Archinect - News

Liverpool redevelopment scheme wins revived Carbuncle Cup as Britain's 'worst new building'

2024-06-24T18:10:00-04:00

The unfortunate "winner" of the UK’s Carbuncle Cup, which annually celebrates the country’s most detested new architecture, has been announced as the 2019 Liverpool Lime Street redevelopment scheme from Broadway Malyan. The contest, which is presented by the London-based magazine The Fence, was revived for 2024 after a six-year hiatus following BDP’s Redrock Stockport "victory" in 2018.

What can be said about this monstrosity? The magazine describes: "This mass-scale redevelopment demolished a century of businesses and buildings, replacing them with sheet-metal etchings of the cinemas and bars that once stood. Behind that façade, much like everything else in Liverpool, is a 412-bed student accommodation block and a 101-room Premier Inn hotel — two new additions that the city’s residents have never asked for or benefited from."

The outcome might play into the hands of advocates pushing leaders to save the century-old Marks & Spencer department store on Oxford Street in London, a ca...

Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios wins re-tendered bid for International Slavery Museum revamp in Liverpool

2024-01-23T19:04:00-05:00

National Museums Liverpool (NML) has named Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios as the replacement for Adjaye Associates on the design team for the new International Slavery Museum and Maritime Museum.

The opportunity to replace Adjaye on the project came after the museum cut ties with his firm last summer following the revelation of sexual misconduct allegations in the Financial Times that preceded a string of high-profile project cancellations in the United States, the UK, and Saudi Arabia.

The NML redevelopment, which was first announced in 2021, has since increased in cost to £58 million (or about $73.5 million USD). Work will now begin once more from the RIBA Plan of Work scale's stage 3 (Spatial Coordination) through to the completion stage 7. The NML says this will entail adding an entirely new entrance inside the Martin Luther King Jr. building and additional major renovations to the site’s Hartley Pavilion.

Previously on Archinect: National Museums Liverpool re-tenders Slavery Mu...

National Museums Liverpool re-tenders Slavery Museum design contract after Adjaye departure

2023-09-19T18:55:00-04:00

National Museums Liverpool (NML) has issued a new tender for design contracts for the anticipated new Liverpool Slavery Museum a month after its original architect David Adjaye was formally removed from the project over sexual misconduct allegations that were first made public in June.

The announcement was picked up today by UK-based publications. NML says whoever is selected will shepherd the project from the RIBA Plan of Work scale's stage 3 (Spatial Coordination) to the completion stage 7 (Use) in coordination with community partners and the museum. The hope is for whoever takes over the project to complete the planned overhauls of Albert Dock's existing Hartley Pavilion and the Martin Luther King Jr. Building, which houses the new museum. Ralph Appelbaum Associates will remain on as the project’s exhibition designers as well.

Previously on Archinect: David Adjaye accused of sexual misconduct by three former employees

Adjaye had already stepped away from the larger waterfront rede...

Liverpool's International Slavery Museum cuts ties with Adjaye over misconduct allegations

2023-08-15T10:49:00-04:00

The forthcoming International Slavery Museum in Liverpool, England has formally terminated their contract with Adjaye Associates over allegations involving its director’s misconduct with women first surfaced in a Financial Times report in the first week of July.

Adjaye had already left the larger Canning Dock redevelopment project over a year ago, though his design (with Ralph Appelbaum Associates) for the remade museum was still in tow and worth a reported £57 million (or about $72 million USD). The design, which calls for an overhaul of the existing Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. building, will still be pursued by National Museums Liverpool (NML), albeit with a different architect they will select following the rewarding of a new tender that was announced along with the cancellation.

With the announcement, the NLM joins a growing list of other entities to have split with Adjaye that includes the UK Holocaust Memorial team, Vermont's Shelburne Museum, the City of Cleveland, and the A...

National Museums Liverpool releases new Asif Khan and Theaster Gates-led waterfront development proposals

2023-04-19T15:06:00-04:00

Weeks after the announcement that David Adjaye and Mariam Kamara would be leaving the project, National Museums Liverpool (NML) has unveiled its revised vision for the redevelopment of the city’s waterfront area co-authored by Asif Khan and Theaster Gates respectively.

Under their direction, a pair of interconnected proposals are now being advanced. The scope of the projects includes a newly-created public realm, pedestrian footbridge, and visitors’ pavilion in the place of two historic dry docks that are linked to the overhauled International Slavery Museum, Maritime Museum, and the Museum of Liverpool, which all tell their story.

