Mushtaq Saleri Studio Three Chavasse Park Mushroom Farm Pavilion.

 Studio 3

They build sheds and they build them badly.

The only problem is that they are not supposed to be building sheds they are supposed to building new modern structures that will last.

Engaged by a Grosvenor contractor BDP to build a swanky showpiece structure as part of the Chavasse Park development that opened in 2008, they went for an origami style black building that reflects........well nothing really.....it doesn't match anything around the Park.

Chavasse Park is the bit of green they stole from the public to build cafes restaurants on what was a grassy park.

A bit basic but it was green lung in the city that was used by office workers to let off steam. 

It still is now to some extent but its a lot more stressful now.

Yes they paved Paradise (Street) and put up a parking lot. 

Then you have even more foolish people applauding bad design here is a revue by Sevenstreets.com (probably a paid for advertorial as that's what Sevenstreets do)

http://www.sevenstreets.com/liverpool-one-dont-make-us-straight/

And on top of this parking lot Studio Three built a shrivelled up shed.

Just have a laugh at their foolish design.

They were put up for awards for this new snazzy bit of modernism.(sic)

 Praise was lauded onto the new young up and coming company that was about to take the world, or maybe Liverpool by storm. 

Inspired by a crumpled ciggy packet the set about building a bar with sloping sides and roof that must be very confusing when you come out after a half a pint of cider and think you have drunk about 12 pints.

Its all over the place. But the critics loved it. Critics usually know nothing of what they are criticising. This critic does.

This is a perfect example of what happens when the new architectural kids on the block are let loose with their lack of experience.

They build something that looks like it is falling over.

But worse the people responsible did not understand even the most basic of rules.

 That water needs to be taken away from a building.

Especially one that is made of wood, that also is in direct exposure to the sun.

This building saps up water like a sponge because all the angles direct the rain into little pockets that hold it in tight angled places.

Then the sun dries it out and it warps, exposing more of the underneath and then even more water penetrates and you get.......a mushroom farm.

Basic stuff that any simple person would understand.

But apparently not the whizz kids of Studio 3 didn't.

This sort of Jerry building is made even worse by the cost of it rumoured to be a million pounds.

When the wood is removed for repair, after seven years this was a wreck, you then can see that the frame is constantly under attack from the elements and though the mushroom farms look bad just imagine what its like where you cant see.

http://www.rjcjoineryltd.co.uk/case_chavasse.htm

The joinery company RJC should hide their heads in shame instead they have put it on their website.

So great was it that Architects Ellis Williams snapped up the Studio and merged it with the firm. 

Hey there's nothing like thinking small. http://www.ewa.co.uk/project/chavasse-park-pavilion

The architect Mushtaq Saleri should be struck off for this. If he is in fact qualified. 

Surely he couldn't have been. Could he?

I find it hard to believe that anyone with more than a low grade eleven CSE qualification had the intellect to knock this up.

And to use softwood. 

Chavasse Lawn-The Park Where Grass Wont Grow But The Hilton Hotel Does.

 Like the words of the song,
They paved Paradise and put up a parking lot.
 Chavasse Lawn a park that is now 30ft up in the air and built of massive polystyrene blocks on top of a steel frame.
To make a parking lot.
No wonder the grass wont grow.
 Now Liverpool's WAG land The Hilton Hotel has put a planning application in to the city council....PASSED.... to build an extension on the side of the concrete hotel that was once Steers House the council offices.

 Most people will forget that when the then council leader Mike Storey and his mate David Henshaw gave the land to The Duke of Westminster for a peppercorn, he then sold it off to the Hilton for £20,000,000 thus getting a huge chunk of his money back in no time at all.


Mike Storey  deserves an MBE for that and should be made a Lord oh and David Henshaw should be knighted for his sterling work in helping the aristocracy get even richer.

One Park Gone West the monstrous carbuncle inspired by a greenhouse.
http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.co.uk/2009/08/building-designs-carbuncle-cup.html

Ex Lord Mayor Gary Miller came dressed as a balloon to defend its merits.
http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.co.uk/2009/08/one-park-west-voted-one-park-worst-by.html

http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.co.uk/2009/08/one-park-west-voted-one-park-worst-by.html




This was while the pathetic Oldham Echo PR'd the grand giveaway, and reported it in a way that would not attract so much attention as to raise suspicion that anything was wrong.
It would prove rather interesting if someone was to submit a FOI request and find out the full details of what we sold, or gave away to the richest man in the country.

Mann Island-Shortlisted For Carbuncle Cup Award

They got away with it last year by claiming it was not finished but this year it has been shortlisted for the Carbuncle Cup Award run by Building Design Magazine.
http://www.bdonline.co.uk/news/carbuncle-cup-2012-the-shortlist/5040098.article
 BD says
Our list also boasts two wrist-slashingly awful housing schemes: the dismally proportioned, thinly detailed and grimly utilitarian Firepool Lock in Taunton and the Mann Island development in Liverpool, a scheme that completes the desecration of that city’s once great waterfront.



http://www.bdonline.co.uk/buildings/carbuncle-cup-nomination-%E2%80%94-mann-island-by-broadway-malyan/5038739.article
Last year the new Museum of Liverpool http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/museum-of-liverpool-runner-up-in-2011.html was runner up to Peel Holdings Media City.
http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/peel-holdings-win-carbuncle-cup-what.html
Dont forget the 2009 winner the godawful Termunal Ferry Carbuncle  http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.co.uk/2009/08/liverpool-wins-carbuncle-cup.htmlhttp://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.co.uk/2009/10/liverpools-pier-head-and-its-new.html and One Parked Here Without Our Say So the infamous One Park Worst on Mann Island came 4th. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.co.uk/2009/08/one-park-west-voted-one-park-worst-by.html
Liverpool is now on the World Heritage In Danger List and we are constantly  told about how the city is Regenerated.
You couldnt make this up.

