A project that responds to and builds on the success of a well-loved cultural institution will always be subject to an easily unbalanced assessment. If it is well received, is it just because what was there has been restored and brought back to life and what we applaud, therefore, is the revelation of the old rather than the complementary qualities of the new? And is the role of the new work simply supportive and subordinate and dealing with the building’s deficiencies rather than imposing a new identity?
The new design carefully manages to answer both of these questions and elegantly deals with a third. It is indeed an exemplary restoration in which the detail has all be carefully researched and beautifully crafted. It also resolves the building’s deficiencies in a manner that you feel Rowse would have enthusiastically approved. Though the extension is prosaic, it provides all the necessary additional accommodation in a useful and easily managed new building.
The third question it deals with is what makes it special. It is how a new creative force can contribute to the cultural value of what is there. There is an unusual skill and some wit needed in being able to attach variations set by the theme of the original. A positive ambiguity is achieved in which a joy in the confidence of the new grows from an appreciation of the original ideas rather than a criticism of them. It is both an elaboration and an amplification achieved with subtlety and confidence. You feel that Herbert Rowse would be smiling.
Description of project by Caruso St John
Caruso St John were appointed architects for the refurbishment and extension of Liverpool Philharmonic Hall in 2012. The grade II* listed building was built in 1939 and was designed by leading Liverpool architect Herbert Rowse in an Art Deco manner, strongly influenced by the contemporary work of Dutch architect WM Dudok.
We have approached the project as three interrelated parts. In the front of house we are lightly restoring the existing sequence of public rooms and proposing discrete interventions that will address functional shortcomings and bring a renewed freshness to the interiors of the Hall. The auditorium and stage areas require more substantial measures to tackle inadequacies. In these areas stage machinery, house and production lighting and environmental services are being completely replaced within the existing interior architecture. The back stage facilities, offices and second performance space will be most radically changed with the rebuilding of the existing rear extension.
The new building should have a festive and unified spirit like the Rowse Building, with the performance space, back of house facilities and offices being brought together to make a single, compact volume. The wide corner window to the bar, the extravagant marquee and the bold posters and signage lend an urban quality to the new venue, projecting the dynamism of the Philharmonic’s programme out to the surrounding city.
