AN ARCHITECTURAL WALKING TOUR OF LIVERPOOL

On 5th June 1999 Liverpool City Council placed an advertisement in the Financial Times and the Estates Gazette for developers to regenerate a run-down slice of the city called the Paradise Street Development Area, sometimes referred to as the Bluecoat Triangle.  This led to the appointment of Grosvenor Developers who were assisted by BDP architects in designing Liverpool One [1], which was completed in 2008 with a total cost of £1 billion.1  Three main objectives for the project are listed by Bayley:

“Help reconnect the city with the waterfront, as well as acting as a hub for pedestrian navigation, create vistas of Liverpool’s famous landmarks to root the development in the city and provide a real sense of place and commit to create individual buildings in the city with appropriate architects being selected for each site within the masterplan.” 2

Liverpool was awarded the opportunity to be the European Capital of Culture 2008, pressure was increased on the successful delivery of the Liverpool One masterplan after Will Alsop’s Fourth Grace proposal was stopped (as well as the cancelation of the proposal to bring trams back to the city).  With two of the major contributing factors, which helped Liverpool to achieve the European Capital of Culture 2008, now cancelled other cities that were beaten by Liverpool were left feeling disgruntled, as David Littlefield explains:

“What made this decision particularly tricky was that Alsop’s design had featured prominently in Liverpool’s successful bid to become the European Capital of Culture in 2008, and some from the other 11 rival cities felt that Liverpool had won the bid under false pretences.” 3

The importance of the Liverpool One scheme was heightened with figures suggesting that almost half of Liverpool’s population living in the central catchment area were actually choosing to travel elsewhere to shop, places such as Manchester city centre and Trafford Centre were becoming more popular: 

“Figures from the National Survey of Local Shopping Patterns, produced by property consultancy CB Richard Ellis, also showed that while 690,000 people fell with in Liverpool’s ‘core’ catchment area (only half of whom actually shopped there).” 4

Fortunately the successful delivery of the Liverpool One project has altered these figures as Bayley describes the positive effect the scheme has had upon the city: 

“The Liverpool One Masterplan has single-handedly reversed the fortunes of the city by bringing a new social and economic vibrancy to what was 42 acres of derelict but historic buildings at its heart. The result is a vibrant and economically successful retail, leisure and mixed-use quarter - an entirely revitalised city centre that now connects properly with Docks.” 5

Before Liverpool One, the city’s main retail area was on Church Street, the new retail scheme connects to this area so that the old and the new are not treated as two separate entities, they compliment each other.  One of the driving forces behind Liverpool One’s success was that they provide a significant amount of new stores that initially had no presence in Liverpool, such as Apple and the Nike store.  As a major store John Lewis was promised a prominent position on the newly created high-street thus treated as one of the ‘anchor’ stores [3].  Areas such as Paradise Street [4-6] and Hanover Street had become run-down disconnected from the city, the retail scheme would incorporate these areas back into Liverpool's main retail areas:

“Liverpool One repairs and reconnects diverse areas of the city centre. it creates a framework for architecture, landscape and lighting design of the highest quality.” 6

As the masterplan architects, BDP designed the concept for all of the 40 buildings that would be completed as part of the scheme.  They distributed the work out between 22 architectural practices including local, national and international firms, each building was categorised in order to establish a hierarchy for the overall composition of the buildings.  Each building was labeled as either ‘landmark’, ‘significant’ or ‘background’.7

The decision to commission multiple architect firms was inspired.  The city and the developers wanted to create a series of buildings and spaces, any notion that this was to be one stand alone building was quickly extinguished. This move is praised by English Heritage’s North-West director, Henry Owen-John: 

“This is the single-most important point within the masterplan.  The use of different architectural practices captures some of the historic character, distinctiveness and diversity that developed throughout the area over time.  From that point of view full marks to Grosvenor… the result is a development that is very definitely Liverpudlian rather than ‘anywhereville’.” 8

Local architects were competing for work against international firms, and often the local would be the victor, such as; the John Lewis building which was designed by John McAslan + Partners this local firm beat off competition from Herzog & de Meuron for the commission.9  The car park and bridge for John Lewis [4] was designed by Wilkinson Eyre Architects who also designed the Liverpool Arena and Convention Centre at Kings Dock.

One of the ‘landmark’ features of the project is the zig-zag stairs [7] that take pedestrians from ground level at Paradise Street to the roof terrace and galleria at second floor level. The Building by Allies and Morrison is cut by the cranked stair and escalators, the design is described by the architect as “either unconventional or genius”.10

Architects Dixon Jones designed the arcaded passage of shops which starts the connection between Liverpool One and the existing retail area of Church Street, it also neighbours the Bluecoat Chambers (the oldest building in central Liverpool).  The architects had a responsibility to respond to the history and reinforce a sense of place.  They used a polished granite which reflects the materials of its surrounding buildings and the roof line also drops down to frame the cupola atop the Bluecoat building [8].11

The overall scheme “comprises over 165 shops, more than 500 apartments, two hotels, 25 restaurants, a 14-screen Odeon cinema, four office buildings, a revitalised two-hectare park, 3,000 car parking spaces and a public transport interchange.”12 It has provided a catalyst for further regeneration projects throughout Liverpool city centre and has won numerous awards, most notably the masterplan drawings by BDP were nominated for a RIBA Stirling Prize which was the first time that drawings have been nominated for the award.13

”Liverpool One has breathed new life into the heart of the city.” 14