A reminder of the "Before and After" and the crime against architecture and the principles of World Heritage that has taken place

Friday, 8 July 2011

Mann Island Nominated For Building Designs Carbuncle Cup Award.



Its that time of the year again when Liverpool's Binge Builders wake up with a hangover and cringe.
http://www.bdonline.co.uk//buildings/carbuncle-cup/


 click here



Matt Brook the poor excuse for an Architect. He of World Heritage disaster at Mann Island will have to accept the prize there can be no other more worthy winner for the 2011 Carbuncle Cup award than the atrocious Three Black Coffins built by Broadway Malyan for Neptune Developments.

They promised us Iconic and give us Ichronic, an anachronism of bad design plonked bang slappo in the world heritage site despoiling the best views of Liverpool, cherished views, they turn Liverpool's World Heritage Site into World Heritage S*ite.

There is no other way to describe it.

It is like giving a pretty girl a black eye and then knocking her teeth out and then saying now you cant smile anymore.

The Terminal Ferry Building was well accepted as a worthy winner in 2009. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/03/ptolemy-dean-talks-about-liverpools.html


Is it just my opinion, I think not.

http://badbritisharchitecture.blogspot.com/2009/07/pier-head-ferry-terminal-liverpool-by.html


http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/mann-island-nominated-for-building.html






http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/08/liverpool-wins-carbuncle-cup.html

This is what we said last year

Tony McDonough And Yet Another Grosvenor Advertorial

What is the purpose of Liverpool’s local press? Is it to create profiles for grey suited lemons?
There was a time when interesting people were interviewed by journalists with an understanding of what the public want to read about.
Not anymore its boring bland greys who just pump it, and get pumped up, by business correspondents who never attempt to add up their own figures, check their stories, just believe what any tacky property developer or council Spiv tell them. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/09/city-has-been-run-by-spivs-and-gamblers.html

That may seem a bit hard, no, it’s not hard enough.
Grabbing any news item they are now reporting (sic) it has come to writing about a new deli that opens, its that bad. This combined with the lack of scrutiny to any new scheme, unaware of the cultural effects or the economic, just jobbing off their responsibility to the public, claiming they are understaffed. It is like the blind leading the blind, literally. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/09/is-bill-gleeson-peel-holdings-spiv.html

The Daily Post business team has had too many free lunches from too many Spivs in my opinion.

You would think that the sun shines in Liverpool, Mark Thomas lives on the Wirral so does Alistair MacRray. http://www.ldpeditor.merseyblogs.co.uk/2010/09/sorry_seems_to_be_the_hardest.html If it effects them maybe there is a story.
 Have any of them been to Toxteth to look at the dejection? Have they bothered to look around when on a Liverpool or Everton F.C freebie at Anfield? http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/06/louise-ellman-mp-dame-of-dereliction.html
No, they couldn’t have done they are too busy acting as “PLUMPERS” for Grosvenor and the likes.

The Daily Post with a declining readership decides to put all its eggs in one basket and become a business plumper, just as we hit a recession. Do they know it’s a recession in the Oldham Hall Street offices? No. Because it is the blind leading the blind, led by property dealers and council spivs. They have become Peel Poodles, unable to see the regions takeover by a private company.
Having to balance news items, they say, my arse, it is ignorance, an ignorance and an ability to shirk the responsibilities that the public expect.
How were things in Shanghai Mr Thomas, who paid for that trip, An Expo costing several million, an expo were we, the public subsidised Peel Holdings who paid in the region of £200,000 to be there, promoting Manchester and its ship canal while building Port Salford and heavily lobbying for the new Mersey crossing so industry doesn’t have to be in Liverpool. We paid the other £2,000,000 http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/07/is-daily-post-and-echo-mouthpiece-for.html Port Salford barging jobs out of the city to Salford, I advised the Daily Post and Echo of this fact, they claimed they didn’t even know.

http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/07/liverpeel.html

It’s a sham. It only serves to create ignorance in the minds of the public while the true business reality is hard.  http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2010/10/21/city-developer-beetham-s-1bn-blackfriars-scheme-put-into-administration-by-royal-bank-of-scotland-92534-27516180/  Remember all the plumping for Beetham.

So we see another Grosvenortorial about how wonderful all the carbuncle flats on Chavasse lawn are, and how £25,000,000 of sales have been done there, when the reality is, you should have checked your figures Mr McDonut, call yourself a business editor, your wages are paid by the people who buy the chips that are in the paper, not Grosvenor.

Lets work it out for you shall we. At £94,000 a flat on average, with four grand of free furniture thrown in, they would have to sell over 200 apartments out of 250 odd. This combined with the fact that most of them are rented out to the people who were in Cornhill when the Crane collapsed on the block and they had to be rehoused. It is at best bad maths.

Well the devil make fool’s of idle men.
 http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/ldpbusiness/working-day/2010/03/17/liverpool-daily-post-working-day-grosvenor-project-director-guy-butler-92534-26047288/

Try another take by Correspondent.

http://condensedthoughts.blogspot.com/2010/02/putting-con-into-confidence.html


While other more worthy news is buried by a system that stifles public perception.

http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/08/trinity-smoking-mirror-burying-dynamite.html

This article has been sabotaged at the highest levels in the paper after David Bartlett, The Prisoner, wrote it up. I apologise to David for assuming he never wrote it up but he has to ask himself questions about the credibility of his employers Trinity “Smoking” Mirrors on Oldham Hall Street who “muff” the truth.

http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/09/cruise-wars-liverpool-gets-full-naval.html

Though he did get it so wrong with picking a fight with Southampton.

http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/03/cruise-from-liverpool.html

As did the shabby reporters who didn’t question the fact we were getting a Naval jetty and “PLUMPED” it up for the Spiv-Dem council, telling us how a momentous occasion had unfolded. It just goes on and on and on.
 It needs to stop.

Come back Jane Wolthamstone all is forgiven, yes its that bad.

