URBAN DESIGN FRAMEWORK The University of Liverpool - Urbed

The University of LiverpoolURBAN DESIGN FRAMEWORKurbanism environment design

University of Liverpool: UDFURBED (Urbanism Environment Design)10 Little Lever StreetManchesterM1 1HRt. 0161 200 5500f. 0161 237 3994e. info@urbed.coopw. www.urbed.coopwith...WSP Integrated Transportwww.wspgroup.comMarch 2008

Contents1:1 Introduction 11:2 The University Challenge 2PART 2: The University in Context2:1 Location 62:2 Socio-economic Context 82:3 Historic Context 92:4 Transport Context 102:5 The Townscape Context 12PART 3: The University Campus3.1 Before Holford 163:2 The Holford Plan 183:3 Urban Form 203:4 Activity and Uses 223:5 The Quality of the Buildings 243:6 Topography and Massing 263:7 Public Realm 283:8 Highways and Parking 303:9 Alternative Forms of Access 323:10 Hard and Soft Plan 34PART 4: A Masterplan for the University4:1 What Sort of Campus? 384:2 Restructuring the Campus 404:3 A ‘Civic University’ 424:1 Phase 1 Projects 444:5 Phase 2 Projects 464:6 Phase 3 Projects 484:7 Public Realm 504:8 Myrtle Street Gateway 524:9 The University ‘Diagonale’ 544:10 Building Heights 564:11 Land Use 58

University of Liverpool: UDF

The Mathematics Building by Bryan Westwood, 1959The former Royal Infirmary by Alfred Waterhouse in 1890 The new Bio-science building completed in 20041:1 - IntroductionThe aim of this study is to assist development of an estate strategy for theUniversity of Liverpool that can guide future investment decisions and betterintegrate the University with its surrounding context.In recent years Liverpool, along with the othercore English cities, has embarked on a dynamicperiod of investment and resurgence, oftencharacterised as the ‘urban renaissance’. Thishas been driven in no small part by the majoreducational and learning institutions, that haveallowed these cities to attract students, staffand significant investment. Universities havebecome major economic generators spinningoff businesses and attracting investment forresearch and development. They have also addedto the vitality and cultural diversity of citiesmaking them much more interesting and excitingplaces.In turn the big metropolitan universities havebenefited from the transformed image and newfound pulling power of their host cities. Studentswant to study in exciting cities and universitiesin the big cities have found it easier to attractstudents and also to retain them after graduation.With its location at the very heart of Merseyside’smetropolitan city-region, the University ofLiverpool’s campus should be perfectly positionedto both benefit from and contribute to thisrenewed civic energy.Unfortunately, with some notable exceptions,the buildings and spaces of the campus do notat present rise to this challenge. They neitherprovide a fitting setting for the University’s worldclassacademic status nor do they integratethe life of the University with the life of the city.This, we believe, is because of a confusion inthe approach to the planning of the University inthe past, that has alternated between trying tocreate a ‘campus’ environment and seeking todeveloping an ‘Urban’ University and done neithervery well.The Estates Strategy being undertaken bythe University to direct a multi-million poundtransformation of the campus is a goodopportunity to address these issues. TheUniversity has commissioned URBED (Urbanism,Environment, Design) to develop a newmasterplan for the University. This documentis the result of this commission and includesa detailed analysis of the physical fabric of theUniversity and its property requirements. This isdeveloped into a three dimensional vision for theUniversity and a phased programme of works toachieve this.The University Sports Centre, one of the best modern University buildings - designed in 1963 by Sir Dennys Lasdun

