The planned new museum of Liverpool has a simple vision – to be a “wondrous place”. From my own perspective essentially as a museum visitor this is what I consider all museums should be. The expectation of a museum visit is to experience a sense of awe from seeing rare and significant objects, whilst learning and understanding about matters which previously you did not understand or were unaware.
In the current media and internet dominated world we expect a further dimension, not just to see, but also to experience events or be provided with a viewpoint not otherwise available.
Our aim is that when finished the Museum of Liverpool is judged to be a world class visitor attraction and one of the great city history museums. To begin to achieve this aim there are three fundamentals:
This paper is not an academic thesis on the role of a city history museum but more a pragmatic case study of an ambitious urban history museum project that that is about to become reality.
Objective of this paper is to:
To set the context it is first necessary to initially provide a brief understanding of my own perspective of the project as project manager, a profile of the client organisation – the National Museums of Liverpool (NML), and provide an overview of the history of Liverpool.
My perspective
My background is in the management and delivery of complex projects in a variety of environments typically involving engineering and construction or telecommunications. The Museum of Liverpool is the first major cultural project I have been directly involved with. NML are an experienced client who has proved very capable in defining and articulating their needs, determining their business case and establishing their budget. This project however is of a scale and complexity demanding high levels of discipline and process to bring together, define, manage and coordinate the inputs from all parties necessary to deliver the project.
NML provide the museum expertise, my role with the support of Mott MacDonald is to provide the discipline and process and essentially to:
I am not one of the visionaries or museum experts so for the early parts of this paper therefore I am interpreting the ideas, vision and concepts developed by the Directors, Trustees and Key staff within NML and developed by the Architects, 3XN from Denmark and the Exhibition and Experience Consultants, BRC Imagination Arts from California.
From my own perspective this £65.0m project is being funded largely from public funds and should therefore deliver long term sustainable value for the tax payers who will have paid for its development. The project has a role therefore to provide an exciting, meaningful and consistently developing visitor experience, an obligation to deliver iconic quality architecture worthy of its world heritage setting and be an exemplar in terms of environmental sustainability.
National Museums of Liverpool
National Museums Liverpool is England’s only national museums group based entirely outside London. It has eight venues each home to fabulously varied collections covering everything from social history to space travel, entomology to ethnology, dinosaurs to docks, arts to archaeology. These collections provide the basis for its “National” status and indeed the decision in 1986 to “nationalise” the museum by the then conservative government is illustrative of the idiosyncrasies that typify the history of Liverpool. Uniquely National Museums Liverpool is committed to providing free entry for visitors to all exhibitions
History of Liverpool
To understand the concept for the museum it is first necessary to understand the history of the city. The story of Liverpool is fundamentally linked to the wider history of Britain and in particular the rise and subsequent decline of the British Empire. Whereas most major cities can trace cycles of prosperity and depression the cycle in Liverpool has been one of extremes. This small and insignificant place – prior to the industrial revolution – grew to become for a period the third most prosperous city in the world, after London and New York, and the worlds greatest port in circa 1900 before going into continuous decline throughout the twentieth century and being classified as the poorest city in Europe in the 1990’s.
The key periods in Liverpool’s history are as follows:
!700 – 1850 – Liverpool becomes the greatest port in the UK – its location relative to the new industrial heartlands of the north-west make it the focus for the export Britain’s new industrial wealth – being on the West coast with its proximity to America it also becomes a centre for the slave trade and importation of goods from the New World. The river estuary did not provide a natural harbour and it is the vision, ambition and ingenuity of its people that enable the development of the dock systems to capture this opportunity.
1850 – 1910 – Liverpool becomes the greatest port in the world as it becomes the focus for trade between Britain and its Empire. In addition to the further development of the docks process industries developed related to the imported materials, sugar and tobacco in particular. Also the service industries of banking and insurance related to the shipping became extremely prosperous and the wealthy began to reinvest in the city leaving a legacy of dramatic commercial, cultural and industrial buildings and architecture.
