Lime Street redevelopment set for approval
Liverpool City Council is expected to sign off the £35m redevelopment of an area to the east of Lime Street in the city centre at its planning committee meeting next week.
Plans for the mixed-use scheme by Regeneration Liverpool, a joint venture between Sigma Inpartnership and the council, and developer Neptune, were submitted earlier this year, but were revised after criticism of the original designs.
The application relates to the majority of the block bounded by Lime Street, Skelhorne Street, Copperas Hill and Bolton Street.
The reworked proposal by IBI Group and Broadway Malyan includes 30,000 sq ft of commercial space, a 101-bedroom hotel, and an eleven-storey 412-bedroom student residential building.
The resubmitted plans propose the same scale of demolition outlined in the earlier application, including the replacement of the Futurist cinema. The grade two-listed ABC Cinema on Lime Street would be retained.
There were 61 letters of objection to the first proposal, and 15 to the current scheme, one of which said the scheme was worse than the last.
The development has been recommended for approval by planning officers at the next meeting of the council’s planning committee on 11 August.
A report ahead of meeting said: “The scheme will contribute towards a sustainable mix of uses in an accessible location, benefiting the local economy and providing enhanced employment prospects.
“In design terms, the head of planning considers that with the revision secured, the scheme would be an appropriate form of development within the area. The height, scale and design of the building will relate well to the surrounding historic environment and will be of sufficiently high quality to ensure it contributes positively to the area without any undue impact on existing heritage assets.”
Still looks like a detention centre for detractors of the leadership..
By Man on bicycle
Still think the vertical coloured strips on the top layer don’t work. A much lighter touch is needed here. The architects need to work on this bit, making it hover above and behind Lime Street. Liverpool presents itself in layers – see Quentin Hughes’s classic ‘Seaport’ book. The access to the hotel etc. from the upper layer at Skelhorne Street/Bolton Street is a great idea, but ‘reading’ this architecture from Lime Street and St. George’s plateau will work much better, if it is treated in design terms separately from the lower Lime Street elevation.
By Paul Blackburn
I agree Paul, the upper levels have a brusqueness about them and the windows in my view
are rather too small and mean and over shadowed by the array of drab colouring which remind
me of a rather redundant waterfall.
I do hope they can cheer it up a bit, it does seem to indicate depression ville, stay here if you are, that sort of thing.
Lets hope they pay attention to it’s position in the city a little more, as you say it is in an elevated layer, and would be viewed from many different vistas across the city.
By Man on bicycle
Yes, the overall concept, including the partial pedestrianisation of Lime Street, and raising its international profile – see ‘Lime Street Futures’ website – is great; but the attention to detail and taking into account the city’s morphology and layers, could make all the difference.
By Paul Blackburn