University of Liverpool: UDF1:2 - The University ChallengeUniversities operate in an ever changingworld. Staff and students are becoming moredemanding, space requirements are changingand the environment in which they operate isbecoming more competitive. The masterplanmust respond to these challenges.The University’s needs are changing and the way itoperates today is very different from the situation inthe 1940s when the last major masterplan for thecampus was undertaken by Lord Holford. The newmasterplan must respond to these changing needs:The knowledge economy is now central to theeconomic success of cities so that universitiesneed to be embedded in the economy of the city.Student numbers have increased from lessthan 5% of young people in the 1940s to acurrent target of 50%. The size of coursesand the number of students on campus hasincreased hugely since the 1980s although thishas now levelled off.Overseas students are crucial to the academiclife and finances of the University and thecampus needs to be attractive to them.There are far more universities than thereused to be. Students are attracted to the brightlights of cities like Liverpool but parents remainconcerned about safety and crime. The campustherefore needs to provide a safe environment.Course types are evolving with the expansionof vocational courses and an increasingdiversity of learning and teaching formatsincluding full and part-time courses, distancelearning and use of on-line delivery.University finance depends on researchratings and this depends on attracting the bestacademics. The campus must therefore be agood place to work.There is increasing concern about theenvironment and universities are expected totake the lead in carbon reduction strategies.Initiatives like Harvard’s Green Campus showhow this can project a positive image.Universities rely on conferences and otheractivities to generate revenue. This requiresmodern conference venues as well asaccommodation, catering and parkingprovision.Technology is changing rapidly; in the lastdecade universities installed rooms full ofcomputers for students. However, with theavailability of affordable, portable computingstudents are increasing flexible in where andhow they can work.Tuition fees are helping to fund improvedaccommodation but have also changed therelationship between students and universitieswith the former acting more like customersand the latter increasingly eager to impress.All of this means that universities need to makesure that their buildings and the environmentson their campus are memorable and welcoming.People’s expectations of their university arebecoming more aspirational. Estates strategies areno longer just pragmatic, functional programmesto house the University’s activities but are nowcrucial to the success of their institution.These issues are also being addressed byAmerican Universities. As part of this the not-forprofitorganisation ‘Project for Public Spaces’ (whoworked with URBED in the 1980s) have set out sixobjectives that a good university campus shouldaspire to achieve. These provide a good foundationfor the Liverpool University Masterplan:1. Bring people and ideas togetherThe boundaries between disciplines are breakingdown. In today’s institution, the managementschool, for example needs to interact with theteaching hospital, the linguists with the scientists.Students also need to interact with each other andin turn the entire University needs to interact withthe broader city and community.Such encounters help generate new ideas, thevery currency of the knowledge economy. Thecampus needs to be designed to create spacefor these interactions. For all of the importanceof virtual worlds, face-to-face communicationremains vital and the campus needs to includelively inviting public spaces to encourageinteraction.

University of Liverpool: UDFPART 2:The University in Context

University of Liverpool: UDF2:1 - LocationThe University occupies a strategic site on theedge of the city centre and in a location at theheart of the city region.Alongside its leading academic reputation, thelocation in a spacious campus on the edgeof the city centre is one of the University’sprimary competitive advantages. The campus isunambiguously part of the city centre, with bothcathedrals, the Royal Hospital and Lime StreetStation just a stone’s throw away.The University lies at the heart of the Liverpoolcity-region, which is home to 1.3 million people.The University’s ‘travel to work’ area stretcheseven further than this – south/west into Cheshireand Wales and north/east as far as Preston andWarrington.The location plan shows Liverpool’s metropolitancore - the area broadly within the Queens Driveintermediate ring road. The blue circle covers thecity centre and its immediate context, with theCampus boundary outlined in red.On a city centre scale (see plan opposite) itbecomes clear that the Campus is actuallydistinct from the core retail, commercial, civicand cultural uses that lie further ‘down the hill’,sitting equally close to the established residentialneighbourhoods of Liverpool’s inner-city.This ‘edge of centre’ position means the Campusenjoys the access advantages that come withcentrality, but without the intense pressures onspace and environmental quality associated withthe very heart of the city.Its generous 25 hectare site and favouredtopographical situation on the ridge overlookingthe Mersey give the campus its own discreteidentity within Liverpool’s urban structure.This offers the potential to establish theUniversity Campus as a ‘bridge’ between themany different roles and functions of the city, anidea which reconnects with the original essenceof a ‘Civic University’.The Campus is the largest element in Liverpool’sstrategic Knowledge Quarter, a unique collectionof learning and cultural assets that account forsome 15% of the city’s annual GVA. This hasbeen subject to a separate study (also by URBED)which sits the University masterplan within thewider context of Knowledge Quarter together withthe plans of Liverpool John Moores Universityand the development plans of the Royal LiverpoolUniversity Hospital.A Figure Ground Plan of Liverpool showing the University Campus well within a 1km radius of the city centre.10

Church Street Retail CoreEveryman TheatreRopewalks Cultural QuarterRodney StreetWomen’s HospitalCity centre contextWorld Heritage SiteQuarters and neighbourhoodsThe Knowledge QuarterKnowledge usesCultural and civic destinationsToxteth Library (£1.1m HLF restoration)Toxteth TV11

