Bluecoat wins top honour at Liverpool's first architectual oscars

Oct 10 2008 by Alistair Houghton, Liverpool Daily Post

“Liverpool is a city of great public buildings and has some great contemporary architecture.

“For me, the Bluecoat already has the profile of a world-class piece of architecture.

“What’s interesting is they’ve treated the historic fabric extremely well and with due care, but it’s also absolutely contemporary and modern. The join between the old building and the new is one of the most special moments of contemporary architecture in Britain.”

An estimated 10,000 people attended a weekend-long celebration to mark the reopening of Liverpool’s Bluecoat centre for contemporary art on March 15.

Formerly a school, the Grade I listed building dates back to 1717. It received a £3.6m grant from Arts Council England’s capital programme, almost £3m from the European Objective One programme, just over £2m from the Heritage Lottery Fund, and an investment of £2.5m from the North West Development Agency.

At the heart of the refurbishment was the development of a wing that was previously unused and once destroyed by fire in World War II.

The new wing comprises four new galleries and a 200-seat performance space, 13 new artist studios and 13 creative industry studios, six retail shops, the espresso and restaurant-bar.

Disaster was narrowly averted when a fire broke out in the Bluecoat kitchen in May, but the arts centre reopened just 10 days after the fire.

alistairhoughton