Huge Scheme Planned For Liverpool Waterfront

Mann Island is the latest £112 million plans for a site next to the famous Three Graces in Liverpool giving hope that the current concrete desert in the area can yet be brought to life. Occupying a sensitive site the three blocks designed by Broadway Malyan for Countryside Properties and Neptune Developments just strongly with cutting lines and sharp angles, almost as if the obselisk from 2001 Space Odyssey has found it's way to the waterfront.The three buildings, clad in highly reflective glass and polished granite, will feature 2 floors of retail on their first two levels and a further 11 floors above. The lower floors will be light glass taking out a leaf from the likes of the Seagram Building with the darker cladding on the floors above it.The two buildings looking towards the waterfront will be residential and between them contain 373 new apartments. These will have roof terraces on them providing open air access to residents.The more simple building on the inland portion of the site bounding The Strand will have office accommodation.The whole development will face onto a large public square and a canal will cut through it that has been planned as part of the works for the 2008 City of Culture.Next door is going to be the new Museum of Liverpool, the total opposite of these buildings and perhaps their inspiration given the white Getty Institute look, strong lines and modern styling.If they can pull off the look that the admittedly glossy marketing material has given Mann Island without value engineering reducing the quality of the design then Liverpool should be on to a winner.They look like combining to give an architectural experience that is minimalist rather than the in-yer-face plushness of the Edwardian Three Graces.