The Museum of Liverpool, clad in 6,800m² of Jura limestone, was officially opened by The Queen in December. The design of the building has been criticised by some reviewers and was short-listed for the Carbuncle Cup, ‘awarded’ by Building Design magazine for buildings that ‘the public’ (whoever they may be) nominate as the country’s ugliest new-builds. History might judge it more kindly. The proximity of the ‘Three Graces’ that include the Royal Liver Building, was always going to be a challenge for the architects, but it is a challenge that has been met in the innovative use of Jura set into a landscape of granite that gained top landscaping honours in the 2010 Natural Stone Awards.

At least the new Museum of Liverpool was only nominated for the Carbuncle Cup for the ugliest new-build last year (the ‘winner’ was the £600million MediaCityUK, the regional headquarters of the BBC in Salford, Manchester). The other new building on Liverpool’s Albert Dock, the Pier Head Ferry Terminal by Hamilton Architects, ‘won’ it in 2009.
Whatever any architect designed anywhere near the huge ‘Three Graces’ was likely to meet with some disapproval. This trio of buildings constructed at the start of the 20th century is in what is now the World Heritage Site of Albert Dock, with has the largest group of Grade 1 listed buildings anywhere in Britain.
A new building would have to respect the Graces yet make a powerful enough statement to hold its own against them. And it would have to represent its point in time, just as the Graces represent theirs. Not an easy task to achieve to the satisfaction of all critics.
The dock is no stranger to controversy. The now highly regarded Royal Liver Building, the best known of the Three Graces and sometimes referred to as England’s first skyscraper, was itself criticised for its size and monumental granite form when it opened in 1911.
The stone-clad, steel framed Graces were intended to stamp their authority on the docks and reflect the significance and power of the city of Liverpool. The other two buildings with the Royal Liver Building are the Cunard Building and the former offices of the Mersey Docks & Harbour Board.
The fortunes of the dock named after Prince Albert waned after WWII and it closed in 1972. In 1983 The Albert Dock Company Ltd and the Merseyside Development Corporation began to restore the site to its former glory, breathing new life into what had become a rundown area. In 1988 the Albert Dock was officially re-opened by Prince Charles.
The Museum of Liverpool – and the Ferry Terminal before it – could not compete with the Graces but had to complement them.
Whether you believe that has been achieved depends on your perspective. Danish architect Kim Neilsen, whose company 3XN produced the concept for the Museum, has been reported by the BBC as saying he believes the building is exactly as it was originally envisaged to be, which presumably means he likes it.
The 28m wide windows at either end of the Museum provide views of the docks and the Mersey, which are major elements of the narrative of Liverpool that the Museum is intended to present. They also help blur the distinction between the galleries inside and the world outside that the exhibits once inhabited.
One of the windows looks out over the Three Graces and on a sunny day the Graces are reflected in it, poignantly distorted by the slightly varying angles of the panes of glass.
The solidity of the new Museum building comes from the 6,800m² of mostly 30mm thick Jura limestone that clads it, designed both as flat surfaces on some planes and, on others, as faceted surfaces that create an interplay of light and shadow and are reminiscent of the rock face from which the natural stone was won.
The Jura was quarried, cut and shaped by Vereignigte Marmorwerke in Kaldorf, Germany. The stone is described as Jura Gelb (yellow), although in the UK it is usually referred to as Jura beige. It has been finished with what the Germans call a kratzscliff (scratched) surface.
The contractor for the Museum was Pihl Galliford Try – a joint venture of E Pihl & Søn AS of Lyngby, Denmark, and Galliford Try of Middlesex, England.
A major part of the fixing system was developed specifically for the project by Pihl, although at the gables the Halfen SUK System (supplied by Halfen Deha in Langenfeld, Germany) was used, mounted in brackets developed by Pihl. The undercut anchors used to attach the stones to the carrying system were supplied by Keil in Engelskirchen, Germany.
It was a major element of the whole design process to optimize this fixing system so the mounting on site could be carried out smoothly. Mogens Hedegaard Andersen, an architect who heads the Pihl Architectural Design Office and was design manager at Pihl on the project, told NSS: “We took up the task to develop a system that could ensure a precise, as well as a rational and time saving performance of the entire external envelope (exclusive of the glazing, which was performed by Mag Hansen).
“Having worked with natural stone facades for many years it was a very good opportunity to implement 3D modelling and advanced production methods like CNC cutting of the slabs and prefabricate assembly of the elements in a production hall, which could ensure optimal working environments.”
The bespoke fixing system had to allow panels to angle outward from the building to create the three-dimensional geometrical pattern. For the protruding sections at the upper portions of the facade, the stone pieces were assembled on to steel trusses, which were installed on a steel frame. The stone at the base of the building is fixed back to a concrete frame. The vertical stone panels around the windows are installed on a steel rafter system.
The Jura facades are fixed back to 2,100tonnes of structural steel, which allows the Museum’s largest exhibition spaces, up to 40m by 28m, to be column free, creating impressive, clutter-free galleries and public spaces inside.
The building is positioned over the Leeds-Liverpool canal link, which extends the waterway through the Albert Dock, and over the Queensway road tunnel that goes under the River Mersey. It added to the challenges facing the team. That meant it was not possible simply to put piles into the ground and the solution has been for the Museum to be constructed in a way akin to building a bridge.