transform
transformation
by Tom Bloxham MBE, Jonathan Falkingham, and Nick Johnson.
Š Urban Splash, 2011 Published by RIBA Publishing, 15 Bonhill Street, London EC2P 2EA ISBN 978 1 85946 396 3 Stock code 74717 The right of Urban Splash to be identified as the Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission of the copyright owner. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Printed and bound by Butler, Tanner & Dennis Ltd, Frome and London. While every effort has been made to check the accuracy and quality of the information given in this publication, neither the Author nor the Publisher accepts any responsibility for the subsequent use of this information, for any errors or omissions that it may contain, or for any misunderstandings arising from it. RIBA Publishing is part of RIBA Enterprises Ltd. www.ribaenterprises.com
transformation
When Tom met Jonnie Work talks A space, called home Places matter From old to new Royal William Yard, Plymouth Lister Mills, Bradford Chimney Pot Park, Salford Fort Dunlop, Birmingham MoHo, Manchester The Matchworks, Liverpool Midland Hotel, Morecambe Budenburg HAUS Projekte 2&3, Altrincham Rotunda, Birmingham 3Towers, Manchester Chips, New Islington, Manchester Park Hill, Sheffield Lakeshore, Bristol Saxton, Leeds Longlands, Stalybridge
5 7 23 39 51 52 60 66 74 82 88 94 102 108 114 120 128 136 144 152
Conclusion 159 Projects 160 The final word 164 Acknowledgements 166
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Slater Street, Liverpool
When Tom met Jonnie Urban Splash started in 1993. It was a chance meeting of minds between two men, fresh from university.
Tom Bloxham MBE Group Chairman and Co-Founder Urban Splash Group Ltd Jonathan Falkingham RIBA Group Chief Executive and Co-Founder Urban Splash Group Ltd
One, Tom Bloxham, a history and politics graduate, was an already serial entrepreneur who funded his way through university selling second-hand records, then the posters that promoted the records, then the space that people rented to sell the posters and the records.
Tom When we first started the business, many were sceptical that we’d succeed – and some still are! We appear to ignore the property industry’s three golden rules – location, location, location – but this is because we’ve never been interested in buying completed properties in top locations. If you do this, you are not creating value: your investments will simply rise if the market rises, and fall if the market falls.
The other, Jonathan Falkingham, was an aspirant architectural graduate of the Liverpool school with two jobs in architecture, one for a respected practice in the city, the other his emergent architectural practice Shed, later to merge with Dave King, his old tutor, to become shedkm.
Adding value through great design has always been at the heart of the company. By finding undervalued buildings and sites, we’ve used the wide-ranging skills inside the company to create wonderful new buildings that look great, work well and are a joy to live in, work in and visit.
Jonnie I graduated as an architect from Liverpool University in the late eighties, when the property industry was in a serious trough – much like today. This meant that work was thin on the ground and what work there was tended to be perfunctory and poorly paid. Times like this are always challenging but they also force you to confront convention, encouraging new ways of thinking and new ways of doing things. This is very much the story of Urban Splash, and I don’t think I’m going too far in suggesting that a company like ours would be much less likely to emerge in the good times.
Jonnie It’s hard to pigeon-hole our approach, but we like problem sites and problem buildings – especially ones where a conventional approach will not deliver a solution. Unlike most developers, we do not have a core proposition relating to types of use or types of buildings. Yes, we create space to sell and rent – that’s our business – but we are flexible about what it is, how it works and how it looks. It can be residential, studios, workspace, retail, hotel… whatever fits best.
The thread that pulled them together was a bar on Fleet Street, Liverpool. Jonathan was renting space for shedkm from Tom, at the top of Liverpool Palace. At the bottom was a labyrinth of small shops. Tom wanted to add a bar, and Jonnie managed to convince him that a cheeky, modern well-designed bar was the way to go: Baa Bar was born. Tom We turned over more in a month than the cost of the freehold, and I realised the real value in Jonnie’s approach to design. After Baa Bar came Concert Square in Liverpool, just around the corner – the first project that the DNA of Urban Splash, its emerging philosophy and its likely potential can be traced back to. The company has been transformed from these humble beginnings into what we hope is now one of the most respected regeneration companies in the country. It’s been an amazing journey: learning how to grow a business, develop award-winning buildings, deal with bankers, planners, politicians, conservationists, builders, media, and – we hope – thousands of satisfied customers. It has taken us from Liverpool to Manchester and on to Birmingham, Plymouth, Bradford, Sheffield, Leeds, Morecambe and Bristol.
The company has, over time, worked with world-renowned architects and nurtured younger ones to create great spaces. It’s worked with communities to define new places in which they play a part. It’s strived to deliver high-quality service levels to its customers and at the same time to be responsible about the environment. The aim is to show that these things are not mutually exclusive, and that they make more money, not less. Tom We don’t always get it right. We’ve had our share of good luck and bad luck – especially in the banking crisis of the last couple of years. But I believe in the same values that we started with: value in good architecture, and working hard to create great spaces. Our belief in the power of regeneration to improve places and lives still holds true today. The transforming projects in this book are testament to what can be achieved with vision, a lot of great people, some damned hard work and a little bit of luck. Most of all, we are very proud that we can swear an oath like the citizens of ancient Athens did, that ‘we will leave this city not less but better, greater, than it was left to us…’
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Matchbox, The Matchworks, Liverpool
Fort Dunlop, Birmingham
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Park Hill, Sheffield / MoHo, Manchester
Mills Bakery, Royal William Yard, Plymouth / Rotunda, Birmingham
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50
Saxton, Leeds
Lister Mills, Bradford
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Architects and designers Adjaye Associates Alison Brooks Architects Alford Hall Monaghan Morris Arkheion Austin-Smith:Lord BDP Ben Kelly Design David Morley Architects Dalton Maag De Metz Forbes Knight Design Studio DSDHA FAT Feix & Merlin Ferguson Mann Fielden Clegg Bradley Architects Flacq Foster + Partners Future Systems Gareth Hoskins Architects Gillespie Yunnie Architects Glenn Howells Grant Associates Hawkins\Brown Ian Simpson Architects Ice Architects Kinetic Latham Architects Levitate Architecture Make Matthew Heywood Maurice Shapero Architects NORD North Planit Project Orange Querkraft Q2 Reiach and Hall Richard Rogers Partnership Riches Hawley Mikhail Ryder Architecture shedkm SMC Alsop Snook Space Craft Stephenson Bell Studio 3 Studio Egret West Union North Weston Williamson
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Photography and CGI's Adrian Burrows Andy Brown Ben Blackall Bristol Records Office Charlotte Wood Photography Daniel Hopkinson Duerden Collection Hugh Burden Jason Lock Joel Chester Fildes Jonathan Keenan Jonathan Moore Photography Karen Wright Len Grant Luke Unsworth Martin Crombie McCoy Wynne Associates Morley Von Sternberg Nic Gaunt Nick Hufton Paul Groom Peter Bennett Photography Price & Myers Plymouth Naval Base Museum Robert Whitrow Richard Cooper, Photoflex Simon Webb Shaw + Shaw Tim Smith Tom Benn Trevor Burrows Uniform Design Mhairi Smith, Urban Splash Printing Butler, Tanner & Dennis Ltd Publisher RIBA Publishing Š Urban Splash 2011
305 awards for design, architecture, regeneration and enterprise. We would like to thank everybody that has been a part of the Urban Splash story. There are too many of you to name individually but you know who are.
Contact Urban Splash Timber Wharf 16 - 22 Worsley Street Castlefield Manchester M15 4LD 0161 839 2999 www.urbansplash.co.uk
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