King Edward Tower | Leeds Street | 199m/67 Floors | Proposed

[Chris LJMU]

In reference to the plots on Princes Dock, I ran past the area between the Malmaison, the car park block and the grey/white apartment block and there were hoardings and a portacabin on a section of the gravel. Maybe something is actually happening, site preparation or something?

[Dav.e.doff]

This is obviously not vile. It's a statement of where Liverpool is going...

...Looking to the future, not dwelling in the past for God's sake. If this was built in Manchester everyone would be screaming "why can't we have something like that?"

Alexandra tower, Beetham etc make no statement whatsoever, they are boring!! Unfortunately Liverpool seems to care far far more about its history than it ever will about its future, sad really

[Tony Sebo]

trouble is that this is a composite of every half decent building in Manchester. Shockingly bad and derivative... but not in a wayne way.


the manky bit of old security fence round the bottom is an obvious nod to the past primary function of our beloved wall, so wayne should be happy.

[woody]

Originally Posted by Gareth

Seem's the DP & Echo have done something to upset Wayne, despite the fact they've probably given him and his extreme views more exposure than any other media source...

Gareth, in todays "new look" LDP.............

Editorial......"It was not only the cynics and the lunatic fringe of the heritage lobby who wondered if such days were gone for good. So seeing a scheme like this new King Edward Tower put forward as a very positive pointer to the fact that Liverpool`s stalled regeneration may be starting to move forward once again."

I like this revised tower, it does at least aknowledge that a city exists ( behind it ) not just a waterfront, as all renders todate are as viewed from the city. Strange non from "over the water", very unfair not giving them a chance to object
The base looks very untidy, I thought it had a " Wil Alsop" look about it.

With all the consultations with Vision, the City and Peel and with CABE due to comment soon, this is one tower that I hope gets built.

[orange1878]

Love the new design. Bold, iconic, different.

Please build it.

[Babaloo]

I advise people to sit back and enjoy the ride at this stage. I suspect that the design will be tinkered with a bit more - a refinement here and a loss of, erm, fabulousness there.

It all depends on Cabe. If that collection of smug prigs puts the boot in then it's student flats for this one.

If love is the air then it will get planning permission. The developers state they have the finance in place (of course, they always do) so we will just have to wait for one of those things called a 'start date'. Of course, this doesn't mean anything - start dates tend to be moveable feasts. People on site is what we are really looking for.

In my own beautiful neighbourhood there are no end of projects with planning permission. Maghull world, the development of the former Labour Exchange site on Leece, the rebuild of the former poly annexe (Lipa) on Hope, and that's before we even get to Tribeca and Central Village - although didn't someone see someone wearing a yellow jacket and holding a brush and a mug of tea on site recently? Definitely any day now for that one!

It's all part of a syndrome called Developer's Blag. This is how the game is played and sometimes something gets delivered (eventually) - especially if its backed by the state (Liverpool Community College) or a serious player (Grosvenor).

[Evertonian]

I cant understand the objections to the previous design: A tall elegant glass tower with a fine crown on the top and wrapped with what I thought would look like a gorgeous, quality sandstone finish.

Ahh well.

[buggedboy]

CABE have been ignored before and will be ignored again, with little bearing on planning decisions. However, the developers seem to want to keep as many on side as possible with this project. I expect some small scale changes, but nothing major.

The thing I'm worried about is that they say they have funding for the first phase. What does that entail? is that just paying for renders to be composed? It is a single building, unlike saySefton Quarter, which is compiosed of different buildings which could be phased. How can this building be phased?

[Babaloo]

I think the first phase might be the mesh for the car park. It's on special offer in Paddy's market.

[Babaloo]

On the other hand it might be the developers' inexperience poking through. Have the Hoylake Two seen a project through to completion before?

Don't be fooled by the renders. If I had the site of a derelict pub on my property portfolio and I paid Michael a thousand quid, I'm sure he could knock me out better renders than that, and for a few thousand more, a fuck off fly-through to boot.

[Tony Sebo]

Originally Posted by Babaloo

I think the first phase might be the mesh for the car park. It's on special offer in Paddy's market.

The concave side that faces the river is a nice idea.. from about a third of the way up.

I agree that the design features will be toned down, if the thing ever gets built.

[buggedboy]

I've got some garden trellis's they can have.

I'm certain something on a similar scale will happen eventually, either by these guys or someone else. As to whether or not this is teh scheme we'll see, that remains to be seen.

[Babaloo]

I agree that something will be built on this site. I'm not sure that the present developers will be behind it - I suspect they want to sweat this site for all its worth and then sell it on.

In terms of the tower in the above render whether you like it or not is subjective but looking at it in terms of prospective cityscape, I have a number of concerns:

(1) The curse of car parks and derelict underused land

(2) Towers spaced too far apart.

(3) No urban connectivity - it's a tower next to retail sheds.

Wouldn't it be much better to have a dense urban streetscape on both sides of GHS (at least as far as Kingsway) and Leeds Street from which towers and taller buildings emerged a la Manhattan? This would mean banning surface level car parks in this area.

[TommyMogan]

Build it!! ASAP

[delores]

why? whats them hurry or are you adament in ruining your city?

[buggedboy]

I really like it now. I quite liked it at first, but it has grown on me over the last couple of days. It is certainly distinctive. No other UK building can lay claim to looking quite like it. It is also irreverent, which is pretty brave for a building that size. No doubt it's sense of fun will be neutered somewhat as we go along. It challenges peoples perceptions about what form a building should take, so it will be "calmed" as a result of peoples feedback.

The content matters more though, as well as the message that its approval would send out.

[Babaloo]

I wish I knew what developers have against north Liverpool. Another tower showing the crack of an arse to the north end whilst the Wirral, south and east Liverpool get the full fur coat (well cladding that looks like it's modelled on an oil stain in the road after a heavy downpour).

[delores]

It's a dogs breakfast of a design, architectual embellishment of the worst kind. Time to choose a practice that understands the importance of building in Liverpool and for that matter designing a decent building. What worry's me most is there is no view of how this building will look in it's setting? no connection whatsoever to the city centre, just a another nasty scraper, Cabe this time are SO wrong and look what they have indirectly created.

[Tony Sebo]

if you look they have simply plonked the render of the tower straight onto the horrible motorway/industrial estate gubbins that is there right now, bright red brick walls included!

[Hans Groover]

Originally Posted by Babaloo

I wish I knew what developers have against north Liverpool. Another tower showing the crack of an arse to the north end

Not sure about the arse reference - looks like something else to me. Hopefully some enterprising young sub-editor will take a dislike to it, and come up with some 'Phallus in Blunder-land' type headlines.

Much prefer the previous design myself; I just can't envisage myself wanting to live or set up an office in something like that. "Yes, this is Mr Harrington-Smythe at Global Asset Investments... Directions? You can't miss us; we're on the 22nd floor of the giant multicoloured cock... Yes, that's the one. Excellent, see you shortly".

As Tony points out though, perhaps the lack of effort shown in trying to tart up that photo at all is indicative of the seriousness of the suggestion. To be fair, perhaps it would look a bit better in more context, rather than appearing like it's just been abandoned at the side of a crappy run-down dual-carriageway.