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YOU can only get to it in a special vehicle. The ordinary public aren't allowed anywhere near it. It is full of dangerous chemicals, and why on Earth would you want to go there anyway?
No, not the Ladies or Gents in any Concert Square bar you care to mention, but the Seaforth radar tower.
But this one has got people fired up, and so have things progressed on he idea that a 50m high illuminated tower has won an international design competition in which 10,000 people voted. The £11.6 million design, which looks like a gigantic glass vase, is by Duggan Morris Architects and was the unanimous choice of the judging panel.
It is certainly striking in the visual here, but that's only half of the story. Confidential was given access to the radar tower on a bright sunny day this week to see what's in store.
So why get excited? Well if you like a view this is for you. From the top of the tower as it stands, Liverpool's landmarks bask in golden light, Beetham and Unity towers jostling for position with the establishment Liver Buildings and cathedrals from a little hitherto seen perspective. Further in and the bustle and clatter of the busy port are observed in a new light.
Eyes to the left and take in the whole sweep of the Mersey Estuary out to the Bar and the Irish Sea beyond. Straight ahead is Snowdonia. Behind, the Gormley men are mere dots as they impassively stare out to sea.
Unusually, the design calls for two complementary structures: a viewing tower and a separate café and exhibition centre. Duggan Morris calls them the 'lamp' and 'bowl'. The Observatory tower is designed to be illuminated from the inside and contains two viewing platforms. A lift would carry people to an enclosed, all-weather viewing platform, and further up to an open air viewing platform atop the tower.
The project is led by the Mersey Basin Campaign and backed by a partnership that includes the Northwest Regional Development Agency, Mersey Waterfront and Peel Holdings.
Now the real work begins. The architects must develop their preliminary designs to a much more detailed level, and crucially the team behind the project must put together the funding package that will make the Mersey Observatory a reality.
He added: "Anyone who has had the opportunity to go on to the roof of the existing radar tower knows that there is one single "Wow! factor" that it is impossible to miss.”
A view (of a view) we tend to share.
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11 comments so far, continue the conversation, write a comment.
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S.P.E.C.T.R.E. does not tolerate failure!(Pulls hidden lever, floor retracts and Lord Street falls into a Big Dig pit)
Great heavens! It's Hugo Drax! Did he design the power station that takes his name?
Having been fortunate to have visited the Radar Tower many times when my husband was employed there, the views across the Mersey are fantastic. I think the new design and building will fit in admirably, and will compliment the Gormley Statues and hopefully the new Marina when that is built, Hope I live long enough to see the transformation of Seaforth Water Front
London Road; take care of Mr. Bradley. See some harm comes to him!
In that picture above, 'Architect Joe' looks like a Bond villain. I hope this Waterloo Vase isn't going to be his futuristic headquarters from which he will embark upon fiendish plots for world domination. I mean it's bad enough that we have to suffer Mike Storey and his cronies in he neighbourhood.
The Moon? Is the Sun not an option? I drove past Bradley this morning but I saw him too late... and missed him!
mon dieu i ave returned from the floor to read fifi's message.'ow about a rendezvous mon petit waitrose?
Non, Monsieur. c'est une carafe de vin. C'est le vin blanc malheureusement...
Hope I live long enough to see the end of the big dig. Not banking on it however.
What about if we lock Mike Storey, Warren Bradley and all the other blithering incompetents in this radar tower, load it onto a passing rocket and fire it off to the moon.
where have those statues gone! damnation is nought sacred and is that not the ghurkin or am i at the end of a bottlr of rouge. mon dieu i've just fallen overrrrrrrrrrrrrr!