Grosvenor-pools New Water Feature-Or Just Shoddy Workmanship

 Not even 2 years after opening the shoddy work shows. Chavasse Lawn had the worlds press for the unveiling of the abominable "Give Peas a Chance statue", but the reality is the jerry builders who built it have made a mess. Not quite up to the job, inferior materials, and it was not a difficult task in the first place, to knock a few shops up. Maybe they were trying too hard, trying to get too much out of it, greed. To build on Steers Dock reported as the worlds first was always to be controversial but to build a car park on it was damn right disgusting. To raise it 40 foot in the air and cover it with polystyrene was damn right tacky, to cover it with grass that wont grow is a con. It could never last it was poorly thought out and badly constructed. Where is the water going to go...........out through the nearest exit, is where. Now every time it rains the new steps overlooking John Lewis spew out water and they have to be closed. Its a big job to correct this.

They cant get the grass to grow because its waterlogged and a constant, con, I mean job is to pretend it is growing. This combined with the silly idea factory that is the Grosvenor-pool team to do silly things like turn it into beach then it rains every day seems stupid at best.

So it was all 'tarted up' for the worlds media to be sold a dog of a statue Saturday last. Is it just me that sees it like it is, aparantly not.  http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/10/peace-monument-unveiled-for-john.html Take a look at the Seven Streets site.  http://www.sevenstreets.com/blog/give-peace-memorial-a-chance/ and their take on the Giant Pea statuee on Chavasse lawn. Considering the now famous One Park Gone West apartments that came 4th in BD the architects weekly Carbuncle Cup Award in 2009.  http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/08/one-park-west-balloons-arrive-for-group.html His Fiefness the Slim White Duke isn't doing very well really. He got the land for sod all, the first brick built dock, and he cant even respect it. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/08/one-park-west-voted-one-park-worst-by.html

So in order to carry out all the gimmicks, like a beach with a big wheel ect, they drive 40 ton wagons over it. The public footpath, or is it public, is closed more than its open. 

Built on the site of the Old Customs House how things have changed. The Council keep spinning it out, listening to the Flintstonesque speech Joe Anderson did on Sky, Saturday last about the Pea statue, you have to say it does not look good in the long term. So the result is,

Liverpool One, Shoddy Workmanship Four. 

 http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/06/old-customs-die-hard.html 

http://condensedthoughts.blogspot.com/2010/10/grotesque-addition-to-grosvenor-pool.html

Round Up All the Usual Suspects, To Turn A Blind Eye To World Heritage Disaster in Liverpool.

Last nights BBC programme where Jonathan Foyle explores northern Georgian and Victorian neo-classical civic buildings.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00tnw4p/Peoples_Palaces_The_Golden_Age_of_Civic_Architecture_NeoClassical/

I used to feel so proud whilst watching this sort of programme, even while we were in a economic mess. Now they just annoy me.
Round up all the usual suspects to have their say. The milksop Joseph Sharples, a bag of nerves who has the intelligence after updating Pevsners guide but does nothing with it. Or does he? I walked away from him last time I saw him on the Strand and he told me he admired the Cesar Pelli Carbuncle, One Park Worst!!!!!!!!!!!
Then they trundle off to the Bluecoat using the shot so the camera cannot see the carbuncle behind it.
http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/11/liverpool-novatel-tragic-addition-to.html
Interviewing Lawrence Westgaph, a heritage fighter, who says what he thinks, about slavery. He's also a fighter of other sorts having just escaped manacles himself.
http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/03/bluecoat-tradgedy.html

I find it hard to start off a programme about Civic pride in Grosvenor-pool but there you go.
http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/10/liverpool-one-they-have-stolen-our.html
This is the place they buried the first purpose built dock under a multi story car park. They paved Paradise and put up a parking lot.
Oh excuse me for being pedantic.

He then turned his attention to Thomas Harrisons Lyceum that Florence Gersten had the foresight to save from demolition that is now threatened with a carbuncle behind it. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/02/now-lyceum-of-bold-street-is-to-gets.html
At St Georges Hall, You can forgive Steve Binns because he cant see the mess that has been created of late.

They did not visit the Pier Head to see the mess there in the world heritage site.

This was a not very well updated version of the Gavin Stamp programmes some 5 or 6 years ago.
Good old BBC.

Garden Grabbing to be Outlawed-Too Late For Liverpool. We Have None Left.

Councils are to be given powers to stop Garden Grabbing. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8728633.stm

Garden-grabbing is an emotive term used by campaigners who oppose the building of blocks of flats on land that was formerly gardens. Neighbours who have had their view spoilt by these flats object to the Government’s definition of gardens as brownfield land, which leaves them vulnerable to property developers.

That view has to be balanced against the fact of Britain’s housing shortage: the Government’s target is 200,000 new homes each year, yet only 160,000 were completed in 2006. That lack of supply artificially inflates house prices and wrenches the first rung of the property ladder away from the reach of the majority of young people. The issue hit the headlines last week, when the Conservative MP Greg Clark introduced a Private Member’s Bill calling for the removal of gardens from the definition of brownfield sites. http://property.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/property/new_homes/article1966188.ece Portions of gardens are also being sold off by homeowners who prefer cash to mowing lawns. One couple, Zoë and Norman Carter, bought a plot of land that was originally part of someone else’s back garden in the north Cornwall village of St Breward, and have just built a new home on it. The neighbours objected. “Obviously people don’t like change,” says Norman Carter. “But we tried to combat this by using local builders and suppliers, which helped with some of the resistance.” Most of his neighbours have now come round, though he admits that a couple are still unhappy.

James Greenwood, of Stacks, the buying agents who acted for the Carters, says that garden-grabbing is on the increase: “Traditionally, it was associated with the South East but now it is a widening phenomenon. Rock in Cornwall is a prime example. There is huge demand for property here and developers are buying up any small piece of land they can lay their hands on. But a warning to potential developers: you will not be popular with the locals. Villagers will never be happy about more properties being crammed into their area.”

