David Fleming of NML-Will He Go? Or Will He Be Pushed?

Never has there been such a case to sack a Museum Director, as the case against Dr David Fleming.
How he has managed to stay in his job is beyond me.
I said a long time ago that he will bugger off as soon as he has erected "Flemings Folly" leaving us with a huge carbuncle in the world heritage site that helped to create a chain of events that now sees Liverpool as an architectural laughing stock.
He even saw off Loyd Grossman after the pair of them helped destroy Manchester Dock, now buried under the Museum of Liverpool, showing that the reality is, Fleming is not in the slightest bit worried about Liverpool history................but his own career.
http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/11/loyd-grossman-lectures-us-on-heritage.html
It may have backfired on him this time, the national press have slagged off the misguided design, if that's what you can call it of Liverpool's new eyesore.
Nearly sixty years after the blitz more architectural damage is done to Liverpool's historic fabric by giving old Fuzzy Felt Fleming a hundred million quid to play around with than was done by the Lufftwaffe during the Blitz.
http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2011/09/museum-of-liverpool-runner-up-in-2011.html
Runner up in BD's Carbuncle Cup competition.
 “Our first reaction was that you shouldn’t build here,” Kim Nielsen, the director of 3XN, the Danish practice responsible for its original design, has said. He should have trusted his first instincts.
http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2011/05/museum-of-liverpool-sues-3xn-architects.html



Mistake after mistake, after elementary mistake was made by what is, in my opinion, an incompetent who, if he was doing an extension on his own house would have gone bankrupt for the lack of skill to manage his project.
He had all the Liverpool pottery removed from the Maritime Museum to make way for a cafe. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/10/maritime-dining-rooms-maritime-disaster.html

He called all his curators dysfunctional characters.........not the sort of people you would want to go for a drink with" he said to a interviewer in New Zealand. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/03/watching-detectives.html
Just how many will attend his leaving party.  

He should have been sacked when he proclaimed that he wanted all young black men to feel shit http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/10/liverpool-black-history-month-will-dr.html
Yes the Director slavery museum said what. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/08/dr-david-fleming-to-be-investigated-by.html
Andy Kelly the news editor of the Daily Ghost bottled it and hid the story. Trinity "Smoking" Mirror fashion.
http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/12/david-bartlett-come-in-number-six-your.html

http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/02/museum-of-liverpool-are-trustees-out-of.html
£750,000 were paid out for breach of covenants.
http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/12/national-conservation-centre-closes.html

So will he now jump or will he be pushed. The local press hailed the opening of the new Museum a success but now as the winter draws in and the kids are back at school there is hardly anybody going there. And of course it draws attention from our museum district.
He is on his way I feel a Judd-er around the museum that there is something about to take place, but its too late for Liverpool. The damage has been well and truly done.

Museum of Liverpool-Kim Nielson of 3XN Defends His Design.

Well is it his design?
This is a picture of the Rome MAXXI that opened more than a year ago.
Much has been made of how a so called original Scandanavian design may not be the best design for wrapping around a Museum of Liverpool Life.

But here we see its not even an original concept.
Is it a plagarism of a Zaha Hadid museum?
It certainly looks like that to me.

The World Heritage Site bastardised for a museum that looks like a rip off of another museum..........Very clever.
http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/9/view/8164/zaha-hadid-maxxi-rome-complete.html

Building Design Magazine have taken a big interest in the museum since, well, Will Alsops glass pie in the sky really. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/06/wayne-colquhoun-asks-will-alsop.html

They collar-ed Kim Nielson the sacked architect http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2011/05/museum-of-liverpool-sues-3xn-architects.html
who is not now sacked, and asked him about his Museum. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2011/06/legal-row-hangs-over-liverpool-museum.html



http://www.bdonline.co.uk/multimedia/the-museum-of-liverpool-3xns-kim-nielsen-defends-his-design/5022215.article

It is only a couple of minutes long but it may be worth listening to Mr Nielson of 3XN.

Museum of Liverpool Sues 3XN-Architects.

