On Wednesday 8th November, our PLACED Alumni were kindly invited to attend a design review panel of the upcoming Liverpool Baltic train station by Richard Tracey from Places Matter.
The Alumni and professionals met at the corner of Stanhope Steet to better understand the opportunities and challenges within the site. After the site visit, we moved to the Women’s Organisation to watch an in-depth presentation by Will Barralet, Director of Owen Ellis Architects and Tom Roberts, Technical Principal from Mott MacDonald. The presentation laid out some amazing ideas working to combine the surrounding area’s history with its future of being a station within a park.
Once the presentation was complete, we moved on to the design review; a professional, peer-led review of the project. The panel consisted of an urban designer, two architects and a landscape architect and was supported by representatives from Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, Network Rail, Merseyrail and Liverpool City Council. The session was finished off with a riveting Q&A which saw the panel really testing the designers on some of their materials, concepts and ambition of the project.
The Alumni really enjoyed this opportunity, they raised great points over the course of the site visit and had some interesting insights after the Q&A concluded. Two of the three who attended this session graduated from The Academy during Covid. This unfortunately meant they had never had a site visit or met industry professionals face-to-face. The design review panel offered them the chance to participate in activities they weren’t able to over their time in The Academy as well as giving them a great insight into the review process.
Huge thanks to Richard Tracey for inviting our Alumni along to the design review panel and for all the other professionals who took part in a fascinating and insightful day.