Those tempted to defy the neighbours and sell off the bottom of their garden should act soon: Mr Clark’s Bill is due to be heard in Parliament on October 19.

But what of Liverpool where the council gives public gardens away to developers. Warren "War Zone" Bradley was good at that, giving the whole Garden Festival site away. That was left to decay to facilitate a give away price. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/09/is-warren-bradley-really-that-thick.html Within the  site and paid for by public money after the Toxteth riots there was the Velodrome (see Picture).

The much needed building was dismantled right under the noses of council leaders. Warrens watch as a fire bobby was Toxteth is a mess still 30 years after the riots. Within Loiuse Ellmans constituancy.

Then there is One Park Gone West on what was Chavasse Park , now Chavasse Lawn, which is now a car park 40 feet in the air.

 http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/10/liverpool-one-they-have-stolen-our.html The council allowed the building of a giant carbuncle on the site to satisfy the ex council leader Sir Clever Trevor Jones friend the Duke of Westminster. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/08/one-park-west-voted-one-park-worst-by.html Voted No 4 in BDs Carbuncle Cup competition.

http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/08/building-designs-carbuncle-cup.html

Unfortunatly the laws will be wasted on Liverpool Planners this we have no gardens left.

Mike Storey. He Is Guilty Of Liverpools World Heritage Disaster.

I thought that Joe Anderson is good he has only been a leader of the council for a couple of weeks and he’s brought in the army to blow up the new museum and the black coffins that have destroyed the world heritage site.

I then bumped into Ed from the BBC who said the tank was part of the pageant of power he was reporting on and the closure of the Strand to show off all those super fast cars including a Lemans competitor. I spoke to him right in the shadow of One Park Worst, which he had reported for the BBC on the Carbuncle Cup nomination.

That was great he said we had a competition 'Name your Local Carbuncle' and we were swamped.

"Yes well there is next years Carbuncle Cup"  I said looking over to Mann Island. “We have lost it all” I said “Yes but the fight that you put up will go down in history” he said. Kind words. I looked at the tank a Challenger I think, thought about  it, No I thought they wouldnt leave any live rounds in....would they, one shot no more museum. Well lets get in to work I am already late.

 

I went for a walk around Grosvenor-pool in the sun later on and talk about pageant of power, or ex power, I bumped into the current Lord Mayor, Mike Storey who wouldnt even look me in the eye. He turned away. Does he read the blog. Maybe he has a conscience and he feels guilty to the world heritage destruction that he started while being, in my opinion Liverpool’s Council leader property developer’s spiv, well before he had to resign in disgrace. He stood on Chavasse Park, the Park that he wrestled from Bill Davies to give to Grosvenor while acting as agent for the development. One Park Gone West. Or was he second in command to Clever Trevor Jones? Well the carbuncling has been done now. What is going to be his legacy. How will the Daily Ghost and the Oldham Echo put him down in history, they knew all about where Trevor Jones lived. It was a Daily Ghost journalist who told me Clevor Trevors address on the Duke of Westminsters Estate.  They let him off with it alright. Turning a blind eye...and Why?

Warren Bradleys Liverpool War Zones.

There are a few bloggers that we admire in their forthright and honest no-nonsense approach and one of them is Correspondent from the "blog roll" on the right hand side. Scribblings Jottings and Musings.   http://condensedthoughts.blogspot.com/ He is a seld styled Correspondent.
 I wish he was working for Trinity "Smoking" Mirror group he would not allow himself to be institutionalised. Its best if we keep on the zone with the finger on the pulse and this is not a bad stop for a liitle truth now and again in between the advertorial world of Trinity "Smoking" Mirrors .
http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news/2010/04/26/council-leader-warren-bradley-we-ripped-heart-out-of-liverpool-communities-100252-26317085/ Yesterdays Daily Ghost (will someone put the old dog down its riddled with arthritis ) did a spin which we all know about but Correspondent spells it out which I have reprinted below. 
The picture I have used was taken in One Park Gone Worst at Chavasse Park, (entitled "I tell them that big") which came 4th in BD magazines Carbuncle cup, defering to the winner the Terminal Ferry Carbuncle.  Here Warren Bradley is talking to John Prescott who came up with the ideas, to rip the heart out of huge communities, and call them New Heartlands. Did he question him about his sick idea? http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/search/label/Elizebeth%20Pascoe
No he chatted about his proudest achievement, which was....Grosvenor-pool. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/02/grosvenor-pool-putting-co-into.html
Well considering he was mentored by Clever Trevor and Doreen who live on the Duke of Westminsters estate, what do we expect. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/09/trevor-jone-steps-down-good-riddance.html

Warren's War Zones
Election campaigning continues apace. Yet amidst the bombast, bluster & bullshit, there are disconcerting sounds of, well, not contrition or remorse exactly, more like an embarrassed clearing of the throat, a muffled sigh, a sotto voce aside.
Home truths are beginning to be acknowledged by those whose state of denial has been so deep as to be subterranean. Wayne has long pointed out how, inter alia, the disfigurement of the city's waterfront blocks the view of the Three Graces. The response until now has varied from an embarrassed silence to an exercise in juvenile name-calling. However, the pretence is starting to slip & Wayne expertly dissected its threadbare nature earlier today  http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/04/mann-island-is-penny-finally-dropping.html
.

