And Mike Storey has Twelve. The disgraced ex council leader has a face for everyone...when it suits him, or his mentors Trevor and Doreen Jones who passed all the plans for the three black coffins at Mann Island.
Moving on from my questions to Will Alsop. It is clear the Development Cabal have taken another hit here. Showing up the "cosy" relationship between the North Vested Interest Development Agency and Neptune Developments.
But we must not forget that Storey was on the NWDA committee, he was also the Council leader. He was also on the board of Liverpool Vision and was a trustee of Liverpool museums.
http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/06/wayne-colquhoun-asks-will-alsop.html
Today David Bartlett take the time to tell the news where it is.
http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news//tm_headline=architect-will-alsop-criticises-liverpool-s-8216-mediocre-8217-waterfront-buildings%26method=full%26objectid=26753889%26siteid=100252-name_page.html
THE ARCHITECT behind the failed Fourth Grace scheme has launched a withering attack on the buildings that are being built in its place on Liverpool’s waterfront.
Will Alsop, whose company designed the Cloud, said the buildings the city has “ended up with ... lie in the general malaise of architectural mediocrity that we find so popular with the current architectural press”.
He added: “In the end, this is all history but I do believe that Liverpool deserves much better than it got, whether it was my building or not.”
Three glazed black blocks in the Mann Island development and the new Museum of Liverpool are currently nearing completion at the city’s Pier Head where the Cloud would have been built.
Mr Alsop also hit out at the National Museums Liverpool (NML) for the organisation’s role in the collapse of the Fourth Grace, saying it had its own agenda.
He also claimed the North West Development Agency (NWDA) had pulled the plug on the project to meet a shortfall in funds for the ECHO Arena and BT Convention Centre.
The architect also claimed the city council had used its planning department as a “stalling device.”
His comments, during an online architectural webchat, have resurrected the row that erupted after his Cloud building was sensationally scrapped in July 2004.
The decision to abandon the project was made after it emerged that projected costs had risen by almost £100m.
Last night the council, the NWDA, and Neptune Developments who are building the three blocks rejected Mr Alsop’s claims. NML declined to comment.
Steven Broomhead, NWDA chief executive, said it was untrue that the scheme had been stopped because of a funding shortfall on the arena and convention project.
He said: “The public sector partners involved in the Fourth Grace – Liverpool City Council, Liverpool Vision, National Museums Liverpool and the NWDA – jointly concluded that the project had become unviable due to increasing costs and fundamental changes from the original scheme.
“The estimated cost had risen from £228m to £324m and there was a massive increase in the residential element of the project, which focused on ‘form’ not sustainable functions.
“All this was likely to have resulted in the scheme being called in, causing lengthy delays in making progress on the site.”
He said the partners had been determined to deliver a “world-class” scheme, adding: “The new Museum of Liverpool, extension to the canal link and complementary mixed-use development will deliver a major iconic visitor destination, as well as delivering significant economic benefits to Liverpool, Merseyside and the entire region.”
Steve Parry, chief executive of Neptune Developments, said Mann Island is a development of “exceptional quality” and had won many plaudits from the Commission for the Built Environment (CABE), English Heritage, and commentators like Stephen Bayley.
He said: “The appeal of the development to investment institutions, and commercial and residential occupiers is undoubtedly connected to the originality of a design.
“Will Alsop is renowned for his colourful and highly individual opinions.
“I think Will should actually come up and see the buildings before judging them.
“As he knows only too well, two dimensional images rarely do justice to visionary architecture.”
A council spokesman said its planning department had raised legitimate concerns regarding the Cloud’s design.
He said: “This was not a stalling device nor was it the reason the project did not happen.
“That was because Šthe estimated cost of the scheme spiralled to nearly £100m more than the original figure and that the scheme’s character changed fundamentally from what was originally envisaged.
“This included a proposed massive increase in the residential element of the scheme – doubling the original number of apartments to 700, and 200 apartments in the Canning Dock.”
The Cabal defend English Heritage...well
http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/05/sir-neil-cossons.html who was also a trustee of Liverpool Museums.
http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/04/who-polices-heritage-police.html
And CABE
http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/06/cabe-who-funds-them.html
Bryan Gray the Chairman of the NWDA was also a trustee of NML.
They are All Shysters together as far as I am concerned, they who destroyed Manchester Docks
http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/03/manchester-docks-obliterated.html and who is Stephen Bayley anyhow to comment on a city he left decades ago.
Yesterday I had the opportunity to ask Will Alsop some direct questions a few years after he was unceremoniously dumped from the Fourth Grace(sic) Scheme that he had put so much into, in fact he may have even staked his company on the schemes go-ahead. I did not wish to wind him up or get him annoyed but it seems, from his reply that the whole World Heritage Blight fiasco is still an open wound with him.
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