Legal row hangs over Liverpool museum launch-Building Design Magazine.

Second architect prepares for museum client’s court action. I have printed some of the article courtesy of BD mag as it is subscription.

A fresh legal row involving the architects behind the £72 million Museum of Liverpool project is threatening to overshadow its opening in four weeks’ time.
National Museums Liverpool (NML) is poised to launch legal action against the firm it drafted in to complete the project, Manchester practice AEW, after last month beginning proceedings against original architect 3XN, which it kicked off the job in 2007.
Although a spokesman for the museum stressed “it has not issued legal proceedings” against AEW, BD understands the practice is preparing to defend itself in court.
This follows a row last year between the two parties that saw AEW successfully recoup £500,000 in unpaid fees.
AEW declined to comment, but both disputes are thought to centre on how much the museum claims it is allegedly owed because of delays to the project, which bosses originally hoped would be partly finished in time for the city’s stint as European Capital of Culture back in 2008.
The scheme has since missed a series of deadlines and will be only three-quarters complete when it opens on July 19. A second phase will open by November.
Broadcaster Gillian Reynolds, who was on the board of the museum’s trustees for seven years until her resignation over a separate issue in 2008, said she was “not surprised” by the legal rumpus and said NML was partly to blame for the scheme running late.
It also emerged this week that 3XN had issued a counterclaim in its dispute with NML.
Principal Kim Nielsen admitted the spat centred on how much each allegedly owed each other. He said the case had not reached the courts yet and added: “I expect it will be sorted out amicably.”

http://www.bdonline.co.uk/news/legal-row-hangs-over-liverpool-museum-launch/5020002.article

Last week a ceiling collapsed at the new museum, one month before opening and a worker was taken to hospital. It is never going to be ready.

 How does Fuzzy Felt Flemming keep getting away with wasting millions for Fleminigs Folly.
Why does someone at the audit commission or at the DCMS look into his wasteful approach to building his Grand Design.
If a normal person went ahead like this they would be bankrupt. It started off as £21 million and is to cost well how long is a piece of string really its at £80 million now and rising.
http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/12/national-conservation-centre-closes.html 
pic Rome MAXXI well they look the same dont they




BD keeps sniffing out the news on behalf of Liverpool's tax paying public, who are funding this mess, they have obviously spoke to the builders.
http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2011/05/museum-of-liverpool-sues-3xn-architects.html
Another Architect with legal action.
http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/08/i-want-all-young-black-men-to-feel-shit.html

Liverpools World Heritage Education-Nil By Mouth.

It must have hurt the editor of the Daily Post to have to print the front page against the full blight of its editorial stance and their  "plumping" for its business readers, of who I am advised there are.....well, more than a few less, than last year.

The city was told by Unesco at its 2008 and 2009 World Heritage committee meetings that, amongst other things, they must educate the public, as to the principles of its inclusion in the Unesco World Heritage Site list.

This it was felt would stop rogue councillors spiving for developers and stop the mess that was already in full flight.

Stop the binge build mentality that now sees us waking up to reality, with an almighty hangover.

A tacky application to the heritage lottery was made by John Hinchliffe our World heritage officer, for funding, yes him, with the backbone of a jellyfish, where world heritage is concerned.

I question why he is there, if not to facilitate the spivs and speculators who have got their mits on whats left of our historic fabric. There is a world heritage steering group, steering what?

http://whc.unesco.org/en/decisions/1252

http://whc.unesco.org/en/decisions/1722

http://whc.unesco.org/en/decisions/1922    Here are those decisions for your information.


We now have our historic buildings looking like aliens in the new urban settings.
Next to the likes of the three black coffins and its sister ship the new museum of Liverpool the Rome MAXXI lookalike, we have Three Graces, overpowered.
 
How many people can boast that they know where the world heritage site is?  
Unesco said a a education programme as to world heritage priciples was required.
Lottery funding was refused and that was that then, no education at all. 

http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/10/dear-john-mr-hinchliffe-you-are-trying.html

It seems that apart from being jockey-ed along, the local press don't know where the world heritage site is either, or don't care, although I liked Marc Waddingtons direct approach and his honesty when I met him recently.

But who wrote the opinion in yesterdays paper?

 It has to be someone with a gripe against me, my contribution offering Amsterdam as an alternative inspiration to Shanghai for Liverpool Waters, was cut. That would not have suited his friends I think.

140 words, by me, ended up as 14.

http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/views/liverpool-daily-post/2011/06/15/city-cannot-be-allowed-to-stand-still-92534-28879098/

In its place, was, as expected a plump for Peel Holdings.

I am reliably informed that Mark Thomas as editor went "Out to lunch" with Peel Holdings the week before last..............see the things you don't know can harm you.......it all makes sense now. 

