Liverpool Hilton.

Not the worst culprit next to its big ugly sister, One Park Worst on Chavasse Park which came 4th in this years Building Design, the architects weekly, Carbuncle Cup Competition. It is never the less than average addition albeit much lower than the neighbour across the lawn.
Liverpool never won the 2009 Sterling Prize and with average architecture like this it is hardly suprising. See how it now conflicts with the Grade I listed Albert Dock (pic during construction). Did no-one at BDP architects who promote themselves as our saviours think of this.The new Novatel opens just down the road that has destroyed the view of the Bluecoat, Did no-one at BDP think of that, http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/03/bluecoat-tradgedy.html The Bluecoat is Liverpools oldest city cenrte building and was grant aided to 20 million for the privlidge of being homoginised.
This is a view taken from Radio City Tower showing the small green space which is 40 ft in the air. Next to the Hilton is an average Bus Station although described by Beatrice Fraenkal as one of her favourites, it is not that functional, it has no-where to lay-over the buses as the old Paradise Street did. The local press are now being buttered up todays headline is a strange one.

Liverpool’s history is threaded through new Hilton hotel. Strange, really strange. Do they mean that they knocked down the hated 1960s Steers House and built something resembling Steers House only 10 storeys higher. Thats not history. http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2009/10/22/liverpool-s-history-is-threaded-through-new-hilton-hotel-92534-24987236/
Or does it just mean that the local paps are now to be buttered up by the Hiltons PR company just like what happened with the launch of the Malmaison, in return for feeding us with a rich gooey substance, called, Making it up as you go along?  I see no history there, why invent some for the owners. http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/videos-pictures/pictures-of-liverpool/pictures-of-liverpool-news/2009/10/21/first-pictures-of-the-hilton-hotel-liverpool-one-92534-24986400/
Is it just me or does this building resemble Bennetts Associates Edinburgh Rock http://www.bdonline.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=453&storycode=3151010&channel=783&c=2
which it is said draws on its tradition.

CODA
It was reported that the land that the new Hilton stands was sold by Grosvenor for 20 million pounds while Liverpool City Council had a deficit of...........20 million.

Beatrice Fraenkel-Liverpools Design Tsar Fraud

Fraenkel says: ‘Architecture is an incredibly diverse profession, and I have a passion for it. I love buildings from the “Bling Bling” building in Liverpool by Piers Gough to Wilkinson Eyre’s bus station [at Liverpool One].
Hey there is a statement for you, so confident in what she knows.
Frankeal is now the chair of ARB. (How she got there is beyond me).
Ed Vaizey, the shadow minister for culture, has claimed he would save CABE from a Tory ‘bonfire of the quangos’ but again promised to kill off the Architects’ Registration Board (ARB).
http://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/daily-news/vaizey-we-will-keep-cabe-but-arb-must-go/5208838.article
Just how did this woman get appointed into such a high position in the first place...She says her favourite buildings in Liverpool is Herberts Barnet on Hanover Street.......still empty after two years. http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0100regionalnews/page.cfm?objectid=14432235&method=full&siteid=50061 Oh and the bus depot by Wilkinson Eyre who also designed the Liver Street Car Park carbuncle on the same site. It seems quite hard to take someone so seriously with such obvious misgivings in her style opinions. But Design Tsar she was for Liverpool. Mike Storey endorsed her.
http://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/daily-news/riba-launch-independent-review-of-arb/5208578.article

When the Fib-Dems PR machine pushed her to the front she was a high flyer in the Fib-Dems.
A councillor in the city for 23 years, Fraenkel (above) hit the headlines following her high-profile defection to the Labour Party. She cant even decide which party she is in.....was she jumped or was she pushed?
Fraenkel said she was ‘embarrassed and ashamed’ of the Liberal Democrat Party and blamed standards at local level for her departure. The Lib Dems hit back, questioning her absence from important meetings.

I am ashamed and embarrassed about the way, she, as design Tsar has manoeuvred herself into such a position. In my opinion she is a talentless confidence trickster. While under her Design Tsar stewardship. in Liverpool we have had such Carbuncles as the Terminal Ferry Building, One Park Worst. The Three Ugly Sisters were planned and passed and are now going up at an alarming rate, as is their NWDA funding partner the new X-box museum on Mann Island.
Princes Dock has become Milton Keynes-On-Sea. What a joke, when even the spivs of the Fib-Dems did not want her. She obviously, true to form never turned up to any design meetings to discuss the architectural mess we now find ourselves in, with a World Heritage Disaster.
http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0100regionalnews/page.cfm?objectid=12924808&method=full&siteid=50061

She is quoted as saying, when talking about her design Tsar appointment,
"Liverpool is one of the first cities in the country to do it and it happens to be me. It's about cities starting to realise that the way they develop has an impact on the economic and social well-being of their people.
"It's about telling private developers and other people we work with that buildings, design and spaces matter a great deal.
"It's not a matter of just putting something up as quickly as possible or maximising the return on it."
What a pathetic masquerade she has played with the urban landscape of my city, it is now obvious that she did not a clue what she was talking about.
A note from her then Friend Mike "Jackanory" Storey.

Who says talking about her newly formed role "It will ensure Liverpool's rich architectural heritage will be protected".
He went on to say: "This design guide is long overdue. It places good design at the heart of all activity in the city.
"In the new Liverpool, quality counts. We have learnt from the mistakes of the past. We will no longer put up with second best.
"Good design is not just about bricks and mortar. It is also about the social and cultural environment in which we live, work and play."
He is mentioned on a website called Enemies of the People along with the Criminal Hurst of whom he said "I would trust him with my life".

HOW WRONG CAN YOU BE MS FRANENKEL.
NOW AS THE CHAIR OF THE ARCHITECTS REGISTRATION BOARD QUANGO....IF THAT ISN'T A REASON TO KILL IT THEN I DON'T KNOW WHAT IS.
With Frankeal as Design Champion and Berni Turner as Heritage Champion and Mike Storey in charge of Regeneration, Oh, and the complete and utter waste of space John Hinchliffe as World Heritage Officer, no wonder we are in such a mess.
We didn't stand a chance.