Another area where the Fib Dem council is inching dangerously close to a mea culpa concerns housing. Warren Bradley blurts out the obvious to David Bartlett in this morning's Oldham Echo  http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news/2010/04/26/council-leader-warren-bradley-we-ripped-heart-out-of-liverpool-communities-100252-26317085/  
Bartlett is moved to observe that Bradley's comments are "frank". Well, yes & no. It certainly puts the Fib Dems' Bread & Circus approach to the city in a stark context hitherto ignored by Oldham Hall Street. However, it also seeks to deflect at least some of the blame onto Whitehall & the quangocracy: "The council, national government and (regeneration agency) English Partnerships probably bit off more than we could chew.
"We announced six renewal areas, and in hindsight we should have done it one by one. Completing one area and then moving onto the next."
Bradley's tactic is totally transparent, admit mistakes, but imply that Labour & English Partnerships are at least equally culpable. This is election time, don't forget.
The man who is to local history what Jeremy Clarkson is to cycling goes on to deliver some choice comments which act as incriminating evidence in the case against the Fib Dems' reign of misrule in the city:
"You can't rip the heart out of the community and promise them something in 15 years time.
"I just don't think it is correct, but we are where we are. We have now got the job of rebuilding communities and giving them reassurance.........
"We should have landscaped areas so that people didn't feel they were living in a war zone".
That's some self-confessed record of ruin to play at the voters, isn't it? As well as the civic vandalism of what's still mystifyingly called a World Heritage Site & inflicting Grovesnor-pool in the process, Bradley & his cohorts have neglected whole neighbourhoods not fortunate enough to live in the city centre or in Fib Dem wards. The war zones have been left to fester.

Well said Mr Correspondent hope you dont mind me borrowing your well written and direct to the point text.

This is the same bloke Warren Bradley who said,  Prince Charles told him it was all great and the regeneration in Liverpool was marvelous. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/07/warren-bradley-you-are-not-very-clever.html When David Bartlett was presented with a letter from Prince Charle's private secretary to the contrary he hushed it up, shame on you Larry Bartlett, shame on you. You are worse than Larry Neild.
See Warren talking about Liverpools waterfront that under his errr...leadership was destroyed http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/02/warren-bradley-talking-about-liverpools.html

Mates with fellow fire-bobby, the disgraced, Steve Hurst http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/09/councillor-steve-hurst-steps-down-good.html
Its all OK our heritage is fine, they even write the stories for the Oldham Hall Street Brigade.
http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/11/liverpool-city-council-are-liars-and.html

The Daily Peel-Trinity “Smoking” Mirrors.

Now how did I know that the Daily Ghost…..a shadow of its former self under the leadership, well if that’s what you could call it of Mark Thomas would be right behind it? Mark as understudy to Alistair Machray editor at the Oldham Echo. He may be under orders or was it out of loyalty to his sponsors of the trip to Shanghai that he edited this one in, we will never know. This appears to be an opinion others share. http://condensedthoughts.blogspot.com/2010/02/treacherous-waters.html  See Correspondents excellent take on the matter. Cue Neil Hodgson the very same journo who promoted One Park Worst on Chavasse Park (that came fourth in the National Carbuncle Cup awards) in the Daily Ghost on behalf of Grosvenor by telling the public in his report in the Echo that the development was to be 12 stories with a picture in the article showing 17. This is the level of putrid reporting that we have to endure. This is what makes in an unfair and unlevell playing field to argue conservation points on the grounds of respecting our heritage.

99% of people support the scheme to transform the abandoned docks into Dubai-On-Sea he says…..out of 284 questionnaires filled in. That makes err…lets say 280 people and that is hailed a success. Shame on you all with your invested interests, its disgraceful what you put out kidding the public. You should be ashamed.
See a comment left on the noticeboard in the rooms showing the plans on Friday last. Peels Lyndsey Ainsworth listened to my complaints about the historic bridge they were to demolish.
“We are not going to demolish it he said in his Manchester accent we are going to repair it”

“Well I read in the paper that it was to be demolished”
“Well you have got it wrong”
“A Peel surveyor said it was shot”
“Look you don’t believe what you read in the local papers do you”
“Well I believe what I read in the Salford Star they have the measure of you”
“No you shouldn’t believe anything you read in the local papers”


Here is the article………..by guess who Neil Hodgson…..the developers friend.
Bridge replacement could shut Dock Road until 2011
Apr 2 2009 by Neil Hodgson, Liverpool Echo

Bridge replacement could shut dock road until 2011
A SECTION of Liverpool’s dock road could be shut until November 2010 after the iron bascule bridge at Stanley Dock was condemned.
Docks owner Peel Holdings shut the key route between Paisley Street and Blackstone Street for a year last May to repair the badly corroded bridge, which dates back to the 1930s.
The closure hit motorists who used Regent Road as an alternative rush hour route to the parallel Great Homer Street and Derby Road.
Peel planned to complete the work in time to re-open the route – which lies within the Stanley Dock conservation area and Liverpool’s World Heritage site – next month.
But Peel Holdings development surveyor Ian Pollitt revealed that it became apparent the upper structure, which works the swing bridge, was too badly damaged to be repaired and needed to be removed.
So now the company is to submit a planning application to Liverpool council to demolish and remove the bridge and replace it with a new bridge, which Mr Pollitt said will be built elsewhere and then transported to the dock road site.
He said: “Because it is in a conservation area we have to go through a full planning application.”
A council spokesman confirmed that Peel have applied for an 18-month extension to the road closure, starting from next month when the road should have re-opened.
But Mr Pollitt said the company hopes to re-open the link much quicker: He said: “I would like to think we could take it (the bridge) out in three months and then look at installing a new fixed bridge by March next year, but we would like to think it would be sooner than that.”
However, he admitted that the timetable to install the new bridge and re-open the link could be affected by Peel’s existing plans to develop its £5.5bn Liverpool Waters scheme in the same Stanley Dock area.
“There could be a tram link over the bridge, so we have to take this into account.”
He said the cost of demolishing, removing and replacing the bridge will be “substantial” but Peel has already budgeted for it.
And he revealed that once the new fixed crossing is in place Peel hopes to hand the bridge over to the city.
A council spokesman said the extended closure was unavoidable: “It is not safe to allow traffic to go over it.”
A bascule bridge is a moveable bridge with a counterweight.