Mark Thomas has, as one of his favorite buildings, the Terminal Ferry Carbuncle, so we want no lectures from you Sir, where architecture is concerned. Here is what they said.

 City cannot be allowed to stand still

http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/views/liverpool-daily-post/2011/06/15/city-cannot-be-allowed-to-stand-still-92534-28879098/

NO MATTER what new additions have emerged on the Liverpool waterfront in recent times, there can still be little doubt that it is a site of extraordinary, spellbinding grandeur.
Nature itself is mostly responsible for the view, as the River Mersey ebbs and flows with unceasing splendour, at the heart of our city’s history – but the enthralling architecture of the Three Graces has done even more to make the waterfront one of the inspirational vistas to be found anywhere in Britain . . . or, indeed, the wider world beyond.
Yet the World Heritage Committee, meeting under the auspices of Unesco for ten days from Sunday, has placed an item on its agenda concerning “the state of conservation of the World Heritage property Liverpool”.
Speakers may well question the appearance of Neptune’s three glazed black wedges, at Mann Island, or raise the spectre of the huge Liverpool Waters development, which will transform derelict dockland to the north of the Pier Head site.
They may say that new developments spoil the panorama from this point or that point, or realign the perspective from a particular, favourite angle.
But can Liverpool truly afford to wrap itself up in cotton wool for generations to come? Our future lies in fostering jobs and investment to cater for the Liverpudlians of the future. People come from far and wide to savour our heritage, so it is undoubtedly important, but it is misguided to put at risk exciting, innovative job-creating developments for the sake of fossilising our waterfront for all time.
The loud and vociferous heritage lobby on Merseyside have become adept at raising the alarm over every perceived threat to the area – but they speak out of all proportion to the size of their membership. They surely do not speak for the vibrant business community, whose importance in safeguarding the future prosperity of our city cannot be underestimated.
Instead, they hanker for a heritage which is important, yes, but must be allowed to evolve in the best interests of Liverpool.
If the waterfront and everything around it stagnates because of over-exaggerated claims about new developments, investors will stay away – and our economy will stagnate along with it. That must not be allowed to happen. 


In today's reporting reality we dont have to be fed by the local papers though and here is Correspondents take on the matter. http://condensedthoughts.blogspot.com/2011/06/decision-time-for-unesco-port-of.html 
I know which one I prefer.

Liverpools World Heritage Status Faces Fresh Review-The Liverpool Daily Post Says

I met with Marc Waddington last week and he listened to what I had to say about the threats to Liverpools WHS.
Despite nobody at the local press being aware of a Unesco world heritage committee meeting he wrote it up. http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2011/06/15/liverpool-world-heritage-site-future-under-spotlight-at-unesco-paris-conference-in-development-row-92534-28879640/ And today's front page looks like this.

English Heritage have commissioned an independent report that damns the proposed Liverpool Waters scheme will will obliterate the Overall Universal Value of Liverpool's Maritime and Mercantile World Heritage Site. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2011/05/liverpool-waters-english-heritage.html
CABE slam the proposals. http://www.cabe.org.uk/transfer/liverpool-waters.pdf
Unesco may be like a big lumbering Elephant but when they fall on you it hurts.

We need to protect our WHS at all costs.

Will Unesco Focus Hearts And Minds In Liverpool.

All my life I have waited for Liverpool to pull its socks up, through all those dark days when no finances were available, I hoped while we got battered from pillar to post by the national press we could recreate our past glory and be back on centre stage.

All through those dark days could go down to Pier Head and stare at the majesty of what Liverpool was, and hope for the future.
Then I watched while they paved Paradise and put up a parking lot.

It has broke my heart watching our best asset, the central core of the world heritage site destroyed by crass speculation and inappropriate development.

Imagine if they did this to the Pyramids and the Taj Mahal the outrage that would ensue. And the spivs and speculators of which there are too many in this city tell me don’t worry its progress.
Well it’s not its degeneration we are being turned into a laughing stock…this is what they do when they are European Capital of Culture…clever, really clever, not.

Because the central docks are not as pretty it takes nothing away from its historical importance.
The council have already filled in Trafalgar Docks in a foolish decision to let them dump it in with the millions of tons of rubble from Chavasse Park where they built over Steers dock the oldest dock in the world.

Liverpool Mercantile and Maritime city and we try to turn it into Shanghai for a company, Peel Holdings, whose stranglehold on the region is far too great.

My city council who I pay my rates to should be far less gushing to these developers, the whole notion that the city council who are supposed to look after the world heritage site are selling it down the river literally is abhorrent to me.

Liverpool docks are being shipped down river where Peel are building Port Salford and then they say they are to create jobs by building glass shoeboxes in something that off plan resembles Dubai on Sea, claiming this is the only way forward when there are already so many empty apartments.