1910 -1950 – Gradual decline to some extent masked by the two world wars which each provided a major role for the city but clearly as Britain declined and was no longer the worlds major power so in turn did the level of trade passing through the city.
1950 – Today – Whilst the rest of the UK comes to terms with Britain’s reduced role in the world and changing technologies and working practices Liverpool remains in denial with the rise of Militant and extreme trade union activity resulting in higher levels of unemployment than at the height of the depression, sectarian riots and a significant decline in population. This is also though the period in which the creative talents of the city are at their height not just through the Mersey beat sound and the Beatles but also through Liverpool based poets, authors, playwrights who capture major sections of the TV and mass media market. As the 21st century starts realisation has finally dawned and the city begins to regenerate.
Project Inception
It would be extremely rare for any project to be able to start with a completely clean sheet of paper with no constraints – it is also only at certain points in time that circumstances combine to allow a project on a major scale to happen. The Museum of Liverpool is not an exception in either case.
Currently of the eight venues operated by NML only one is actually about Liverpool – the Museum of Liverpool Life – based in a small series of buildings on the waterfront. This venue despite only limited space and minimum levels of interpretation of collections has managed to attract over 300,000 visitors a year for the several years and literally cannot accommodate any more. It is part of a larger site owned by NML, the rest being used as car park, that actually began to be assembled by the current trustees predecessors in the 1930’s with a view to develop a museum about Liverpool. The location and the idea therefore has been long established.
Approximately 3 years ago the local regional development agency (RDA) as part of a major regeneration initiative promoted plans to develop a major mixed use scheme involving the museum owned land and adjacent sites owned by themselves. In return for NML “donating” their land the new scheme would incorporate a significant museum space as well as a significant contribution towards the fitting out of the museum. The scheme failed due to wider economic issues but the potential of a new museum of Liverpool to contribute towards the regeneration of the city had been recognised and the RDA agreed to continue to support the development of the new museum.
The programme for delivery also became determined early – further funding was available from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) due to the city’s deprived status within Europe. ERDF however required completion of the building by early 2008 a date which became even more critical when Liverpool was awarded European Capital of Culture status for 2008. The key essentials were in place to move forward – we had a site, we had some key initial development funding commitments with more to follow if we could meet the deadline for delivery.
Moving Forward
The next critical steps in the process were then to:
From the outset NML were clear that they were seeking something different – more experiential in its nature and more radical in its content than had been tried before as well as being “flexible” to facilitate the regular changing and updating of its content. The exhibitions should also be “story lead” rather than object based – with the collections available within the stores of NML the exhibitions will always be “object rich”. A comparable benchmark attraction was not identifiable. Finding the right organisation to work with to develop the concepts, masterplan and visitor attraction was critical.
The involvement of BRC Imagination Arts from California has proved extremely successful in this respect with their roots more in experience than exhibition they have brought a level of creativity and energy that matches the ambitions of NML and fully compliments the in house research and content development teams.
Equally important was the appointment of the Architect led design team which is discussed in more detail under the heading of pragmatic realities the reasons for which are evident therein.
Through a series of workshops and “charettes” involving all the key personnel in NML and the wider project team the vision and objectives were fully developed.
Vision
“Wondrous Place” – somewhere that is both marvellous and surprising, the visitor experience is the first priority of which the site, the building and the content must all combine to create a sense of awe and excitement.
Mission
“By sharing the lives, great dreams, spirit and hard facts that made Liverpool a global city we explore the people’s history of Britain.” – as outlined above the history of Liverpool is intrinsically linked to rest of Britain and the world and therefore provides relevance for locals and visitors alike.
Role of the Museum
For the people of Liverpool & Merseyside:
For the visitor:
The Fundamentals – to be a radical urban history museum
The other key fundamental that emerged from the initial workshops was that the museum should be radical – exploring the reasons not just what happened but also why things happened. So in this instance what does being radical look like?
Overall the visitor experience is just that, an experience, surprising all comers and leaving even those who just came in for coffee wanting more and wanting to return.
