'Oversized', 'incongruous' 'misconceived'.
These were some of the words chosen by Duncan Wilson, Chief Executive of Historic England, when he wrote for Londonist a couple of years back about egregious plans to redevelop Liverpool Street station.
Wilson and many others will be breathing a sigh of relief today (4 November 2024) with the revelation that the fresh proposals for the over-station development show a significantly downsized, more sympathetic design — following the departure of the original architect (Herzog & de Meuron) and developer (Sellar).
Though the original plans were spiked a few weeks back, Network Rail — which manages the east London station — has now revealed plans drawn up with the architectural practice ACME (yes, that name reminds me of Looney Tunes too). The newly-released renders depict a glass office building which wraps around — rather than plonks itself atop — the redbrick station building and Andaz hotel. The concourse is larger, writes Architects' Journal, and there will be eight escalators, as opposed to the original four.
As for the height of the office development, ACME says that although it will still loom above the station concourse, it will reach a maximum height of 97 metres (compared to Herzog & de Meuron's 108-metre-tall design), and will be 'sufficiently set back from the hotel so as not to dominate it in the way it did before.'
"We will retain the sense of a tall and airy concourse, with a flexible workspace building above to fund the development of the station at street level," says ACME's funding director Friedrich Ludewig.
After being revealed in 2022, the original plans for the station's redevelopment received more than 2,200 objections, with figures including Griff Rhys Jones railing against it.