They can’t build apartments and take away the jobs for industry. Salford will now benefit from industry setting up creating jobs. I want to see my city create jobs not move them, that is our future.

What have Peel and the city council, which in my opinion is now joined at the hip in an unhealthy relationship that stifles debate, got to hide from English Heritage as advisers to the UK government.

I cant see what Peel are scared of if they want to come to my city and trample all over us then they are not welcome by us.
If they wish to build something that respects the heritage of our great city then they may start by revising their plans and it may be a good idea to start looking to Amsterdam for inspiration and not the horrid loneliness and stifling mess of Shanghai, who do they think they are coming here telling us we are going to turn you into Shanghai.

CABE have slammed the Liverpool Waters development saying it will detrimentally affect the Overall Universal Value of the WHS something that they said the three black coffins and its sister museum would not…yes that is how bad it is.

We have one chance to get it right and respect our history, that is our future.

Who the bloody hell do Peel Holdings think they are coming into our city telling us they are going to turn us into Shanghai.

What has Shanghai got to do with Liverpool……..they have built over their history?

The unhealthy relationship between the city council and developers such as Peel is alarming.
The council and its leaders are playing a game of Confirmation bias towards Peel, with our history.

Liverpool Mercantile and Maritime City just look what they have done to the Pier Head, built three black coffins and an anachronism of a museum, if any other city had of done world heritage site there would have been world outrage.

I don’t like to see my city being laughed at we have made too many mistakes.
Liverpool’s Heritage is at risk here and as a WHS is of concern to all.

Liverpool "Pulled In" by Unesco Under A State Of Conservation Alert.

We at LPT as adviser's to Unesco have kept them regularly informed.


We have been dealing with the DCMS for 6 years now who are the body responsible for upholding World Heritage Principles.
Not the local councillors and their cronies who are far too embroiled with its “cosy” developers.
We have worked so hard to ensure that the principles of Liverpool’s WHS inscription are upheld, for not just the benefit of a few speculators but for its citizens against a relentless tide of binge build mentality that now sees us waking up with an architectural hangover.
It is with regret that successive city councils forget that the signing up to a Unesco charter comes with responsibilities attached and these important matters go above the need to enable any developer who comes along to knock up a few thousand apartments and say its progress.

Mann Island and Liverpool’s World Heritage Waterfront are a good reference point. They promised us Iconic and delivered I chronic, a laughing stock, an example of how to destroy your best asset, a world heritage asset with, Three Black Coffins an anachronism of a museum that is a sad rip off of the Rome MAXXI, oh, and its little brother the 2009 BD Carbuncle Cup winning Terminal Ferry Building right in front of the Three Graces.

To thinks that all this was happening while Liverpool was European Capital of Culture.

The wider aspect of Liverpool’s World Heritage principles in general were ordered to be protected, by Unesco, and were also ordered to be taught to Liverpool’s citizens, by its city council, as a let off the hook after its 2006 monitoring mission and its subsequent directives after World Heritage Committee meetings in 2008, 2009 and 2010 and to the DCMS.

This has not been done even now when Liverpool goes before Unesco in June, again, under a state of conservation.
It is up to us at the LPT, as world heritage watchdogs and concerned individuals to inform the press of the embarrassing occasion and thus educate the public as to the risks. It does not seem despite Liverpool having a world heritage officer, that the city council will provide any information to advise the public as a whole.
Liverpool could be put on the Unesco at risk register for failing to take the WHS principles seriously and to protect its values.

English Heritage and CABE have said the Liverpool Waters proposals could cause significant harm to the Overall Universal Value of the World Heritage Property while the city council under its misguided leadership go head long into building Shanghai on the Mersey at the behest of the rather arrogant Peel Holdings.

We are not apposed to development and if as it seems Peels plans are to close down Liverpool’s Docks and transfer its business to Salford (losing any future jobs) and build skyscrapers in its place, then the principles of Liverpool’s inclusion on the world heritage list could be affected to such a detrimental way that we could in fact lose the WHS status.

This would be a most embarrassing state of affairs indeed, and it could happen.
It seems that the simplest way to respect the property if development is to take place, is to look to more humane examples such as Amsterdam where the size and scale of development around its historic waterways is both humane and functional and this city should be set up as an example.

Dubai should not be the point of reference.

There is no point in destroying your best asset for short-term gain for tax exiles, speculators and spivs.

http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2011/06/liverpool-back-under-unesco-microscope.html
 
In a draft speech that we have obtained prepared by Liverpool City Council, Joe Anderson will make at the Liverpool Office, or Embassy in London the last paragraph says Quote;
 
"Liverpool is full of investment opportunities it is not just the Liverpool Skyline that is unrecognisable but its ability and confidence to do business"
Says it all really.

