Team chosen for Liverpool museum masterplan

Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, Planit-IE, and Arup have been appointed to draw up a 10-year masterplan focussing on National Museums Liverpool’s holdings on the city’s waterfront.

Working with development consultant Fourth Street and museum consultant Andrea Nixon, the masterplan will focus on upgrading existing assets across the museum’s estate.

These include potentially finding new uses for the Pilotage, Great Western Railway Buliding, Piermaster’s House, and the Cooperage and Mermaid House, as well as rethinking the Canning Graving Docks.

The Pilotage building was formerly home to the Museum of Liverpool Life, which closed in 2006, while the Piermaster’s House is currently a World War Two-themed home open to the public. Mermaid House is part of the Merseyside Maritime Museum.

Some of the land and buildings around the museum are currently under-utilised, and the masterplan will look at development and public realm to improve visitor experience and engagement, wayfinding, educational and curational requirements, commercial activities, and sustainability.

There will also be some minor rearrangements of the ground floor of the Museum of Liverpool and redistributing some of the uses within the nearby Merseyside Maritime Museum, which also hosts the International Slavery Museum and the Border Force’s National Museum.

Any new developments will be agreed with Historic England and UNESCO before proceeding, given the area’s UNESCO World Heritage Site status.

Geoff Rich, partner at Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, said: “This is a great commission for a site at the physical, historical and emotional heart of Liverpool.

“Working in partnership with National Museums Liverpool, and in consultation with Tate, Royal Albert Dock Liverpool, Liverpool City Council, Canal and River Trust and other important neighbouring stakeholders, we are looking forward to creating a strong connected vision for the waterfront site as a whole to make the most of the historic location, public spaces and the National Museums Liverpool’s buildings, for a range of sustainable and engaging activities.”

Mairi Johnson, director of estates for National Museums Liverpool added: “Liverpool’s waterfront is not only a beautiful space but also one of huge historic significance to the city, the wider region and the rest of the UK. This is an exciting opportunity to create spaces for visitors to linger within this unique setting and to really engage with the spirit of the place. We look forward to working with FCBStudios in transforming and pushing the boundaries of this public space.”

The procurement of a masterplanner started in March, and 26 teams entered.

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There are so many opportunities here, where do I start? Maybe they can make their budget go further if they are showing increased revenue?
Some of the he hospitality facilities could be much more prominent; a café/bar in the Pilotage Building for example; or a Museum of Liverpool restaurant facing the river instead of facing Mann Island? We have a blank wall currently to the River Mersey side of the Museum. (This Museum was Liverpool Life’s replacement by the way editor).
The Canning Graving Docks clearly need to link up with the new bridges across Mann Island, and this should bring opportunities for the North Western Railway building.

By Roscoe

This area is a great asset but it could be world class. What’s needed is for central government to give the city another huge dollop of public funding to build another museum or office block. This is our very own MuseumCity:UK!!

By Muse

@Muse yeh right you not been to Liverpool lately? Far from a museum, cranes dotted all over the City and not one building a museum, all privately funded developments and not one ugly box in sight .

By Dan

Awful buildings in that picture, whenever they build something new it gets worse, I thought Liverpool was supposed to be a heritage site?

By SPM

@SPM yeh right? most attractive city in the UK

By Anonymous

@SPM they’re clad in polished granite, and it’s a world heritage site, one of only 1092 in the world.

By Anonymous

Anti-Liverpool jealousy comments again; get a life!

By Roscoe

Tbf Roscoe every single Manchester article on here is inundated with Liverpudlian trolls so it’s only balance

By James

That nice polished granite was paid for by the North West Development Agency. The flats and offices at that specification wouldn’t have been financially viable otherwise! What we need is a new NWDA to pump more government money into Liverpool to create more fantastic schemes like this!!

By Muse

Liverpool has one problem and that’s an over bearing and envious neighbour that has forever pegged its success on Liverpool’s failure coupled with an institutional animosity from London based politics and the media that seems petrified of the notion of treating Liverpool correctly as a major British city and a national asset.

By Michael McMoaner

Anybody sniping at the Liverpool waterfront needs their head testing. I can’t think of another major British City outside London that has these kind of assets, and alongside Liverpool One too. Muse makes an interesting point about the NWDA, it feels like combined authorities and TfN are a good thing, but there’s a missing strategic layer.

By Rich X

Tbf Rich there are many people in Liverpool who dislike Mann Island, do they all need their heads testing?

By Anon

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