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news/2009/04/02/bridge-replacement-could-shut-dock-road-until-2011-100252-23295226/

So we are not to believe anything that we read in the local papers then, but now keen to contribute Ainsworth says
Peel is still working on submitting its outline planning application for the scheme, but development director Lindsey Ashworth said they hoped to begin preparatory work on the site by the middle of the year when they propose to repair the Bascule Bridge over the Leeds- Liverpool canal link – which was earmarked for demolition – and re-open Regent Road, which has been closed for almost two years. He said: “A series of works are also proposed to seek to repair a number of historic buildings and structures on the site, particularly towards the north of the site.
http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2010/02/03/public-consultation-produces-huge-backing-for-5-5bn-liverpool-waters-scheme-92534-25750119/

So who are we to believe…………certainly not Neil Hodgson?

One Park West-Voted One Park Worst by the public.

PR Stunt backfires big time. Think Publicity have not paid attention to the details and realised that this was going to show the whole North West what a sad carbuncle of a building it is, even stimulating nominations for other carbuncles.
They even showed the other Carbuncle Cup nomination, the Ferry Terminal and one of the interviewees declared that big white thing out of keeping which was the new egg-box museum.
IF THIS IS LIVERPOOL'S NEW TOMORROW, OUR NEW DAWN Then I for one am sleeping in.
It went down like a sinking ship all who were interviewed on BBC give it a downer.
Except MARTIN WATSON from Brock Carmicheal, the "helper" to Cesar Pelli the pretentious and arrogant architect. He said
"It is very cool and very confident".
When asked about it being a carbuncle he said "Well, I mean that's personal opinion" Just, who do these architect people think they are as if because they have turned up to to college, whether they learnt anything or not, their opinion is right and others are wrong and here he was standing in front of a carbuncle with the whole of BBC North West laughing at him. I wouldn't have shown my face, never mind admitted to being involved in this, what is now being described as in the shape of a boat. The PR firm should be re-named Not Thinking Publicity because if a boat was this shape it would be upside down.......are they mad?
Ed Hall from BBC said "People are saying you have got a world heritage site, and The Three Graces of Liverpool and questioning if that should be next to them"
"I think it should" I fell off the chair laughing at the barefaced cheek of the guy masquerading as if he understood architecture behaving like a confidence trickster, pretending he knew what he was on about, he went on, "I think it is a well justified this design", I couldn't bear it I was doubled up and still there was more, "I think what it provides is a backdrop to the World Heritage Site and does not compete with anything on the WHS its all about city scale, rhythm, and texture on the facade".
No Mr Watson you have given us a dog and I wouldn't go around admitting it if I was you. In my opinion Mr Watson if you are a qualified architect and did in fact contribute to this eyesore you should be struck off for crimes to the architectural profession.

So they sent Richard Down out to cover it on behalf of the PR company the Daily Ghost writer. How come he gets all the PR stunt jobs. Dickie who recently said when I called him Richard Downer. "Great play on my surname by the way. Right up there with Eryl Roberts who first latched on to its comic possiblities in Penycae pre school".
Obviously his wet nurse nanny didn't teach him to be so outrageous it just comes naturally. Here is Dickie Downers piece. http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2009/08/20/hundreds-hug-grosvenor-s-underfire-flagship-apartment-block-one-park-west-92534-24486226/
Oh and here is a Correspondents, I know who was the true writer present.
http://condensedthoughts.blogspot.com/2009/08/hugs-from-mugs.html

One Park West The Balloons Arrive for a Group Hug.

IS THIS A DESPERATE PR STUNT?

Todays Architects Journal carries a headline
Beauty or Beast: Cesar Pelli's One Park West Liverpool
18 August, 2009 By Richard Waite

The huggers want to show that, despite the recent nomination for an architectural wooden spoon and for generally ‘getting it in the neck’, there are people who still care for the 326-apartment, boat-shaped block. So who’s right?
BEAUTY
Speaking about the scheme, Pelli said he wanted to ‘to create a modern, striking building, a memorable place to live, with exceptional view of a wonderful waterfront and park’. Meanwhile Guy Butler, senior development manager at project backer Grosvenor, described the prowed block as a ‘building design which has really stuck its head above the parapet and has, without a doubt, vastly improved an area of our city centre which was formerly wasteland.’
BEAST
David Dunster from the Liverpool School of Architecture said it boasts ‘one of the nastiest looking pieces of standard office glazing since Britain was bombed by the Luftwaffe; and cheap.’ He added: ‘The prow can only be a ghastly reference to Liverpool’s maritime past and conclusive evidence that all architects should be banned from the use of metaphor, simile or metonymy in the next 100 years at least.’

http://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/daily-news/beauty-or-beast-cesar-pellis-one-park-west-liverpool/5206890.article


Also Building design run a story too http://www.bdonline.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=3147077&origin=BDdaily

So the PR company seem to be earning their fees and most of the crowd seem to be made up by them and Grosvenor staff. They even tried to get the BBC reporter to wear a badge. "I cant do that he said I work for the BBC.
Then they brought one of the blokes who said he worked with Cesar Pelli.....with a megaphone to direct the 50 people. They had been hoping for 150. I think they did well to get that many people as the six who were not getting paid to be there.

Councillor Miller with his new found friends, schoolkids bussed in for the occasion to make up the numbers. His letter in yesterdays Daily Ghost.
A negative few
DESIGNED by Cesar Pelli and stabbed in the back by a small group of internet surfers on a website, One Park West is bold, modern, thought-provoking and in the right place and definitely at the right time.
Liverpool One is up for the Stirling Prize by the same website, yet one of its iconic buildings is being lambasted by the negative and disgruntled few.
The Pier Head Ferry Terminal has also been drawn into the same nonsense. I personally love its positioning, style and seamless linking of old and new, including its proximity to the Three Graces, the new canal link and the fabulous new museum.
Liverpool is an amazing world- class city and we should all congratulate Merseytravel for their bold new Ferry Terminal and Grosvenor for transforming the city centre. They helped create almost 5,000 new jobs, while bringing iconic retail outlets, a fabulous new Hilton Hotel, a stunning new Chavasse Park and, of course, a great place to set up home in the bold design, that is One Park West.
Cllr Gary Millar, Executive Member for Enterprise and Tourism, Liverpool City Council
Not quite sure who stabbed the building in the back Mr Miller who asked me did I want a badge, I declined.