Pragmatic Realities (1) Funding
The vision and objectives outlined above possibly represent an idealistic aim – several pragmatic realities though have had to be addressed to enable the project to happen some of which are in conflict and some of which mean compromise in terms of the ultimate ideal. The first reality is money! – NML has the status of NDGB (none departmental government body) it is though responsible to the “Department for Media, Culture and Sport” who provide the majority of operational funding but no capital.
Major cultural projects will have several key funders, public and private with the potential that their objectives will be different and potentially in conflict with each other and the wider vision. There is no exception here. The public funders fall into two groups – those interested in regeneration and those interested in the arts and preserving heritage.
A careful balance has had to be reached to satisfy the regeneration objectives of the RDA and ERDF which are measured by job creation and potential visitor numbers with their likely secondary spend in the city and the heritage agencies who question whether the high level of spend necessary to provide the experience that guarantees the visitor numbers is justifiable in heritage value terms. Our anticipated fit out costs relative to the areas involved are high when benchmarked against other recent museum projects. Our justification however is that the costs relative to the number of visitors anticipated to visit the museum are low.
Private Benefactors are seeking things that are “sponsorable” that they can attach their names to but can only be seriously approached when the scheme is committed and becomes certain to proceed.
We have achieved success by getting the regeneration agencies to commit their funding to the building ahead of full commitment of the funding for the exhibition. They have accepted a 2 scenario approach to the exhibition – under the first option a major agency or benefactor is confirmed by the start of 2007 which will allow the full scheme to be implemented as a single phase with a grand opening at the start of 2010. Alternatively the exhibition will be funded through “normal” levels of grants and donations that typically can be raised by NML which will mean a phased delivery of the full scheme over a four to five year period.
Under the alternative scenario the museum would still be full on day one but with only minimal levels of interpretation. The design of the museum then allows for upgrading of successive galleries to be efficiently and economically undertaken with minimal disruption to the wider visitor experience.
The immediate response to a “social history” museum is that it is something that is more academic than glamorous in terms of content and with no real benchmarks for comparison in the United kingdom benefactors are unsure what they are getting for their money. The requirement therefore has been to invest significantly in the presentation of the potential content and develop a comprehensive business case that demonstrates how we meet all the various funding objectives.
Pragmatic Realities (2) the Building
Whilst the interest and long term success of the project will be achieved by the exhibitions and experiences the development of the building will dominate in the initial phases – why?
The programme issues are further compounded by the site being in the centre of a UNESCO designated world heritage site.
Critical to our success in this area has been 2 things – the appointment of 3XN as architects, a Danish Company who had not previously worked in the UK they demonstrated better than any of their competitors a clear vision for the development of the project recognising the key concepts in the brief and the relationship of the site to the city. We did not run an architectural competition – there are too many examples of Architects designing stunning and dramatic cultural buildings won in competition which fundamentally don’t work for their intended functionality
Secondly was the involvement of an independent architectural advisor as a part of the Mott MacDonald project management team who in the development of the scheme design ensured the brief was not compromised and the subsequent validation of all design proposals by functional teams representing key operational issues.
Pragmatic Realities (3) Capacity
Perhaps the biggest challenge is quite simply “It doesn’t all fit!” both in terms of the critical stories to be told from Liverpool’s history and the objects in the collections that could potentially be utilised. Our response to this has been to design in flexibility into every aspect of the project – little if any of the exhibitions will be considered permanent and how things are refreshed economically and regularly with minimal impact on the visitor experience is evident in every aspect of the design from the fundamental building layout through to the specification exhibition and display systems.
The emphasis on flexibility provides two major advantages; firstly the regular visitor is often surprised by being able to see new exhibitions and material and secondly it enables a far greater proportion of the NML collections to be displayed over time than would be possible in a considerably larger but “fixed” exhibition.
