黑洞社区

鈥業 counted 56 tower cranes recently 鈥� there used to be just three or four,鈥� says Tommy Jones. 鈥淢aybe there鈥檚 too much happening all at once but I think the new buildings are fantastic.鈥�

I鈥檓 sitting in the back of Jones鈥� cab with Ken Martin, the veteran architect and voluble commentator who probably knows more than anyone about Liverpool鈥檚 physical and social history. We are dropped off at the newly completed 27-storey Unity Tower in the city鈥檚 mushrooming business quarter, ready to begin a typical drizzly Merseyside day. 鈥淭he nice thing about Liverpool is not the buildings but the people. They really do react to the city around them,鈥� says Martin.

But not always in a good way. 鈥淟iverpool alternates between overconfidence and lack of confidence,鈥� he continues. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 all to do with the port, which closed down in 1972, and with being underprivileged for so long.鈥�

鈥淯nderprivileged鈥� is putting it mildly. Liverpool in the eighties was the feelbad capital of Britain: the place where teargas made its mainland debut and urban regeneration was likened to making water run uphill. Every month, a thousand residents moved elsewhere. That picture only brightened with the general economic recovery of the nineties, during which the city outperformed London, thanks to the growth of service industries to complement its many development quangos. The most recent is the Liverpool Culture Company, which was set up to co-ordinate the city鈥檚 tenure as European capital of culture. It commands an 拢80m budget.

Naturally, Martin approves of all the money and the bustle. 鈥淭here are so many millions of pounds in grants going into improving the image of the city that it almost had to become capital of culture to justify it,鈥� he says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a real free-for-all.鈥�

He is less enthusiastic about the , 鈥渁mazingly high-handed and mismanaged鈥� Liverpool Culture Company. 鈥淧erhaps when the quangos go away and the public subsidies stop, the city will become less managed and more positive.鈥�

He is also sceptical about the 鈥渁valanche of building鈥� at the Paradise Street shopping quarter. 鈥淢y plea is for smaller schemes and for improvements to the public realm,鈥� he says. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 because large developments tend to be static and the best cities evolve continuously. Small developments are part of Liverpool鈥檚 vitality.鈥�

He does regret the absence of one large-scale project: a dual carriageway tunnel from the docks that would allow the city centre to reach out to the Three Graces, Albert Dock, the new arena and conference centre and the Mersey.

Martin may have been born and bred near Manchester, but he has spent his professional life in Liverpool, and typifies the city鈥檚 irrepressible cockiness. He ran the school of architecture at Liverpool Polytechnic for 20 years until 1989, during which time he fitted in the odd television appearance as Professor Lobster, introducing children to the wonders of architecture.

After that he set up in private practice again and several of his students went on to become big guns in Liverpool鈥檚 building boom, including Terry Davenport of 黑洞社区 Design Partnership, who masterminded the Paradise Street shopping quarter, and Ian Simpson, who designed the two Beetham towers.

All of which makes him in ideal guide for an architectural tour of his adopted home.

Tower power

Ken Martin is a big fan of the rash of office towers that have risen over the past five years north of the Three Graces 鈥� including City Lofts鈥� 20-storey residential tower shown behind him by architect Atherden Fuller Leng. His enthusiasm doesn鈥檛 stretch to the 27-storey Unity Tower, shown above. Designed by Allford Hall Monaghan Morris, the Unity has picked up one of 13 RIBA national awards this year. But Martin is not impressed. 鈥淚t鈥檚 an anywhere building. Its flatness is disturbing. And it鈥檚 a building that changes its mind to become a shoebox at the top. That shoebox dominates the city. It says: 鈥楲ook, I鈥檓 here!鈥� but contains two 拢1.5m flats, so it鈥檚 an image of the wealth of just two individuals.鈥�

Artistic licence

Martin runs his own art gallery above his office in the city centre. 鈥淚 could let this for 拢10,000 a year as an office,鈥� he says. 鈥淏ut this is me putting something back into the city.鈥� For example, an elegant monolith that turns out to be a writhing mass of soldiers, and a montage of Will Alsop鈥檚 Fourth Grace and three other shortlisted schemes superimposed on a Canaletto view of Venice. 鈥淲ill鈥檚 scheme should have been the linchpin of the capital of culture. But it became a cause c茅l猫bre 鈥� Neptune Developments wanted it to go ahead but the funders got cold feet. Now we鈥檙e getting yet another museum [designed by Danish architect 3XN] instead.鈥�

Scouse of fun

Marching straight down the centreline of a vigorous pavement fountain installed in Williamson Square in 2004, Martin emerges with barely a drop of water on him. 鈥淲e need spaces that make you smile,鈥� he grins. An abandoned sixties office building nearby has a similar effect. With a little help from artist Richard Wilson, a two-storey circle cut out of the building鈥檚 facade rotates on a piston continuously and smoothly. 鈥淭his is Liverpool at its best,鈥� says Martin.

Culture club

Built in 1717, the former Bluecoat School 鈥� reputedly Liverpool鈥檚 oldest building 鈥� is being restored and extended as a hub for city of culture events, although it will not open until March at the earliest. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a very elegant building,鈥� says Martin. 鈥淚 just hope they don鈥檛 replace the railings across the front, as this used to put people off.鈥� With Donald Insall Associates as conservation architect, Austin-Smith:Lord as executive architect and Kier as contractor, the update takes in a modern reinterpretation of a brick mews at the back by Biq of Rotterdam.

Baroque till you drop

Martin sums up Grosvenor Estate鈥檚 191,000m2 Paradise Street in the south of the city centre as 鈥渄ynamic neo-baroque鈥�. 鈥淐ommercial retail architecture has got better over the years and Liverpool has avoided the disasters of early shopping centres,鈥� he concedes. 鈥淏ut this is a leviathan scheme with big, bland forms pushed in and out. It鈥檚 slightly forced and reminds me of an expo. On the other hand, with all that glass it should be quite stylish at night.鈥�

Making history

鈥淟iverpool鈥檚 full of art, like Italy,鈥� says Martin in tribute to the row of four majestic stone libraries and museums overlooking St George鈥檚 Plateau. The plateau is also home to several bronze and stone statues, some of which 鈥� including this stone Britannia from the roof of the Walker Art Gallery 鈥� have found refuge in the National Conservation Centre, converted by Martin from a railway warehouse in 1995.

Bling architecture

鈥淚t鈥檚 brash. And it has chutzpah,鈥� says Martin of Herbert鈥檚 hairdresser鈥檚 salon, sporting golden highlights and 鈥淏ling鈥� tatooed over the main entrance. 鈥淛ust make sure you get the American saloon car in the photograph.鈥� Designed by Piers Gough of CZWG, it is part of the first phase of Grosvenor鈥檚 Paradise Street development. Alongside it stands the neatly tailored, red-brick box of the Friends Meeting House, which Grosvenor developed to entice the Quakers away from a more lucrative site earmarked for retail.

Loving restoration, rusting petrol station

Martin loves the solid bronze doors to the newly restored St George鈥檚 Hall but is less than impressed by the rusting woven-steel doors and two pavement pylons at the World Museum Liverpool around the corner . 鈥淵ou鈥檙e coming into a major public building and it鈥檚 like a service station,鈥� he sniffs.