THERE are two words which leap out when author David Littlefield talks about the Liverpool One master plan: amazing and ridiculous.

The first because of the sheer scale and ambition of the project, a 42-acre grand design the likes of which hasn’t been attempted in Britain for decades.

And ridiculous, he explains, because of the timescale in which it was realised.

"In terms of digging dirt on site, it took something like four years to complete, which is incredible," says David. "That’s a pace of work that you don’t see anywhere else in the world, apart from the Middle East and China. If I’d been given that schedule I wouldn’t have believed it, no-one would."

It’s fair to say architectural expert David is impressed.

He was invited at the beginning of last year to chronicle the scheme and its place in a wider renaissance by publishers Wiley and developers Grosvenor for a book entitled Liverpool One: Remaking a City Centre.

Sixteen months ago, along with Liverpool-based photographer Paul McMullin, he arrived from his home in Wiltshire to take the hard hat tour of the site as it neared its first phase finale.

The wraps were still on to a curious public audience but, says David, crucially all those who had been so instrumental in taking it from drawing board to reality were still in situ.

His immediate impression, as someone who hadn’t been to the city for several years, was of a dramatic change.

"It’s breathtaking really, not only because it’s so physically vast but because of the way it’s been done: there’s such a range of buildings; big ones, small ones, ones that are very contextual and ones that are very bold.

"It’s actually quite easy to design and build a very big piece of work, but what’s so impressive about this is there’s so much diversity and a real effort to link such different parts of the city – the docks, the Ropewalks, Church Street and the business district.

"I think the standard of the architecture is really high, but you have to remember that the buildings actually occupy space on a master plan that it’s that master plan that’s bloody brilliant, it really is.

"What you’ve got now is an extended city centre that can live and grow. Buildings can come and go and there are sites where new buildings can nestle up against the older ones. It’s not a fait accompli, something that’s there forever and ever.

"I can guarantee that, in 20 or 30 years’ time, some buildings will have disappeared, others will be adapted and new ones will be there, and that’s the way city centres grow. That’s how it should be."

Although David is clearly a fan of what Grosvenor and its team of architects achieved, he believes the city council is deserving of a pat on the back, too, for its forward thinking, especially in the face of cheaper, quicker fixes.

"I think so many cities have a lot to learn from Liverpool because people are frightened of vision and frightened to actually get on and do something because someone, somewhere might not like it," he says. "In late 1999, when the council was looking for developers, I know there was one who pretty much produced a model of a shopping mall and said ‘we’ve already got the model, we can start next week.’ But the council didn’t want anything inward-looking which turned its back on everything else. What they wanted was an extension of the city centre and something which was a response to the city as a whole.