The Museum of Liverpool has issued legal proceedings against Danish architects 3XN – more than three and a half years after dropping the practice from the £72 million project

Revealed following a Freedom of Information request to the museum by the AJ, the move is the latest in a series of legal wrangles involving the team building the waterfront landmark and comes just two months before the museum opens its doors on 19 July.
Last year Manchester-based practice AEW Architects, which was brought in to replace 3XN on the job in late 2007, went to arbitration, successfully recouping £500,000 in unpaid fees for work on the museum (AJ 04.06.10).
Details of the museum’s claim against 3XN remain unclear but, with a proposed mediation appearing to have failed, it is understood the museum needed to begin litigation before it ran out of time to do so.
The move will undoubtedly elicit a counterclaim from the Danes. In 2008, 3XN admitted to the AJ that it had sought legal advice over ‘a substantial amount’ of unpaid fees and potential copyright infringement relating to the Liverpool museum job (AJ 22.04.08).
A spokesman for the museum said: ‘We can confirm we have issued legal proceedings against 3XN and therefore can make no further comment at this stage.’

Kim Nielsen of 3XN said: ‘At this time, it would be inappropriate to respond.’

While the local press are acting as PR for Liverppol Museums the Architects Journal have made a freedom of information act request.  http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/02/liverpool-museums-how-much-have-they.html









pic ROME MAXXI which opened last year, well they look the same anyhow

Dr David Fleming-Now He Is Whinging About Budget Cuts.

IT just has to make you laugh. after the last couple of days when the Director of Liverpool Museums has been found out to be in dispute with yet another body working for them. The new architects for the White Elephant-On-Sea, museum in the world heritage site has claimed an extra 500k in costs. This has to be paid in 10 days. With an extra £32,000 in costs.
Now good old Catherine Jones, who proclaimed to me to be running the Oldham Echo, Stop the Rot campaign, that never stopped anything, gets the chance for Trinity "Smoking" Mirrors to placate David "Fuzzy Felt" Fleming who has complained about the coverage. He knows it works everytime he complains he gets extra coverage, to placate him, even though he was wrong in the first place to complain. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/07/dr-david-fleming-five-faces-of.html

 http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2010/07/16/merseyside-arts-bodies-face-armageddon-budget-cuts-92534-26865327/

Now he whines;

 MAJOR budget cuts facing Merseyside arts bodies were last night described as “Armageddon”.

And National Museums Liverpool chief David Fleming said the organisation was looking at every option including selling assets, redundancies, closures of sites and reduced opening times.
Yesterday, the bosses of Britain’s biggest arts bodies met in London to make an impassioned plea for the government to think again about axing up to 40% from culture budgets, being considered as part of the imminent Spending Review.
They argued that, while the cultural sector is willing to play its part in the country’s economic recovery with “realistic cuts”, “the 25-40% cuts being proposed would be catastrophic as they come on top of 3.5% cuts this year as well as the cultural sector’s £322m contribution to the cost of the Olympics.”
National Museums Liverpool (NML) receives £21m from central government, which forms the majority of its budget. A cut of 25% would see it lose £5.25m, while 40% would equate to £8.4m.
Mr Fleming said: “There’s sharing the burden, and there’s deciding where you do least harm. At the moment, it’s just everybody gets the same. I’ve had several meetings with staff and they are being very constructive.
“It’s Armageddon and we’ve all got to work together to get through it.”

Maybe the local papers should wake up to the fact this carbuncle in the world heritage site is the worst cultural disaster to hit Liverpool since the Second World War.

MAYBE IF HE HAD NOT WASTED SO MUCH MONEY PAYING OUT COVENANTS AND LEGAL DISPUTES WITH 3XN AND THEN ARGUING WITH THE NEW ARCHITECTS, HIS, NO, OUR, ORGANISATION WOULD NOT BE IN SUCH A MESS.

http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/02/liverpool-museums-how-much-have-they.html

http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/07/david-fuzzy-felt-fleming-he-should-be.html

http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/07/trinity-smoking-mirrors-advertorial-for.html

David "Fuzzy Felt" Fleming-He Should Be Sacked.

