Liverpool One 10 Years On

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LIVERPOOL ONE

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Mark Braund reflects on the lasting impact of Liverpool One and how the city continues to evolve

I love my city. I often take clients and friends from around the world on tours. It’s a great walking city, from traditional business district to waterfront, to cultural quarter and retail heart. Unlike other UK cities Liverpool has an international identity, already familiar because of its significant role in history, skyline, people… not to mention music! Most visitors are predisposed to connect with the place and their reception is always positive. Liverpool One opened in 2008 in tandem with winning European Capital of Culture and the city began a new phase, a reawakening, or perhaps more accurately, a fresh understanding of its importance in relation to the world as a major brand. Previously the city had suffered a real decline – not just in retail, but life in general – but Liverpool has always been a city of culture, energy and life. I designed the Liverpool Pavilion for the World Expo in 2010 when it was the only UK city represented. It massively outperformed its expected audience numbers, connecting with a global audience and declaring its new found

optimism post Capital of Culture, with a new civic pride.

Liverpool One’s success stems from its connections, how it integrates with the existing city fabric and it was a pleasure to spend a day capturing these networks with photographer Dan Hopkinson. Our masterplan created linkages in 2008 which are now firmly established throughout the city, and its identity as a development is cherished and, with typical Scouse humour, used in word play with Everton football club’s shop now called Everton Two. Oh you wish….

Like all great cities Liverpool continues to evolve and change and most locals would agree that Liverpool One has given it a new heart. Its World Heritage Pier Head has been transformed by a new museum, landscaping and a (once controversial) black angular office development. Historic buildings are being adapted and repurposed, the waterfront reinvigorated with newfound access to the recently renamed Royal Albert Dock, a new arena and indoor conference centre,

and Liverpool Two is now a world class super port - all achieved within the past ten years. But Liverpool is not done yet, not by a long shot. Liverpool Waters, a £5.5bn redevelopment of the western docklands by Peel has started to deliver the first pieces of its jigsaw along with its sister development, Wirral Waters, opposite. The commercial centre around Pall Mall is progressing 300,000 sq ft of office space, with new hotels and residential arising from another regeneration story - our Exchange Station refit. Our Clatterbridge Cancer Centre forms a major element of a new health campus, around which a burgeoning knowledge quarter is centred. With the Royal College of Physicians as a prestigious new tenant, making its first base outside London in its 500 year history, a new cruise ship terminal, as well as numerous other schemes coming forwards across the city region, Liverpool feels like a city on the move. But what has triggered this compelling story?

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Liverpool One - a coherent series of routes and spaces connecting new with old

Joe Anderson, a committed mayor, enabled investment and delivery while city region mayor Steve Rotherham, with devolved powers, provided national strategy, commercial values and opportunities to attract development. This ground swell for quality of life versus cost undoubtedly attracted both employers and people, but without a doubt, Liverpool One is the single most significant building project leading to the resurgence across the city region. Ten years ago there was a real apprehension across the city: will it deliver the right kind of change, how will it impact the wider city, should a private developer have such control over our streets, why is a London developer leading the project, why is a firm outside Liverpool

delivering it? We we are proud to have played a role in this truly innovative project which still stands the test of time and has many testaments to its success. Rather than create an isolated development sealed behind closed air conditioned doors the key to its success was to knit the scheme into the city fabric; this was a revolution in its own right and one that has inspired many projects since. Steve Rotherham said “Liverpool City Region has many reasons to celebrate the last ten years, not least of which is Liverpool One. It has transformed the city centre of Liverpool, making it envy of many across the UK and overseas.”

Invest Liverpool has noted that In the ten years since Liverpool ONE opened in May 2008, which coincided with

Liverpool’s year as European Capital of Culture, the destination has:

• Contributed £3.3bn in total GVA, with over half this total as wages for local residents

• Delivered £1.20 of every £100 generated in the Liverpool City Region GVA, accounting for 3% of all GVA growth in LCR

• Contributed £1.6bn to the UK Exchequer

• Delivered an average of 4,700 FTE jobs for Liverpool City Region (LCR) residents

• Helped Liverpool’s retail output expand at more than ten times the national rate (between 2007-2013)

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BDP designs for the diverse activities that come together as vibrant city life

(Top row) Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, Clatterbridge Cancer Centre, (bottom row) Enterprise South Liverpool Academy, St John Bosco Arts College, Aintree Racecourse

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We continue to work in the city and region, responding to the exciting possibilities it offers, recently establishing a new Liverpool studio in order to foster greater connections with talent in the city. Some of our most significant, award winning projects are rooted in the city, including Aintree Racecourse, Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, Enterprise South Liverpool Academy and St John Bosco School. We expect our masterplan for the regeneration of Festival Gardens to be another landmark project for BDP in the region, building upon this great legacy of transformational placemaking through bespoke user-centred designs of places for people that respond to their unique place in the world.

I think it is incredibly important to look back at our past achievements, to gauge whether our projects deliver the vision they promise, to continue to learn lessons and refine our skills; as our founder Sir George Grenfell Baines said ‘to keep on getting better’. At a recent meeting with the Boxpark team, CEO Roger Wade presented the company ethos, an ancient Greek Ephebic oath sworn by all young men on becoming citizens of Athens: ‘I shall not leave my city any less but rather greater than I found it’. This powerful message will strike a chord with most of us involved in the built environment, a fundamental driver to how we shape the places where we live, work and play. We want to improve life for the people who use the buildings and

places we create. As Liverpool’s most famous band sang “you say you want a revolution…. we all want to change the world.” Most people would agree that in a society consumed by news about the challenges of the traditional high street, in the last ten years footfall in Liverpool ONE has increased by 53% and sales by 110%. This is a pretty staggering statistic, the result of the impact of a mixed use, vibrant, connected, integrated, sympathetically managed and curated development that is loved by the city and many beyond; proof of the importance of genuine engagement with people, and all about the city experience.

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(Left page) Streets, parks and squares reconnect people, the city and the waterfront. (Current page) A sketch showing the revitalised Love Lane next to the railway viaduct.