Well it has been said that the standard of this piece of, well if you could call it architecture is more suitable for the preferences of a 10 year old.

http://condensedthoughts.blogspot.com/2009/08/tree-huggers-sue-for-copyright.html
Paid for by Grosvenor they rolled them out at Park West Worst for this desperate PR stunt. A colleague of mine went on facebook to check out how its all going and the organiser of it is http://en-gb.facebook.com/jvolpfletcher. She works for a PR company called ThinkPublicity http://www.thinkpublicity.co.uk/ and guess what (if you can stand the annoying website) their clients are Trinity Mirrors Group, Grosvenor and they launched the One Park Worst opening evening. They say they launched LDP the Liverpool Daily Post Business Club.....they say at the launch for Liverpool.com and they are pleased to be associated with Trinity Mirror.

They also have as clients Negresco and a couple of other Guttman enterprises who seem to always go bust and recently went bang and caused outrage when the same owners opened up the same week further down the same road in Lark Lane.

http://www.liverpoolconfidential.com/index.asp?Sessionx=IpqiNwEiKaqjJWAqNwB6IaqiNwA

WHAT A DESPERATE ACT BUT I LEAVE IT WITH ONE FINAL COMMENT LEFT OF FACEBOOK.

Nick Wensley (Liverpool) wrote at 12:07
I'm in work then too... Do they not understand our great home is supposed to look like a ship? Explaining that would make all the confusion and bad feeling evaporate i'm sure!

followed by another comment

This building is supposed to look like a ship ? The Titanic comes to mind. No bad feelings or confusion, it is truly awful and should sink without trace. Are there enough lifeboats ?

Concourse House One Step Forward and Two Back.

During the recent posts of One Park Worst one of our colleagues suggested it was the new Concourse House. I think that is a fair assessment and it made me think about the way the building was hailed as a new dawn in the 60s as was St Johns market. It started me to think we are in the same position as that new dawn they promised us when the town centre was re-jigged a couple of decades ago and the Liverpool One of its day was built.
Click on the pic Iliad say History is our future and look what they think about our history with the vandalising of 6 Sir Thomas Street.
Incidentally the Criminal Steve Hurst was very vocal when he passed the plans for the demolition of the facade of 6 Sir Thomas Street he was infact reported to the Chief Executive Colin "Cover Up" Hilton who was picked by him and Storey and Bradley.
http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/03/heres-one-they-did-earlier.html
We finally get rid of the obscene 1960s monster on the Vista of Lime Street opposite St Georges Hall and then the communists from the Eastern Block move in and build us "The Breeze Blocks". This was a nomination for Liver pools Carbuncle Cup from a colleague of mine. Its one step forward and two back all the time with the morons who are planning my city.
The whole amateurish approach to planning our future by the Reichmarshal Nigel Lee and his planning team (sic) leaves me to fear that in no uncertain terms that we are building...The New Concourse Houses of their day with the likes of One Park "Gone" West. We are creating the new Milton Keynes-On-Sea. The Binge building is now over and we are waking up with a headache and none more so a headache as this Stazi brute which could not even be called architecture it is that bad.





Built under the guise of regeneration, this is degeneration of the worst kind it is another legacy that we will have to live with forever in the World Heritage Site.
Imagine building this in front of the Taj Mahal another World Heritage Site.

One Park West and the Carbuncle Cup.......The Fightback Begins

Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!

The Cesar Pelli eyesore is now being called a wondrous place by Paul Du Noyer author and journalist......oh and he has just got a new book out to publicise. Having left the city for London, he has taken out a 6 month let in Widnes Tech on speed look-a-like, One Park "Gone" West. http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2009/08/14/liverpool-s-one-park-west-residents-begin-the-fightback-92534-24440113/

I bumped into Paul, a client of mine outside the multi coloured Costa cafe in Lord Street three weeks ago and he told me he was here for three days and staying in Chavasse Park.

"Oh I have just nominated it for Building Designs Carbuncle Cup" I said, he wryly grinned in embarrassment. He seemed at the time to agree with me. http://www.bdonline.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=430&storycode=3146320&channel=783&c=2

"Oh well its not the best from the outside but the views are good from inside. "Well it depends which way you look" I replied.

Then on Wednesday morning he was waiting for me outside my shop at 10 am with a Daily Post under his arm.

"How are you getting on down at Chavasse Park, there was some publicity in the paper yesterday, sorry about that" I said". I had previously e-mailed the BD article to the paper which they hacked.

"Oh yes he said well the worst thing is that the views are being ruined as they build the black granite blocks" in agreement with me.

"Paul they are only just starting, the worst one on Mann Island" I said with another client present.

"Yeah its looking bad" Not a mention of this opinion. So the fightback begins with the post editor Mark Thomas (who I have recently criticised, so this may be his idea for a fightback) at the Helm, and our intrepid reporter Alan Weston....God help us. The fightback is on facebook. Oh and there is a group hug by the residents next Wednesday at 12.3o.

This is the future of architectural opinion for Liverpool....a group hug by the EMO look-alikes from what is turning into Goth City, up top, on the multi storey car park, that is Chavasse lawn.

Paul, best stick to music you are an expert there. Don't forget its a world heritage site imagine if they built this in front of the Taj Mahal or the Pyramids. I am sorry if I was critical of your....second home and it may have upset you, but I think.

They promised us world class architecture a Cesar Pelli.......and instead give us a Cesar salad.

Its all a matter of taste really, just like music, Phil Redmond a professional scouser who doesn't live here told me right outside the place, "Well at least it will fall down in 50 years". "Thats no good to me" I replied "I wont be here I have to look at it now."