Image courtesy National Museums Liverpool (NML)

The NML says it hopes the development will work to present a “prototype for a fresh new mode of co-production between community partners and museums.”

Image courtesy National Museums Liverpool (NML)

Khan says the project must in the end work to help the city recon...

David Adjaye, Mariam Kamara depart major Liverpool waterfront project

2023-03-29T17:04:00-04:00

Two big-name architects are departing from the National Museums Liverpool (NML) scheme to create a new public realm at the city’s Canning Dock, according to a report published earlier today by the Architects’ Journal.

David Adjaye and Mariam Kamara are now out of the project team for the redevelopment, which includes Asif Khan, Theaster Gates, Arup, and a host of other UK-based firms.

The team first was first announced as the winners of an international competition in October of 2021. Adjaye will reportedly remain on to finish their International Slavery Museum and Maritime Museum restorations, which are both separate projects. Neither architect has provided a statement addressing the changes at press time.

An aerial view of Canning Dock. Image: Gary W. Smith

A spokesperson from the museum told AJ simply, “Once the direction of the project was established, the collective agreed that Khan and Gates would take the project forward.”

Ultimately, the £75 million ($92.4 million) project wi...

Tate Liverpool announces $34 million overhaul effort

2022-01-10T13:31:00-05:00

One of the UK’s most popular art institutions is inviting architects to take to the drawing boards for a new redesign of the Tate’s Liverpool campus.

The museum is now officially looking for an architect to spearhead its £25 million ($34 million) refurbishment announced last week after the effort finally received £10 million ($13.6 million) in public funding in October.

The overhaul will reportedly yield an increase in usability as well as enhancements of the site’s visual presence among the waterfront and Albert Dock complex. A brief provided by the museum also details a desire to create a plan for the galleries that is both “flexible and inviting” and promises to address core areas like wayfinding and ventilation in a manner that will have it fit for use for another thirty years.

According to a press statement, the Tate’s trustees are “seeking an architect to reimagine the gallery spaces to meet the scale and ambition of today's most exciting artists, while creating social space...

Liverpool has been stripped of its World Heritage Site status after a ruling by UNESCO

2021-07-22T17:00:00-04:00

Unesco’s decision will no doubt be shrugged off as the prissy overreaction of an unelected body and, given what has been allowed in Edinburgh, the world heritage designation seems largely ineffectual anyway. But the act of striking Liverpool off the list helps to shine a powerful international spotlight on a city that has been happy to embrace mediocre development for far too long. It is a useful reminder that the world is watching.

Liverpool has failed to retain its status as a UNESCO World Heritage Site following a meeting by the agency Wednesday in China.

The decision comes as no surprise to those who have for decades now been trying to prevent encroaching development near the city’s Victorian-era docks. UNESCO pointed to the “irreversible loss” of the docks’ historical value brought on by several multi-million pound projects including the Museum of Liverpool and new Everton football stadium.

UNESCO had originally placed the city on its list in 2004, but the slew of development that has taken place since brought on changes to the city skyline constituting a “significant loss to its authenticity and integrity” that lead to the agency’s decision which the city’s mayor has said could be appealed.

Oliver Wainwright responded with a missive decrying the city’s headstrong development pushes he views as “the consequences of a city in thrall to developers” that have destroyed Liverpool’s historic character in the s...

UNESCO rulings loom for Liverpool, Venice and 250 other sites in the midst of preservation battles

2021-07-16T17:08:00-04:00

The world heritage committee of the UN’s cultural agency Unesco on Friday began debating its list of World Heritage Sites, with Australia and Britain furious over looming changes to the status of the Great Barrier Reef and the historic docks in the city of Liverpool.

UNESCO's World Heritage Committee has a very full plate owing to the cancellation of last year's meeting over fears of the spreading coronavirus. Applications of sites like the famed porticoes of Bologna are also up for review.

The historic Liverpool docks played an outsized role in the transatlantic slave triangle and are in desperate need of preservation as construction encroaches.

Venice is also on the verge of losing its status as a World Heritage Site in a move that could devastate preservation efforts in the coastal Italian city.

France 24 has more on the Friday meeting here.

