Critique of Liverpool 1, 2009

Under foot, there are superficial landscape traces of the dock, the marsh, Hutchinson’s measure of the tides, and a displaced touch of Rome as the grand sandstone stairs greet the customers from the bus station. A squint of a part of the stone walled dock is now visible below one’s feet at the end of Thomas Steers Way. Entering from anywhere along the perimeter, one is very aware that individual architects were clearly not discouraged from choosing their facing materials. The plethora of colour, texture and reflectivity makes any chance of a sense of architectural cohesion impossible. The John Lewis store is less elegant than its Sloane Square counterpart, and the mix of terra cotta and creamy green glass jarring. One can see the control of Allies & Morrison’s central limestone block with its crack occupied by the zig-zag stair and escalators, yet I am left unconvinced by the coldness of the stone, the spacing of its joint lines and white banding which, although giving it a `thirties’ look and having large opaque areas does not reflect the materiality and three dimensional richness of earlier buildings that gave the city its gravitas. Their earlier sketches suggested a warmer colour – better. Debenhams, with its transparent, cast and translucent glass skin – is elegant and calm, and also recalls the thirties. The French architects have shown how simple design strategies and use of materials can prove very satisfying. Hopefully Debenhams will find a way to inhabit their James Street first floor showcase. The smaller new and renovated buildings and urban stitching along the four lanes of the eastern edges are generally delightfully handled without being overworked.

There has been evident creativity, tenacity and endurance by many ­ politicians, planners, architects, engineers, designers and contractors to achieve Liverpool One, not least by Grosvenor Estates, particularly through the current economic storm, and this immense commitment should encourage others to provide the investment and energy needed for this once great city to nurture its re-emerging confidence.

The strongest memory I have of Liverpool One is that it shows up the self-indulgence and foibles of individual architects wanting to be different, not subtly, but in large formmaking, whether as a building, a bridge, a canopy or stair, and even when adhering to a somewhat alien ellipse. This is why many of the larger buildings and spaces are less successful, while the intimate, respectful and human scale architecture of the scheme is such a pleasure. There are still lessons to be learned from history to inform today’s designers. The recent mistakes of energy guzzling insular retail behemoths are being recognized, and Liverpool One, despite its overemphasis on large scale retail, is urban, but I sense it needs some accidental, non-designed edgy events to ease itself into the city a little more.

Originally ­ published in issue AT200 of Architecture Today, August 2009.
© Ian Ritchie 2009