Pragmatic Realities (4) Physical Constraints
Whilst the site is perfect in terms of location it is far from the most straightforward place to build – physical constraints – rail tunnels archaeology issues and the quality demands of developing on a world heritage site has meant investment in the building itself will be greater than anticipated and the gallery space available has had to be reduced.
In summary it has been a delicate balancing act to present the concepts and objectives to each funder in a way that answers their needs without upsetting another and a number of the project risks inevitably became reality which have impacted programme and caused reallocation of costs between budgets. Overall however we are now ready to start construction of the building, the original budget of £65.0m remains intact and the grand opening is within the original target parameters.
Programme
Despite the realities outlined above the project remains very much on programme as set out below. Ideally it would have been good to complete the masterplan for the exhibition prior to designing the building but programme constraints dictated otherwise, fortunately work done on the earlier scheme meant a thorough brief was available to the architect and engineering team.
Regular liaison between the building designers and exhibition designers has successfully overcome their cultural differences and ensured the building can accommodate the short and long term needs of the exhibition and experience elements. At a more detailed level the core infrastructure to support the exhibition systems is now fully integrated in the detailed design of the building and incorporated into the building contract. The exhibition designers are also fully aware of the constraints now determined by the building e.g. available power supply, cooling loads etc. with which their detailed design proposals must comply.
The high level programme is set out below and confirms the critical path through the design, statutory consents and construction period for the building.
Organisation
Clearly a substantive team has been established to deliver a project on this scale this involves resources from NML with extensive consultant support. The table below illustrates how the team has been organised and the key streams of activity necessary establish the concepts and content, secure the funding, achieve all the statutory consents to allow the building to proceed and procure the principal construction contract.. As we move into construction the organisation will evolve further to include the contractors and wider supply chain.
The roles are generally self explanatory; particularly important have been the following:
Process
As project managers one of our primary roles has been to bring a level of discipline and focus to the organisation and programme and ensure everybody maintains a focus on deliverables and deadlines. On a project of this nature the concept development phase could be interminable and aspirations to spend ever larger amounts of money either make the scheme unaffordable or more critically allow it to be committed and then be subject to serious expenditure overruns. Some may argue “strategic misrepresentation” is a legitimate tactic to allow major cultural projects to proceed.
In this instance the programme milestones were pre-determined by our “window of opportunity”, the site itself constrained the size of the building and the potential visitor numbers determined the wider regeneration benefits that the project could deliver which in turn were the major influence on the budget.
The luxury to potentially overspend our budget of £65.0m as an approach to resolving issues is not one we have and rigid application of risk management value management, occasionally severe!, and change management processes have ensured this budget has been and will be maintained.
Overall the key stages for project delivery for major projects in the UK are determined by the Office of Government Commerce, part of the Treasury, introduced after a history of disastrous project delivery in the public sector for several decades. Essentially a fully independent peer review group undertakes a review at key stages as set out below to separately advise the client whether in their opinion that the scheme can go to the next level of commitment. Critically the process does not finish until after a period of operation whereby it is demonstrated that the project has delivered the planned benefits.
The Museum of Liverpool is currently approaching gate 3.
Full details of the process can be found on the OGC website: www.ogc.gov.uk
The other key process issue to manage has been the communication and dissemination of information across a widely dispersed project team which has only been possible through the use an extranet system.
The solution – building
The new Museum of Liverpool is sited in the heart of the city’s UNESCO world heritage site, across from the historic Albert dock and adjacent to the three famous pier head buildings – The Royal Liver Building, the Cunard Building and the port of Liverpool Building.
Whilst we have designed an iconic building in its own way the objective has been to serve as a gateway to these historic landmarks and become the place to begin any visit to Liverpool.
Two of the key aims in the original brief were that access to the gallery spaces should always be from a central location and that the museum should be open to the city i.e. the dramatic views available from the site to the neighbouring buildings, the River Mersey and the city must be integral to the design. By providing views out there should also be the opportunity for those on the outside to see in.