Liverpool Back Under The Unesco Microscope In June

Liverpools World Heritage Site is to be under the microscope in Paris on 19th June 2011.


We are advisors to Unesco and have kept them more than informed with the progress of the proposals for the Liverpool Waters planning application.


We have received notification from Patricia Alberth of Unesco stating that,

We are pleased to confirm that the state of conservation of the World Heritage

property "Liverpool - Maritime Mercantile City" (UK) will be on the agenda of

the 35th session of the World Heritage Committee (Paris, 19-29 June 2011).

Subject: State of conservation of the World Heritage property "Liverpool - Maritime Mercantile City" (UK)

Yours sincerely,
Patricia Alberth



English Heritage have raised considerable objections to Liverpool Waters

I have posted their executive summary online, as it seems the council or Peel Holdings have no intention of doing so, it is so damning. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2011/05/liverpool-waters-english-heritage.html


CABE also slam the proposals http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2011/05/cabe-slam-liverpool-waters.html



We first advised Unesco in 2005 when the idea for a Fourth Grace(sic) was muted.

Liverpool had to entertain a Unesco monitering mission from Unesco at our request in http://whc.unesco.org/en/decisions/1180  October 2006 just before the proposals for the Mann Island Development, now built and known locally as the Three Black Coffins were discussed by the Planning Committee. http://www.bbc.co.uk/liverpool/content/articles/2006/03/14/capcult_regen_mann_island_feature.shtml  This is what I had to say at the time.

Unesco were far from happy with Liverpool

http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/b010r7by/  This is a recent Radio 4 interview I did for the Beyond Westminster discussing the corrupted planning process in Liverpool. Mann Island is 12 minutes into the piece about planning legislation.

Mann Island went to a casting vote by Lady Doreen Jones your typical planning committee chairperson anachronism and cronie.

Liverpool was let off the hook Unesco sated that despite loss of some KEY VIEWS the Overall Universal Value (OUV) was not directly affected. http://whc.unesco.org/uploads/nominations/1150.pdf  Monitering mission report.

The proof is there for all to see and the DCMS had to give explanations to Unesco for the mess.

Unesco had 18% of its budget paid by the UK government and its permanent delegation was in disarray with a further mission to the Tower of London and threats to Bath and Edinburgh also under the spotlight.

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1150

Numerous directives were given to Liverpool the most important being the need to produce a supplementary Planning Document outlining its commitment to World Heritage Principles.

http://whc.unesco.org/en/decisions/1252

http://whc.unesco.org/en/decisions/1722

http://whc.unesco.org/en/decisions/1922

Now English Heritage who did not object to the recent decimation of Liverpools Pier Head and its waterfront say that if plans for Liverpool Waters went ahead it would harm the OUV of Liverpools World Heritage Site.

Watch This Space.

Liverpool Mercantile and Maritime City, What A Joke!

What a complete and utter mess we had a billion pounds of European cash and what did it get us.

A shopping centre at Grosvenor-pool and a ruined Pier Head. pic John Whittaker courtesy of Southampton Echo
http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2011/06/03/cruise-company-abandoning-liverpool-says-city-has-not-got-its-act-together-100252-28811371/
Today Bobby Bartlett at The Daily Ghost reminds us what a shambolic state of affairs this is.

He says;
A LEADING cruise company boss said the company had pulled its liners out of Liverpool because the city had failed to "get their act together".

The ECHO and Post revealed last year how Fred Olsen Cruise Lines was pulling out of the city, despite practically selling out 7,700 berths on nine cruises in 2010.
Nigel Lingard, the marketing director of Fred Olsen, specifically pointed out Liverpool was not included while launching the company’s new 2012-13 brochure.
He said: "They still haven’t got their act together, so we are pulling out."
Liverpool council is currently lobbying the government to win the city the right to establish a full cruise liner terminal, allowing trips to start and finish on the River Mersey.

All the comments waffle on about all the same brainwashed stuff about Southampton blocking the use of the Cruise Liner Jetty as a going concern. Liverpool will be blocked from using this by European legislation on unfair competition rules that the Fib-Dem spivs who commissioned it thought they could ignore. And Peel want to build a facility in the proposed Liverpool Waters.........how convenient to have it not working!


Remember this was the same paper who proclaimed how wonderful it was that we had a new Cruise Turnaround Facility................without researching the facts, without revealing that Peel Holdings still own the road that leads to the jetty. 

Further reading or click the labels at the bottom of this post.

http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/06/cruising-from-liverpools-langton-dock.html

http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/03/cruise-from-liverpool.html

http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/12/what-have-peel-holdings-ever-done-for.html