NML Can't Pay-Won't Pay.
How many cock-ups does one have to make to get sacked in the public sector. Grand mis-management of a public contract for a new museum in the world heritage site, that started off with a costing of £28,000,000 that ends up costing £78,000,000, and it hasnt finished yet.
Nearly a million pounds paid out for a covenant that they knew about, and now as reported last Friday on these pages, an extra £500,000 to the new architects...not 3XN who were sacked by Fuzzy, who then appointed AEN as architects. This dispute has now cost a further £32,000 in costs,  http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/07/museum-of-liverpool-cock-up-work-stops.html
Today Ben Schofield reports http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2010/07/14/national-museums-liverpool-forced-to-pay-500-000-to-architects-after-row-over-unpaid-fees-92534-26848660/ On the damning state of affairs at Liverpool Museums who destroyed Manchester Dock, our culture, to build this new museum. Fleming needs sacking.

This is a comment left on the above
Katie54 wrote:


So we have a very high profile project, designed by renowned architects who won an international competition against very stiff opposition.... then NML wanted to fiddle around with the design (cladding, etc.) and sacked the original architects, appointing the firm that was assisting with navigating UK building regs. etc.... who implemented all the many changes decided by NML.... who then refused to pay for them, although they appear to have unilaterally paid out 750,000 instead of 70,000 odd because they forgot to check the covenants on a World Heritage site!! This is not only an astounding example of arrogance and pride, but all the faffing around appears to have cost a minimum of 1,250,000. Who exactly can call Dr. Fleming to account for his astonishing hubris?

14/7/2010 11:51 AM BST on liverpooldailypost.co.uk
 
I does not stop there, the floor now needs to come up I am reliably informed.
The reality is they have spent all the budget.
 
Picture of Rome MAXXI which opened 2009..........well they do look exactly the same dont they.

Liverpool Museums-How Much Have They Paid Off 3XN.

After yesterdays bombshell about the Liverpool Museums wasting £750,000,000 of our cash. I was asked to give my opinion on BBC Northwest Tonight.
They only wanted a soundbite of course to which I duly did. I had, congratulated Ben Schofield on his reporting. I had said before this museum if it was to go ahead should have been in the Littlewoods Building on Edge Lane. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/search/label/Littlewoods which we saved from demolition under the ownership of the North "Vested Interest" Development Agency,(NWDA). It was perfect and would have stimulated the whole area and left the world heritage site alone.
The Daily Post recieved a full and lengthy letter from David "Fuzzy Felt" Fleming complaining how he got some things, as he said, wrong. He would say that. He never, it was consise, but it is with intimidation that Tin Pot Director of NML, "Fuzzy" functions. Well Done Ben and shock horror a true headline in the Echo. http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news//2010/02/24/revealed-tax-payer-funded-national-museums-liverpool-paid-out-750k-for-spoiling-a-waterfront-view-100252-25901760/
David Phleming is an avid reader of this blog and it is here we are to announce that a letter has gone off to the audit commission asking for a full and frank investigation into the covenants matter and how such huge amounts of public money are being wasted. We understand that it was not just a covenant but a act of Parliament dating back to 1872 that may have been breached and a Private Act (Mersey Docks & Harbour Board River Approaches)Act may have been breached. We are looking into this.
http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/02/national-museums-liverpool-paid-out.html
I gave Ben some further gossip and today Ben Schofield writes;
THE sacked architect behind the new Museum of Liverpool has forged a peace deal with their former employers.

Danish designer 3XN came up with the distinctive X-wing shape of the new waterfront museum.
But it was acrimoniously dropped from the project in November, 2007, and Manchester firm AEW hired to deliver the designs.
In mid-2008, 3XN’s principal architect, Kim Nielsen, said his firm was considering suing National Museums Liverpool (NML) for breach of copyright.
He also claimed NML still owned 3XN “a lot of money”.
Now, following a meeting with museums director Dr David Fleming last month, Mr Nielsen and NML have agreed to bury the hatchet.
3XN will now be officially credited as the “creative architects” on the project, which opens next year.
Mr Nielsen told the Daily Post: “It is a big issue. We had a positive meeting – we agreed about the promotion of the museum together.
“We are the designers – that is what we agreed with the museum.” Asked if the agreement was to be followed up with any cash, Mr Nielsen said: “I have no comment on that.”
He did confirm there would be no copyright lawsuit.
An NML spokesman said: “We had a very amiable and positive meeting with 3XN, and agreed to refer to the company as ‘creative architects’ on the Museum of Liverpool project.”
THE sacked architect behind the new Museum of Liverpool has forged a peace deal with their former employers.  http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2010/02/25/harmony-breaks-out-in-liverpool-museums-spat-with-architect-92534-25910055/ It is interesting to note the comment left by a member of the public.
ABBY1 wrote:

Its all greased palms and big brown envelopes in the pub to me ?
25/2/2010 10:10 AM GMT on liverpooldailypost.co.uk


http://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/astragal/a-liverpudlian-olive-branch/5214377.article#

  Which is subscription so here is the text.

