{"id":12497,"date":"2013-06-05T15:37:20","date_gmt":"2013-06-05T14:37:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/?p=12497"},"modified":"2013-06-10T10:51:04","modified_gmt":"2013-06-10T09:51:04","slug":"applying-the-final-touch-to-the-controversial-mann-island-development-on-liverpools-waterfront","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/applying-the-final-touch-to-the-controversial-mann-island-development-on-liverpools-waterfront\/","title":{"rendered":"Applying the final touch to the controversial Mann Island development on Liverpool’s waterfront"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/p>\n

Workmen putting the finishes touches to the striking\u00a0Mann Island development on Liverpool’s waterfront.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The large-scale development by Neptune Developments and Countryside Properties\u00a0comprises of 376 one, two and three bedroom apartments, plus\u00a0office space and leisure facilities.<\/p>\n

The shiny black monolithic slab has drawn contrasting opinions from locals and architectural experts alike.<\/p>\n

\"Applying<\/p>\n

Gavin Stamp, architect, historian and trustee of the 20th Century Society was immensely unimpressed by the buildings:<\/p>\n

They should not be built. Not only is this a World Heritage Site, but there needs to be a break between the great 20th century group of the Pier Head\u2019s Three Graces and the 19th-century group of the Albert Dock. \u00a0It was fine as it was with low-level buildings between the landmark groups, acting as a buffer zone so that neither of those groups are overwhelmed.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Liverpool<\/p>\n

[Similar dockside view, 1911]<\/em><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Alistair Sunderland, architect and a member of the Ludcap panel was feeling the love, but loses the argument for the use of the word ‘vibrant’:<\/p>\n

The polished granite cladding is \u2026[a] contrast with the brilliant white of the neighbouring Port of Liverpool Building and the new Museum of Liverpool\u2026As a neighbour, it\u2019s a complementary contrast to the new Museum of Liverpool. \u201cOne\u2019s black and shiny, the other\u2019s white and matt. \u00a0They both use building shapes which are not familiar in our vocabulary and I think they make a very positive contribution to making the waterfront seem vibrant.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Applying<\/p>\n

Ptolemy Dean, architect and presenter of BBC 2\u2019s Restoration programme disagreed:<\/p>\n

The whole group of original buildings is brilliant. Until recently, by sheer good fortune, the clarity of Liverpool\u2019s greatness as a port and 20th- century commercial centre was preserved.\u00a0 It\u2019s the spaces between the buildings that matter and that\u2019s being taken away, with the wonderful sense of the skyline, so we are losing a vital part of the story.\u00a0 The three new granite block buildings are like sitting in an opera and hearing a mobile phone go off. The illusion is shattered by something interrupting it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I rather like the look of it, but then I don’t know what it looked like before, and can see that it’s one hell of an architectural statement to impose on people. I can certainly see why some aren’t too chuffed.<\/p>\n

What do you think? Love it? Hate it?<\/p>\n

Read more about the controversy behind this development here<\/a>\u00a0and see the developer’s site here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Workmen putting the finishes touches to the striking\u00a0Mann Island development on Liverpool’s waterfront.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12501,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[17,193],"tags":[199,257,611],"class_list":["post-12497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-photos","category-places","tag-architecture","tag-liverpool","tag-mann-island"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/mann-island-liverpool-2.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pQI7P-3fz","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12497"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12504,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12497\/revisions\/12504"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}