University of Liverpool: UDF2:2 - Socio-economic ContextAlt ValleyNorth LiverpoolEastern LinkCity CentreThe University is surrounded by some of the most deprivedneighbourhoods in the country and has an important role inreconnecting these communities to each other and the city centre.HealthSouth CentralSouth SuburbsThe University Campus and the Royal Hospital aresurrounded by established inner city residentialcommunities:To the north, across the inner ring road lielow-density 1980s estates of mainly socialhousing, stretching along the ridge to Everton.To the east lie the historic communities ofKensington and Edge Hill, which are housedin a mix of sturdy late 19th century bylawterraces, 20th century social housing,and their low density 1980s replacements.The terraces of Kensington Fields are to bedesignated as a conservation area, whilethose of Edge Hill may be demolished underthe Housing Market Renewal programme.South of the campus is Toxteth’s historicCanning area of Georgian streets andsquares, lined with townhouses built forthe city’s wealthy 19th century merchantclass. There are also pockets of later infill onblitz and clearance sites. The tenure of thisarea is highly mixed, with high value owneroccupation increasing alongside establishedsocial and private rented properties.On the west side of the campus is a compactneighbourhood of established social housing.St. Andrews Gardens 1930’s ‘bullring’tenement block itself has now been convertedto student residences.The Government’s Index of Multiple Deprivation2004 (IMD) shows all of the neighbourhoodsaround the campus to be subject to deep andmulti-dimensional problems of poverty.Poor health is particularly acute, as isunemployment and low income. The campusand city centre are ringed by places in the mostsevere 1% of multiple deprivation nationwide.As the maps on these two pages show, there areclear spatial patterns across the city, with strongclustering effects delineated by sharp cut-off’s.The University has an important role to playin linking and providing opportunities to theresidents of these communities. There hassometimes been a tendency to see these areasas threats and potential sources of crime oncampus. This however must not undermine theUniversity’s role as a bridge rather than a barrierbetween these impoverished communities andthe city centre.12Spatial plans of Liverpool’s ‘Super output areas’ (2004) with thered areas being in the bottom 1% nationally. They show clearpatterns in the distribution of poverty and prosperity. Concentricrings encircle the city centre, with a severely deprived innercore surrounded by steadily less deprived streets, and finallypockets of acute deprivation in the large satellite estates ofsocial housing on the edge of the city.South LiverpoolIncome Education Employment

2:3 - Historic ContextThe University straddles the boundary betweenthe Georgian Canning district, a plannedextension to the city in the early 19th century,and the Victorian streets around Brownlow Hill.The University stands on an area once known asMosslake Fields, which occupied a shelf of landbetween the rapidly growing port of Liverpooland the village of Edge Hill. In the 19th centurythis area was selected for a major plannedextension to the city. The Corporation Surveyor,John Foster, laid out planned neighbourhoods ofwell proportioned streets and squares (such asAbercromby Square and Falkner Square) to theeast of the city. This area became an affluentresidential neighbourhood for the city’s elite.To the north, however, the Georgian housinggave way to a teeming working class districtwith a mix of townhouses and smaller terracesinterspersed with places of worship, pubs, smallfactories, schools and shops. Parts of the areawere stained black from the thick black smokebillowing from the open railway cuttings. Thearea became a location for some of the city’smain institutions, including the vast and fearsomecity workhouse that at one time was home tofive thousand unfortunate souls. A more positivecontribution was made by the Royal Infirmaryopened in 1890 and a few years earlier in 1881by the University College on Brownlow Hill.The University in the iconic Victoria buildingwas the very essence of the ‘red brick’ seat oflearning. Over the 20th century the two linkedinstitutions of hospital and University expandedand consolidated, gradually coming to define thispart of the city.The creation of a formal campus was agreedafter the second world war, when much of thecity was in need of rebuilding following the blitz.The architect and professor Lord Holford wasresponsible for the masterplan that eventuallyemerged, and for the design of the RoyalLiverpool University Hospital. Holford’s planwas bold and ambitious, but dismantled thestrong 19th century grid and the diverse uses itcontained, with profound impacts on movement,townscape and activity.A mid 19th century aerial view of Liverpool from the south. Abercromby Square is in the centre on the far right.13

