Liverpool’s Award-winning Architecture
The Echo reports that Liverpool’s Pier Head ferry terminal has beaten off strong competition – including Liverpool’s own Grosvenor One Park West – to win the Carbuncle Cup, a prestigious acknowledgment by Building Design Magazine’s three judges of the terminal’s exceptional design. Unfortunately, of course, this award is for Britain’s ugliest new building.
Despite a Merseytravel spokesperson’s assertion that: “We are proud of the Pier Head Ferry Terminal and have received widespread support for the building from the community here on Merseyside,” a snap poll on the Liverpool Echo’s website suggests that three quarters of Scousers hate the thing.
Two of the problems facing the ‘carbuncle’ are the fact that it sits smack bang in front of the rightly-adored Three Graces, and in a World Heritage Site, and also that it looks like the new Liverpool Museum building’s wonky little brother.
Update: Two more articles talking about the ferry terminal buiding: straight from the horse’s mouth at Building Design Magazine, and analysis in the Daily Telegraph.