In May 2001, the Government of Ireland recommended that an Institute for American Studies should be established in Ireland. It also decided that it should be named for the 42nd President of the United States, President William Jefferson Clinton, in recognition of his own crucial and personal role, as well as those of the United States Government, Congress and people, in the Irish Peace Process.

University College Dublin successfully tendered for the project and the UCD Clinton Institute for American Studies has been formally established and housed in the 19th Century Belfield House and Clinton Auditorium at UCD.

Belfield House was disconnected from the master landscape plan for the campus, and its historical context and setting had been significantly altered by the new access road in the 1960s. Restoration of the listed building Belfield House and the UIC Auditorium, located along the main access road through the UCD campus, provided an opportunity to integrate the old residence into the contemporary fabric of the university.

Design inspiration was sought in the remaining section of Belfield House Walled Garden, dissected by the campus access road in the 1960’s. Its geometry and alignment informed an offset rectangular arrangement of pathways extending across either side of the campus access road to visually connect Belfield House with the Clinton Auditorium and create three new inter-connecting amenity open spaces: Clinton Institute Piazza, Belfield House Gardens and The Stables Courtyard.

A procession of long, south-orientated, oak benches supported by a series of linear and circular plantings were introduced to highlight the geometrical connection, which respected the mature trees planted as part of the historic landscape scheme to Belfield House. A series of post-type luminaries was specified to illuminate pedestrian areas and underline the geometric connection.

Mass plantings of ornamental grasses and flowering perennials reference the New American Style of planting as abstract forms to define space and connect Belfield House with the Clinton Auditorium. Fastigiate Beech and Birch trees were specified to re-inforce the visual connection and enhance spatial definition of hard landscape and seating areas.

Materials: golden-coloured bound gravel, flamed granite and precast concrete paving units, green oak seating.