moved from its 39 buildings spread across the city onto the single Grangegorman site by 2010.
Early cost estimates quoted by the Taoiseach Mr Ahern indicated that the two-phase move would cost almost €400 million, a figure which includes €63.5 million for HSE health facilities.
Since those announcements the Grangegorman Development Agency (GDA) has been established under statute, former Dublin city manager John Fitz-gerald was appointed as GDA chairman and a development team was selected to put together a master plan for the Grangegorman project.
The lead planners are US firm Moore Ruble Yudell with Irish firm DMOD Architects.
The master plan design team was announced as project leaders last November and have been actively engaged in putting together the plan that will see Grangegorman transformed from an ageing hospital complex to a modern urban location for the provision of quality third-level education.
There are high hopes for the project given the great potential of the site. It is one of the only large mainly green spaces left in the city - aside from the Phoenix Park itself.
It is about 1.3kms from the city centre and so is an easy walk, but there are plans for a Metro line close by the campus. The Luas, with a stop in nearby Smithfield, is a short walk away.
The project will transform DIT's activities as it leaves behind 39 buildings on six main sites to consolidate in a single campus location.
It currently controls about 120,000sq m (1.292 million sq ft) of mainly owned, but also leased, space and will move into new campus buildings that will provide 140,000sq m (1.507 million sq ft) of accommodation.
By 2010 the institute will be unrecognisable from its modest beginnings as a technical school that provided specialised education on Kevin Street, opening its doors in October 1887.
More information about the development project is available on its website, www.ggda.ie.
