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Liverpool South Parkway : Rail Link

Interchange Building Merseyside, Northwest England, UK – design by Jefferson Sheard Architects

18 Oct 2007

Liverpool South Parkway Interchange

Landmark Liverpool South Parkway opens its doors

Jefferson Sheard Architects have designed the state-of-the-art new Liverpool South Parkway Interchange, which opened on Sunday June 11th.

Aerial View courtesy of Kalzip

The £32 million project – which has already won a major environmental award – will provide a rail link to Britain’s fastest growing airport – Liverpool John Lennon – for millions of people from across the North of England and the Midlands, as well as access to the eleven thousand jobs planned for the area.

Cllr Mark Dowd, Chair of Merseytravel, Jefferson Sheard’s client, said: “. Liverpool South Parkway is the most modern station in Europe and will be a great asset to the people of Merseyside and beyond”

Liverpool South Parkway is already picking up awards and accolades for its design, use of innovative building techniques and its potential contribution to the regeneration of the Speke and Garston Pathway areas.

Features include a roof using 2.3 tonnes of recycled aluminium; a system of rainwater harvesting which will save 700,000 litres of mains water per year; generation of electricity by photovoltaic cells plus a geo-thermal heating system which obtains up to 60% of the energy needed to heat the building from the ground beneath it.

Neil Scales, Director General and Chief Executive of Merseytravel, is the engineer in charge of the project. He said: “We’ve set a standard which is being recognised nationally and one that we hope that others within the transport industry and elsewhere will emulate.”

photos : Paul McMullin

Jefferson Sheard Director, Tom Rhys Jones describes the building as “a seamless link between different modes of transport within a single building, projecting an iconic image which promotes use of the public transport network and informs the world that Liverpool leads the way in modern design and the creation of safe, efficient and attractive environments. We are delighted that one of our longest-standing client relationships continues to generate such innovative and exciting architecture. We are sure that LSP will be a great asset to the people of Merseyside – it is a testament to the vision of Merseytravel.”

Project Architect Nick Bogle adds “The curvaceous form of the building evokes a sense of movement relating to the activity enclosed by and adjacent to the building. It curves in several planes creating complex and challenging shapes regulating the external mass of the interchange and achieving a more intimate, less intimidating scale to the interior”.

The Interchange itself is an amalgam of Allerton and Garston stations combined with new passenger facilities plus provision for buses, taxis and car parking.

This will serve trains on the Northern Line, which is considered to be most important to the general transportation strategy in the region. Later this year services to Sheffield and the East Midlands will be introduced and Merseytravel will be exploring further routes in advance of the 2008 Capital of Culture Year.

Main contractors on the project were Edmund Nuttall, one of Britain’s largest civil engineer contractors. While they can lay claim to building Merseyside’s most recent innovative project Edmund Nuttall has an historic link with the region. They were also responsible for building the Liver Building and the first Mersey Tunnel.

Liverpool South Parkway is the latest in a series of major transport projects designed by Jefferson Sheard Architects. Recent successes include the new Interchanges at both Manchester Airport and Manchester City Centre. A very exciting design for Barnsley Interchange began on site in January and other projects at Edinburgh and Swansea are at an advanced stage on the drawing board.

Liverpool South Parkway images / information from Jefferson Sheard Architects 181007

Liverpool South Parkway Interchange Building

Liverpool South Parkway

The award-winning Liverpool South Parkway (LSP) is a multi-modal interchange providing direct links between local, regional and national rail services, local bus services, park and ride provisions and Liverpool’s John Lennon Airport. The Interchange is anchored to the local and national rail network by the upgraded Allerton Station and the relocated Garston Station – the two rail facilities being linked by an iconic crescent-shaped building containing the passenger concourse, bus waiting area, retail, ticketing and infrastructure staff facilities.

An Interchange of this high degree of intermodality is, itself, a symbol of social and economic regeneration but LSP makes further commitments through its detailed design. The building obtains much of its energy requirement from natural and renewable sources – heating from ground source heat pumps; electricity from a dramatic photovoltaic array on the south wall; its water supply is augmented by harvested rainwater and the fabric of the building is made, as far as practicable, from recyclable materials. The Interchange successfully integrates public art works, including a topiary tribute to the Beatles.

The success of the design has been recognised by an HSBC Station Excellence Award, a Green Apple Award, Network Rail’s Innovation Award for 2006 and has achieved a BREEAM “Very Good” rating.

“Liverpool South Parkway is the most modern station in Europe and will be a great asset to the people of Merseyside and beyond”
Cllr Mark Dowd, Chair of Merseytravel

Value: £21m
Client: Merseytravel

Jefferson Sheard Architects

Location: Liverpool South Parkway, Liverpool, Merseyside, Northwest England, UK