The Dolls House.

[kung_fuzi]

A snippet of info I feel I should impart to you all before i retire(up very early,3am).
The present occupiers of the Dolls House (HBOS)will vacate the building by July 2007.
I don't know what this means for the future of the building,whether it will be demolished(I,We hope) or whether new occupants will arrive but it sounds very promising indeed.

[woody]

[QUOTE=kung_fuzi;1040773).
The present occupiers of the Dolls House (HBOS)will vacate the building by July 2007.
[/QUOTE]

That could be very interesting news the dolls house and carpark takes up a fair "footprint" and would be ideal for a 12/16 storey tower, sitting between Pelli`s tower and the NEW Kingston House , Cheers for info Kungi

[Liverpool8]

Ideal, too, for another black granite cladded lopsided cube crammed full of one bedroom flats and opportunities for commercial development at street level. Subway? Starbucks?

[the golden vision]

Originally Posted by kung_fuzi

A snippet of info I feel I should impart to you all before i retire(up very early,3am).
The present occupiers of the Dolls House (HBOS)will vacate the building by July 2007.
I don't know what this means for the future of the building,whether it will be demolished(I,We hope) or whether new occupants will arrive but it sounds very promising indeed.

The problem is ,200 finance jobs are going down the road with it.The Halifax are closing the processing centre and moving the jobs to "other" places in the North west,their words.I wonder were that'll be?

[Liverpool8]

Check out the new Dingle Business Park. (Sponsered by NWDA & EH, President: Lady Mutton-Dressed-As-Lamb)



Maybe the jobs will go there?

[Doug Roberts]

This is bad news, Liverpool really needs jobs like these and although it may represent an opportunity to do something with the dolls house this is too high a price to pay.

I wonder if this decision to pull out is linked to the proposed move to the Unity commercial block?? this deal was cancelled.


http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/0...name_page.html

[Doug Roberts]

Very interesting piece in this mornings DP. about time we heard something positive for this site.


http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/...4375-20497528/

[Scarecrow]

“Our clients are looking to redevelop the site in due course hence the reason for the short term availability.

Great stuff Doug. A crater would be better than this blob of poo.

[Doug Roberts]

You're dead right there, the bit about the current owners only wanting a short term deal because they want to re-develop the site was great news!!

Quite decent sized site when you take in the car park at the rear.

[Roo]

Great news. A bit vague and probably far off but... its great

[buggedboy]

Spotted this too. Good stuff and roll on 18 months! Hopefully they will get pplans submitted and approved in the intermin so we can salivate about what's scheduled to replace it. Thanks to OPW I expect something of at least 10/12 stories.

[Martin S]

If they are intending comprehensive redevelopment (i.e. demolition and reconstruction) it won't be anything small. The building is only around ten years old and nowhere near fully depreciated. They are going to have to write off its remaining value before they even start on a new building.

[T0M]

True Martin. But if they own the land, surely they could build a much larger office block and rent out part of it to recover the loss of this building?

[Evertonian]

I think the only thing that would do that justice is a 340 storey glass tower (mint green).

[Evertonian]

....or alternatively leave well alone a perfectly good, modern, well equiped business building.

Theres nothing wrong with the "dolls house".

[Chris B]

Originally Posted by Evertonian

Theres nothing wrong with the "dolls house".

Based solely on it's own merits, it's an inoffensive enough building. It's not going to win any prizes for architecture, but it's pleasant enough on the eye, and as mentioned is probably still quite modern as offices go.

BUT

It's in completely the wrong place. If this building was located in Wavertree Technology Park, it would be one of the better buildings. Brick-built rather than a metal shed. Decent height, and offers off-street parking. It would do fine. The problem is, it's not in Wavertree Technology Park, it's slap-bang in the city centre, taking up a site that can and should comfortably hold a much larger development. Both in terms of footprint and height, this building is far too out of scale for the site it occupies - a situation exacerbated by One Park West next door showing how it should be done. If this was almost any where else, I would say leave it, but in this location it's continued presence is simply untenable. As much as it may seem wasteful, I'm sure one day in the future when one of our photographers posts images of a demolition grappler tearing into this building, there will be a small sigh of relief breathed from many on this forum.

Decent enough building, wrong location. Unless someone wants to pay for it to be re-located, it needs to go.

[T0M]

So

[Martin S]

Originally Posted by T0M

True Martin. But if they own the land, surely they could build a much larger office block and rent out part of it to recover the loss of this building?

Yes Tom - that's what I'm saying really. There would be little point in demolishing the building to build one of similar size.

I have a copy of the City Centre Plan from the mid 90s and what it shows is a large number of similar buildings in that area about what seem to be like water spaces. Perhaps the 'Dolls House' was the first attempt at implementing that design but got overtaken by later developments.

[liverpolitan]

It's an abomination and I think a lot of potential tenants would not consider it because it is so abominably ugly on the outside. Who wants to be associated with something so hideously ugly? So it's probably not worth much now because only blind or low-taste tenants would go there.

What is wrong in this world is that people do terrible things and get away with it because they are shielded from scrutiny. Someone designed this. Someone recommended it be approved. Someone funded it. There are people out there who did this and they got away with it. They should be identified, named and shamed.

[JUXTAPOL]

Originally Posted by liverpolitan

It's an abomination and I think a lot of potential tenants would not consider it because it is so abominably ugly on the outside. Who wants to be associated with something so hideously ugly? So it's probably not worth much now because only blind or low-taste tenants would go there.

What is wrong in this world is that people do terrible things and get away with it because they are shielded from scrutiny. Someone designed this. Someone recommended it be approved. Someone funded it. There are people out there who did this and they got away with it. They should be identified, named and shamed.

I think at the time Liverpool took whatever crumbs were offered, of course this won't happen now, when you consider the 10/12 storey modern proposal for Kingston house on one side, and the 15/17 Pelli the other side of it. So i wouldn't blame those who approved it at the time.