University of Liverpool: UDF1.2.52:4 - Transport ContextLiverpool University lies at the heart of a network ofpublic transport routes. Yet more than half of peopleworking in the campus travel by car and only asmall proportion arrive by foot and cycle.Figure 2: Trip origins of work related trips to the University1.2.5Commuting patternsTravel to workWe have assessed the travel to work patternsto the University from the Travel to Work in the2001 Census. This shows that the majority oftrips to the campus (52%) were by car althoughthis is significantly lower than the nationalaverage (61%). This is due to the University’srelatively high accessibility by other modes oftransport. The proportion of people who arrive bypublic transport (23% by bus and 9% by rail) ismore than twice the national average.However, the mode share for walking and cyclingis disappointing given the campus’ locationwithin easy reach of a residential areas. Just 6%of people walk to work (compared to the nationalaverage of 11%) whilst only 2% of people cycle(national average 3%). This is likely to reflect thecampus’ relatively poor pedestrian and cycle linkswith surrounding areas.affluent areas close to the campus includingKensington, Everton and Toxteth as well as in theaffluent areas. To the north this includes areassuch as Formby and Crosby, and to the west, theWirral, notably West Kirkby.The low proportion of cycling and walking trips issurprising given the proportion of staff living nearthe University. This suggests that physical andperceptual barriers are a problem.Public TransportBus links: The most frequent bus services runto the popular south-eastern suburbs. These arefrequent and direct so that a high proportionof people from these areas travel by publictransport. The bus links to the more distantcommuting locations is very poor and a muchhigher proportion of staff from the Wirral and thecoastal areas to the north drive to work.Tram: Lines 1 and 2 of the proposed Merseytramlight rail network would have passed close to theUniversity Campus. Whilst the scheme remains inthe Merseyside Local Transport Plan for 2006-2011 the likelihood of it going ahead is uncertainfollowing Merseytravel’s decision not to appealthe Government decision not to fund the scheme.Trains: Liverpool Lime Street Station is locatedwithin a 10 minute walk of the University withservices to all major destinations. The Merseyrailunderground network also provides links tothe other stations within Liverpool City Centre:Central, Moorfields and James St. There havebeen discussions about opening new Meseyraillines in the Waterloo and Wapping Tunnels, whichrun under the campus, this, however, appears tobe a long term prospect.Origin of trips - The plan on the left highlightsthat many of the staff live relatively close tothe campus. This includes the city centre andthe relatively affluent suburbs to the southeastof the campus, such as Aigburth, Sefton Parkand Wavertree. However, high concentrationsof commuters are also found in the much lessCoach Links: The National Express Coach stationis located approximately 800m to the west ofthe centre of the campus on Norton Street. Thisprovides services to much of the country. Anumber of services also pick up on West DerbyStreet on their route out to the M62.14

The City Centre Movement StrategyThe Liverpool City Centre Movement Strategy(CCMS), part of the Merseyside Local TransportPlan and the City Centre RegenerationFramework, sets out the vision for the currentimprovements being seen in the highwayenvironment within Liverpool City Centre. TheCCMS is a £73m programme of works proposedby Liverpool City Council, Liverpool Vision andMerseytravel to improve the roads, streets andpublic spaces in Liverpool city centre. It definesthe following objectives:Improve accessibility to the city centre to aideconomic regeneration and to provide accessfor all;Create a people friendly city centre that issafe, clean and attractive for work, shopping,business, tourism and leisure;Make best use of the city centre’s keytransport assets – the Merseyrail stations, busfacilities, ferries and major car parks;Support the improvement of the city centre’sarchitecture and townscape; andEnsure that measures can be funded animplemented.Significant schemes are underway around theUniversity including improvements to RenshawStreet and Lime Street as well as major roadbuilding at Edge Lane and Hall Lane to the east.A key part of the strategy is the creation of‘pedestrian priority areas’ which will develop anintegrated approach to the planning and designof both transport and public realm works. It isanticipated that such areas would not amountto complete pedestrianisation, but would aim toimprove pedestrian conditions through measuressuch as wider footways and improved crossingpoints. This approach is advocated in an area thatincludes the core of the city and extends out toinclude the University Campus.Of the three areas in the strategy the easternarea is most relevant to the University. TheCity Centre Movement Strategy East SchemeIdentification and Implementation Report,produced in July 2004 includes a street hierarchyincluding; Strategic Streets; City Streets andPedestrian Lanes. This is being applied to anumber of schemes within the University area:Brownlow HillMoss Street/Daulby Street corridorMount Pleasant/Hope Street junctionWest Derby StreetCrown StreetThese schemes, together with the principlesof urban design set out in the CCMS and thePublic Realm Implementation Framework needto be embraced by the University masterplan.The initial discussions have focused on keypedestrain crossing points such as UniversitySquare.15