Just why is our skyline so famous?
Liverpool’s waterfront composition is rightly regarded to be world famous. It is. Made up chiefly by the three magnificent commercial buildings at the Pierhead, it is an instantly recognisable backdrop to any narrative about the city. But this very fame may have landed us in some terribly hot water with regards to ‘maintaining our image’ as we feel this is now being placed the wrong way round.
Just as with NYC, our skyline is instantly synonymous with this great city. But where we begin to lose the plot is in current moves to preserve it just as it is because of this ‘fame’. New York City is always changing, in a constant state of flux and evolution and yet its skyline has not diminished in its role as the city’s icon. Why should this be? If we can satisfactorily answer this then we can also highlight just where Liverpool has got its priorities so very, very wrong!
New York is a constantly changing and incredibly innovative city. Entrepreneurs, immigrants, creatives of all sorts flock there to partake in the dynamic of the ‘city that never sleeps’ It is an incredible font of inspiration, outrage, awe and interest…it DOES interesting things and it is for this reason that New York is constantly in the headlines, in the movies and on the tourist trail. It is the dynamic of the place that people are interested in, want to hear about, see and experience. It is because of this that we are so familiar with the city on an intimate, almost day to day basis, then its slow change is readily adapted into it’s ‘constant icon’ nature of its buildings and skyline backdrop.
 Gradually changing, always recognisable. The taller, West Tower, is soon to join the rest of downtowns 'icons' credit:with thanks to Aedas and Uniform www.uniform.net |
It is exactly the same for us. It is the exclusive reason why Liverpool’s skyline is so famous. It is famous purely because those waterfront buildings are in our city, a city that generates news, ideas and interest…it is NOT the other way round. Liverpool is a city that does interesting and exciting things…or at least, it used to. (Ironically one of the things we used to be very good at was encouraging large, modern buildings, but only after we had nurtured the creative process that commands their being built to accommodate it!!) |
This is not a problem confined solely to Liverpool of course. It is just being played out here in a most bizarre (and extremely damaging) fashion. People say that the Opera House has given Sydney a famous visual signature, and fair enough, it has – but we cannot remember a single incident where pictures of Sydney Opera House where shown ‘just because it’s such a good building!’ People now know the Opera House because Sydney does interesting things, it is a dynamic place, commercially and culturally. The main reason why they built an Opera House in the first place was in response to a cultural demand for opera and performance, not an empty desire for 'a fancy building in the harbour'. It is this creative dynamic that draws the film crews, news and documentary makers there.
So. What should Liverpool prioritise? Liverpool is a city that used to do things of international significance and interest. It has lived on in the global psyche through this legacy for the last twenty years…people around the globe are still interested in Liverpool in a way in which they just aren’t interested in what goes on in Manchester, Leeds or Birmingham. But this will not continue. If Liverpool stops creating then the love affair will end. People will stop coming here to report on us…and our skyline will no longer be recognised as it will have dropped off the ‘familiarity association’ of media exposure.
If we give up on invention, innovation, change and growth in order to maintain the visual integrity of our ‘signature’ then that signature will be preserved in glorious anonymity because the reasons why people come to Liverpool and use the waterfront as narrative will have gone…it is not the buildings but the energy of the city that interests people.
If Liverpool prioritises instead, its focus on creativity, dynamism and growth then the changes that this would inevitably bring to the city and the skyline won’t really matter. A whole series of Beetham Towers, mini Chrysler Buildings and Lloyds buildings would just ease into being part of the new, or rather, continuing ‘iconography’ of the city…always changing, but still the same; instantly recognisable.
Finally, for the sentimentalists amongst us (of which we include ourselves), just as in New York, this would not mean the elimination of the Liver Building as the city’s prime icon – we would just have more. The Chrysler and Empire State buildings are now over 70 years old in, as we have already described, a city that has continually changed year in year out over that period…and yet they are STILL the most famous, most loved and most easily recognised signatures of a city incredibly rich in ‘icons’. Why is this? It is because they where both designed to the absolutely highest construction and architectural standards.
We have argued in other pieces that taking such a singular, strident and proscriptive approach to, what should only be seen as one element of nurturing a healthy and productive urban environment, will, at best needlessly dampen the creative process of the city, and could at worst utterly suffocate it. A template that cannot be disputed HAS to have a deleterious effect on the dynamic that in other cities would lead to change, change that should be welcomed!
We must remind ourselves what cities are about and what they are for, what processes keep them viable, habitable and therefore worth loving.
So. Remember Liverpool DOES have a famous skyline, but we must remind ourselves exactly why this is so – the silliest thing is to delude ourselves that it is because of the fundamental quality of their design or due to their architectural composition – which was, joyously, a sheer accident! Liverpool must tap it's creative genius if we to be restored to any semblence of former glory. If we do this then the force of this will maifest in all sorts of healthy ways, one of which will be gradual and continual improvement to the city's always recognisable signature skyline.
© September
2004, Downtown Liverpool. All Rights Reserved.