Paul, If this building was a song it would be "Agadoo" by Black Lace, only you cant switch the radio off and forget about it, this is here forever and wont go away and keeps grating my nerves and bugging me, but hey I must be wrong Paul Du Noyer likes it, apparently.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POv-3yIPSWc Push pineapple here for Agadoo

Building Design's 2009 Carbuncle Cup Nominations. Two Entries for Liverpool

BD magazine, the Architects Weekly have had a lot of nominations for this years Carbuncle Cup. Liverpool is in the unfortunate situation of having two nominations for this years Carbuncle.
LPT nominated the horrendous One Park "Gone" West as a crime against architecture the building they, promised us would be Ichonic and it turns out Ichronic. Grosvenor promised us a building by a world class architect, a Cesar Pelli.......and they give us a Cesar Salad. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/search?q=chavasse+park

The architect, if that's what you would wish to call him did not even visit the city. He couldn't have done as he would have had to think how it would look from the Albert Dock, the biggest group of Grade I listed buildings in the country and a World Heritage Site. What a mess. Click on the link below to see this years nominations.


http://www.bdonline.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=3146320

Less than half a mile away is the Terminal Ferry Building nominated by David Swift. It has to be a close run thing between these two monsters. If you would have told me you could build a worse building then the old Bernie's Inn, The Shanghai Palace, I would have declared it couldn't be done. Well they did it. What an achievement...only its the wrong achievment for sure. The World Heritage Site has been despoiled, in such a way that it is akin to giving a pretty girl a black eye. The Ferry Terminal is a perfect match to the new museum, which could well be next years nomination for the carbuncle cup, if they ever finish it. Oh hang on there is some big competition with the Three Grotesques at Mann Island. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/search?q=ferry+terminal So Warren Bradley tells us that Prince Charles told him that he supports Liverpool's regeneration...well can you believe that. It seems the architectural profession don't quite agree.http://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/beauty-or-beast-new-liverpool-pier-head-ferry-terminal/5204487.article

Trinity "Smoking" Mirrors Group.

Yes it is well deserved by the local rags. All the recent criticism, at the state of reporting and the way the Oldham Echo (nice term by Correspondent) http://condensedthoughts.blogspot.com/2009/08/still-speaking-up-for-merseyside.html seems to be run by local business through their press companies such as Finch and October Communications. Larry Neild who was the City Editor of the Post and Echo, now works for October, and it would not be too unreasonable to assume that the reason that Jon Egan employed him is to use his contacts at his old paper. Last time I spoke to him he was working on the congestion charge debate in Manchester! Peel holdings had a big interest in the outcome of that vote owning Trafford Park. The local papers no longer appear to have journos in the old tradition, who do the true work that their profession requires. Instead Trinity "Smoking" Mirrors Group in Liverpool rely on the Council (partners with Peel) and the local communications companies to feed them with snippets that they often get wrong, see yesterdays Daily Post. Larry Neild was once given an award by Frank McKenna's Downtown Liverpool and his acceptance speech lasted 15 minutes he had all those local business people in stitches. I liked Larry when we were working quite closely on a thing that I knew he held dear to him, the impending disaster that was to befall the world heritage site. But ath the same time http://www.liverpoolpsda.co.uk/Press/PressCuttings/06-2006/pelli+tower.htm was he doing a job for Grosvener or was he misquoted? And look at the mess at Chavasse Lawn of what he promoted as a jewel in the crown. http://condensedthoughts.blogspot.com/2009/07/wish-to-declare-interest-larry.html
It is alleged that the godson to the director of a national museum's offspring is quite high up in Trinity "Smoking" Mirror Group. Quite a lot of the local journos are moonlighting doing other jobs for other papers, glossy or not. Some owned by Trinty some not. Its all wheels within wheels.
I decided to post the article several weeks ago after I decided I cannot stand the style of the local papers anymore. Which began my criticism of the local rags with a lack of reportage that Peel had plans passed for a super-port at Salford, that the Oldham Echo and its Daily Ghost ignored. I questioned who paid for Mark Thomas's trip to Shanghai that he 'twittered' about.
Peel are sponsoring Shanghai 2010 along with Liverpool City Council. All we need now is Steve Hurst to be Liverpool's delegate on the stall and we will have a fete acompli.
I had boycotted buying the Post, well because its free, they give it away, but will not even look at the Echo, which is a bad paper in my opinion edited by........So I was bold enough to e-mail my complaints to both editors and the Daily Post business section giving an opinion as to the importance of Peels impending grasp and the threat to our local industry, complaining why it was not reported upon. Who are Peels press agents? It is my opinion they are getting preferential treatment by the press almost being suck holed to.
Fair enough weeks later an in depth article was done by Barry Turnbull. http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/ldpbusiness/business-features/2009/08/05/is-new-manchester-port-a-threat-to-liverpool-92534-24317574/ In the same copy it showed an example of our fears manufacturing being moved to China and a piece about Princes Dock http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/ldpbusiness/business-local/2009/08/05/peel-appoints-dtz-as-joint-agent-on-princes-dock-liverpool-92534-24317711/which they own. http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/ldpbusiness/business-local/2009/08/05/new-bibby-ship-sets-sail-from-shanghai-92534-24317570/ This delay will suit Peel holdings who are now saying that it will now be able to barge goods down the Manchester Ship Canal and turning it into a good news story by saying it will free up the the roads. Remember the seed was sown by Tesco with wine being barged down the canal.....who spun that one in.....as if, Tesco are going to use barges with consumables.
We will lose a lot of jobs in Liverpool as a result of this shift of the port to Salford and the Daily Peel should have been up to speed.....ahead of the event, not after it.
So is it the editing why we get the news late? Is it because the printing is now done in Oldham that we are getting the Daily Ghost 5 days late? Or is it the transport situation? Just wait till the snow comes in, and what about this preferential treatment of Peel?........then the penny dropped when I was sent this picture here it is the reason the news is late, its the new mode of transport for the local press, barging the paper down the Manchester Ship Canal from........Oldham.