Back in 2007, Danish practice 3XN vowed to take legal action – reportedly for breach of copyright and lost fees – following its departure from the £68 million scheme.
The firm was replaced following a headline-grabbing switch involving Manchester-based AEW. After a couple of years of low-key grumbling, it seems the Danes have been appeased. 3XN will now be recognised as ‘creative architect’ and will no doubt be happy to pose with museum bosses outside the building when it finally opens. That, by the way, is now not expected until 2011.

http://condensedthoughts.blogspot.com/2010/02/calculating-cost-of-cracked-covenant.html Correspondent writes his local take on the matter.

3XN Are They Mad

3XN the Danish firm who junked us with a giant skateboard ramp in the world heritage site have now designed a giant elastic band for Humlebaek.

This is what they did to Liverpool, they messed around with a shape and then decided to put a museum inside it.

The only consolation to those who live there is its bio-degradable.

I will have to look at this rubbish for all my life.

Liverpool's New Museum, if a ever a case for buildings that are already thought of as compost that should be made to degrade in ten years its this giant squashed ciggy packet. To think they destroyed the Manchester Dock that pre-dated the Albert by 60 years to build this museum. There is strange idea that scrawls on a scrap of paper or origami is architecture and the new Bilbao will come from someone that apears to have a disability and is not able to draw properly. It just does not happen that way. You end up with a giant egg box being funded by three ugly blocks of flats if you are not careful.

From BD magazine
http://www.bdonline.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=781&storycode=3144331&channel=783&c=2&encCode=00000000019d0584

3XN designs eco-friendly pavilion for Denmark’s Louisiana museum
8 July, 2009
By Anna Winston
Danish practice 3XN has designed an eco friendly pavilion for the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebæk, Denmark.
The pavilion, built in the shape of a Möbius band, is part of the Green Architecture for the Future exhibition, and was inspired by the biological cycle of life.
It is built out of biodegradable bio-composite materials. The structure’s shell is formed of flax fibres set in a natural resin, while cork sheets replace the polystyrene foam that would usually make up the inner core.
It has a coating of nanoparticles which keep the surface of the pavilion clean, built-in sensors generate energy from the footstep of visitors, and flexible solar panels power LED light fittings, making the structure 100% self sufficient.
The project was built in four months and involved 20 different companies.
Kim Herforth Nielsen, principal of 3XN, said: “The pavilion has given us the opportunity to showcase the possibilities which exist in building with sustainable and intelligent materials.
“Our objective has been to show that green architecture can be dynamic and active. Instead of focusing on consuming the least amount of energy, we need to focus on producing and using energy and materials in a more intelligent way than is the case today.”
The pavilion will be open to the public as part of the museum’s exhibition until October.

Liverpools Ferry Terminal-Bad British Architecture

Beauty or beast: New Liverpool Pier Head Ferry Terminal
3 July, 2009 By India Wright
http://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/beauty-or-beast-new-liverpool-pier-head-ferry-terminal/5204487.article

It appears that the idiotic and cranky looking Ferry Terminal is now attracting the attention of the national architectural media. Not sure if the previous blogs are anything to do with this but it certainly is the sort of headline that we warned the pathetic planners would happen. Incidentally the World Heritage Officer...yes we have one even though he has been a utter waste of time, said this was one of his favorite buildings and its all a matter of taste. Yes Mr Hinchliffe in my opinion you don't have any. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/03/world-heritage-waste-of-time.html


To then have the architects of the new museum 3XN criticizing the terminal for not blending in with the world heritage site is a bit rich. I think it fits with the museum perfectly, its just that they both ignored the fact that there are three classical pieces of architecture adjacent.
http://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/liverpool-flood-warnings-ignored/1990521.article


