Total Eclipse of the Heart
Those pesky MPs blacked out less of their expense claims than we're currently doing of our world heritage waterfront... (check out the slideshow at the foot of the piece)
Imagine this. You were the custodian of a city viewpoint that adorned a thousand calendars, had snappers from Toronto to Tokyo ooh-ing and ah-ing behind their Fuji Finepix, and sharing their holiday photos with friends across the globe. That, through a thousand Flikr updates, our city went viral.
Imagine that UNESCO had given said cluster of civic pride a coveted World Heritage status - ranking it alongside the Alhambra in Spain, The Statue of Liberty, the Medina of Marrakesh…
And then try to figure out what thought process (if any) it would need to arrive at the decision to black it out.
Not only that, but to obscure this with a graceless, leaden hulk that wouldn’t get past first base on a RIBA Correspondence Course.
There is, among architects, a raging debate about context. Zaha Hadid says it’s bollocks - that buildings don’t have a duty to ‘blend in’ but to ‘respond’ to their immediate urban condition. We tend to agree. But even she wouldn’t be arrogant enough to block out the competition. But, then, she is a world class architect. Not a school boy who got lucky with a design competition.
Liverpool is a complex city. This is not a complex debate. Mann Island is not a complex building. It’s a jagged little pill. And we’re all going to have to swallow it. At least, until it the next one comes along.
Still, Steven Gerrard loves it. He’s snapped up two luxury apartments. Good to know that, for some, that view will remain - if only from their bedroom window.
Ironic, isn’t it, that even through the fires of Blitz, the ‘Geermans’ didn’t obliterate the Three Graces. It was our friendly fire what did for ‘em.
So, in response to the outrage, Sevenstreets postulates what damage this implanted cell would create, should other city councils be quite so myopic. Reminds us of that scene at the end of 2010, a Space Odyssey… appropriately enough.
Haha - very funny. I was pretty excited for this building, but it’s becoming a real eyesore.
What an absolute disgrace that building is. The greatest square mile of architecture in the UK looks as if some quasi-fucked up alien ship has landed in front of it. The view of the Three Graces, when sat outside the Pumphouse pub on a sunny day nursing a pint, was THE archetypal viewpoint in the city. And now its gone. A shambles and a abomination. Heads should fucking roll.
Actually - it looks pretty good next to the pyramids
‘Damaged Borg cube’ is the simile you’re looking for, Crab
Margi Clarke, bless her, dubbed them the Black Coffins. I think that is apt as it is certainly the death of the best view in Liverpool.
If you want to know who passed the plans for Mann Island look no further than Lady Doreen Jones. As LibDem chair of the Planning Committee in 2006 she used her casting vote after a 4-4 split from the councillors. There were cries of SHAME from the public gallery as she approved this act of civic vandalism.
The worst thing is - the image at the top of this piece (which is great, by the way - and kudos on the site) is only the official computer generated mockup of it. In real life it looks even worse.
Here is a couple of pieces we did earlier on the three black slugs and the white coffin down on our world heritage site imagine if they had done this to the Taj Mahal or the Pyramids the world outrage that would have ensued.
http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/search/label/Mann%20Island
Cheers. It’s odd how people only seem to have woken up to this now… wonder what they thought was going on there? Very sad.