Liverpool aims to be world's first climate-positive city with blockchain technology

2018-07-26T16:20:00-04:00

Liverpool City Council (LCC) has announced a new partnership with a blockchain platform company to offset more than 110% of its carbon emissions, with the city announcing its bid to become the world's first climate-positive city by the end of 2020. LCC will conduct a year-long trial with the Poseidon Foundation to use a blockchain platform to offset the carbon impact of all products and services in the city by supporting global forest conversation projects.

Liverpool's ambition to become the world's first climate-positive city by 2020 has been announced with the city's blockchain technology partnership. Committing to a year-long trial of this sustainable technology, Liverpool City Council strives to reduce its carbon impact by installing more than 15,000 energy saving LED streetlights across 2,000 streets to reduce streetlight energy consumption by 82%.

The Poseidon’s Foundation, Laszlo Giricz stated, “This is a ground-breaking partnership not just for Poseidon and Liverpool, but globally. For the first time, a city will use blockchain technology to go beyond rebalancing its carbon footprint – leading the way in the fight against climate change."

RIBA North to be "a place for everyone to discover more about architecture with exhibitions, talks and tours"

2017-03-27T12:30:00-04:00

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has announced that they will open a new national center for architecture—RIBA North—this June on the Liverpool Waterfront. Designed by Broadway Malyan, the center “will be a place for everyone to discover more about architecture with exhibitions, talks and tours as well as a café and shop.”

The “heart” of RIBA North will be the City Gallery, which will house exhibitions and information on the city of Liverpool—its history and present. The space will also include exhibitions on city development more broadly, such as the Digital City Model, an interactive 3D model of Liverpool and its environs.

RIBA North will also host “a bold program” of temporary exhibitions, as well as the historic RIBA Collections, which amount to the UK’s “richest resource” of drawings, photographs and prints dating from the 15th c.

The center will open with the exhibition ‘Liverpool(e): Mover, Shaker, Architectural Risk-Taker”.

...

Liverpool waterfront heritage status at risk as mayor rejects UN plea

2016-07-18T13:08:00-04:00

The world heritage site status of Liverpool’s waterfront is in jeopardy after the city’s mayor, Joe Anderson, rejected a plea by UN cultural chiefs to halt development in the city [...] Anderson said he would be writing to the UN body informing it that the city would not be complying with its request [...] Heritage campaigners recently went to court in a fight to stop the demolition of 10 historic buildings near Liverpool Lime Street station in the buffer zone.

More Liverpool-related architecture news on archinect:

RIBA set to open national architecture centre in Liverpool

Turning the “ugliest building in Liverpool” into an exemplar of public health

Assemble wins Turner Prize, becoming first architects to win "UK's most prestigious art prize"

RIBA set to open national architecture centre in Liverpool

2016-06-05T07:04:00-04:00

Liverpool's Riba North will have conference facilities and a gallery "at its heart", a spokeswoman said. It will open in August with an exhibition of designs for Liverpool that were never built. The centre, which will be housed in the Broadway Malyan-designed Mann Island on the city's waterfront, "will offer a magnificent opportunity to display Riba's historic collections, telling hundreds of years of the UK's extraordinary architectural history", Duncan said.

More UK news here:

Turning the “ugliest building in Liverpool” into an exemplar of public health

2016-02-16T13:20:00-05:00

work has finally started on an ambitious £335m redevelopment of Merseyside’s largest hospital. And the ambition is not simply to tackle a building that has outstayed its usefulness; it is to make the whole city healthier and wealthier too. [...] In place of the current “American suburban” model of a huge building and surrounding parking, it will return to a “European” model of a cluster of buildings with public spaces in between them [...] “The centre will feel like a public square.

More renovations from the healthcare sector:

2014 RIBA Stirling Prize shortlist is revealed

2014-07-17T15:48:00-04:00

It's that time of year again. Six buildings were just announced for the 2014 shortlist of the prestigious RIBA Stirling Prize for best new building in the UK. Each contender will be judged particularly for its design excellence and its significance in the evolution of architecture and the built environment.

Find out more on Bustler.

3XN-Designed Museum of Liverpool to Launch July 19th

2011-07-14T14:22:00-04:00

The new Museum of Liverpool, designed by Copenhagen-based 3XN, will open its doors to the public next week Tuesday, July 19. The dynamic low-rise structure is the largest National Museum to be built in the UK in over 100 years and is situated on a UNESCO World Heritage Site next to Liverpool’s famous ’Three Graces’.