It was pulled apart by Private Eye before the planning application was at the planning committee. Oh and those clever members of the planning committee bringing all their architectural experience in to play and making a deliberated decision. Spivs-R-Us. You could write that, what the whole of the planning committee knew about architecture you could fit on the back of a postage stamp....in the top right hand corner. This is in Louise Ellmans constituency. So the whole weight of the architectural world can now have a laugh at us and Warren Bradley says Prince Charles is in admiration of what we have done.http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/07/milton-keynes-on-sea-we-are-rumbled.html
This is part of the biggest architectural disaster to my city since the Blitz of the Second World War. I am ashamed of what they have done to the World Heritage Site in the name of progress.

You build on your past not concrete over it.

Liverpool Museums gave me a MASBO

YOU HAVE HEARD OF AN ASBO...WELL I HAVE GOT A MASBO. The infantile little "twasser" who runs the museums "his Feltness" Dr David Fleming OBE (Our Big Ego)has banned me from the museums and to think, its that "plonker" who is guilty of anti social behaviour upsetting everyone around him including all his staff with his public relations car-crash.
He has complained to everyone who he has been criticised by, and thats many, and now he has thrown his toys out of his little frilly felt lined pram, and turned on me. I am so hurt and upset about this that I have taken an aspirin..lad a lay down.......mopped my brow.....its all too much........and decided to write about it.
He is now in a spat with the Daily Ghost and Jeckyl, who is is complaining about for, er...telling the truth. He is bully, he has realised that everytime he complains he gets a bit of publicity by default and he hopes that the hard working staff at the paper's will shy away from the aggravation and confrontation, I sincerely hope they don't. He has a big (lack of)personality problem in my opinion and not content with destroying the years of heritage that Liverpool Museums has by turning the publicly funded world museum into the Wacky Warehouse, where we have had two terrible deaths. He has also destroyed the whole essence of what Sudley House was about, and nailing a glass runway on the side of the Lady Lever was a big mistake. Its a good job he cant get his hands on the Williamson in Birkenhead....Can he? No please keep him away.
Well when I say he has banned me from the Liverpool museums, who are a client of mine, he was recently presented with the guest list for the current photography exhibition by Franco who I have known for nearly 30 years and when he saw my name he crossed it out and said "Under no circumstances is he going" boo! hoo! hoo! Yes he is big, he is tough, he is Fleming. Well I will just have to sneak in next time wont I, its a public place. What a little dictator he is. He has got a right cob on about me writing on this blog about him. I am so sorry about that. He is particularly sensitive to me mentioning his wife Alison Hastings who is on the press complaints committee...oh and she is a trustee of the BBC also.
He did not say much when Reximillions who also withdrew funding for NML because Felto has upset him, mentioned them both in his column. http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/views/liverpool-columnists/rex-makin/2009/02/06/st-george-s-hall-s-famous-floor-should-be-free-for-all-100252-22867688/

Well I think this is all a smokescreen because he told us that 3XN the architects that he sacked were bringing us a piece of Danish Architecture to our World Heritage Site and we will like it one day the pathetic planning committee all believed him. Or did they! David "Am I bovvered because I dont live in Liverpool"Irving, passed the plans in what the papers called a nod through on the 20th December 05.
It reminded me of something I was sure it was a Oscar Niemeyer rip-off like Paddys Wigwam. I was sure that's where the inspiration came from.....and I could not understand why a giant skateboard ramp would be a museum. I wondered about the white Elephant-on-Sea and where I has seen the shape of the giant squashed ciggy packet......................... then, I found it.








Right behind the Baltic Fleet there it was the copper power station, they have conned us all, the architect has ripped off with a power station.
This is what Phlem hates being caught out because the little tin-pot Emperor is not wearing any clothes and is standing there naked in the ill wind of uncertainty waiting till the next massive tide floods all our artifacts because they ignored the flood risk warnings from the Environment Agency.
Its not me who should be banned but the tin-pot who runs the place who is wasting my money on a museum that no-one wants that will not even be able to display the items because they designed the shape first.

The Power Station behind the Baltic Fleet Pub. Liverpools New Museum was based on this design by............ Manweb.