The building is clearly modern in its aesthetic and consists on plan of two large rectangular stone arms that intersect to form an “X” shape. On the principal axis, containing the main galleries, each arm terminates in a panoramic window offering stunning views of the River and the Pier Head Buildings. The secondary arm houses many of the support functions and acts as a development of the waterside landscape providing the opportunity passing visitor to walk through the building without entering the museum.
Clad in Travertine and with the upper level appearing to float above a ribbon of glazing the building provides a complementary addition to one of the most famous waterfronts in Europe.
The solution – exhibition and experience
Traditionally most history museums have organised their collections either chronologically or thematically. Within the MOL we will have a hybrid of the two. The building provides two main floors with an intermediate first floor over part of the area. The ground floor focuses primarily on the city’s early history, whilst the second floor places greater emphasis on the modern stories. The first floor provides a combination of new and old but predominantly provides a resources centre and community spaces.
The building is entered at the centre through the atrium where the bold exterior statement of the building continues internally. The atrium provides access to all the galleries either directly on the ground floor or via sweeping spiral staircases leading gently to the upper levels.
The atrium contains all the information for visitors to plan their visit to the museum and to the rest of Liverpool as well as features on current news issues and forthcoming event s or exhibitions. In today’s commercial world the atrium is also designed as a multi functional space aiming to become one of the most popular events venues in Liverpool. It can host a wide variety of events including live music and performance, corporate gatherings, product launches and formal banquets all critical to contribute to the operational costs of the facility.
The 2 ground floor galleries currently have the “placeholder” names of Port City and Global City.
Port city – transports visitors back in time to explore the evolution of the port of Liverpool and its relationship to larger historical developments in the city, and the rest of the United Kingdom, principally 18th and early 19th century dominated by the industrial revolution. Visitors learn why Liverpool initially became a port, how it later grew into the most significant port in Britain, and how the fate of the city became inextricably bound to the livelihood of its docks. Port City includes a major interpretation of “the lion”, until recently the oldest operational steam locomotive in the world, the former elevated railway along the dockside and “flexible” spaces to do a series of exhibitions on all aspects of dock life, the commodities traded through the port, the technology evolved to build the docks and potentially coming right up to date to include the modern container port.
Global city – Showcases the characters, pioneers, inventors, entrepreneurs, risk takers and politicians who made Liverpool the greatest port in the world and whose ingenuity had a global impact. It highlights Liverpool’s role as an international trade hub and explores how the history and character of the city have been affected by the influx and outflow of goods, people and ideas. Visitors will understand how Liverpool’s history is intrinsically linked to the wider British Empire and its rise in eminence throughout the 19th century. The key element of the gallery is the Liverpool theatre, a 200 seat venue where visitors experience a wide-screen film presentation dramatising Liverpool’s history of boom to bust and its connections to cultures and economies around the globe.
The two upper level galleries are currently similarly named as Diverse City and Expressive City
Diverse city (19th & 20th century) Is an exploration of the social and domestic lives of Liverpudlians from the Industrial Revolution to the present day. The exhibitions will focus upon the stories of the people of Liverpool – health, education, housing, immigration, communities and neighbourhoods – told within the context of wider national movements and English social history, regulation and legislation.
It will explore the long history of diversity in the city, patterns of settlement, the communities and cultural influences in all aspects of city life past and present. As in all the exhibition areas there will a wide variety of interpretation methods used. At the simplistic level there will be collection objects in cases but there will also be extensive use of modern media systems to display film archives and for visitors to hear personal testimonies from the “living memory” within the city. Each gallery also has a performance space for active story telling or more sophisticated presentation as well as specific areas or items for either younger children or teenage groups.
Expressive city (20th century) coming right up to date from the start of the era of mass media – 1960’s – as well as the Beatles will feature other Liverpool writers, performers, comedians etc. The gallery features two of the Museum’s most dynamic immersive experiences. “Here, there and everywhere” is described as “a twisting and shouting adventure” that explores the complex relationship between Liverpool and the greatest musical act the world has ever known.” In “Going to the Match” visitors will be exploring the importance of the game to the communities at key moments in history – Hillsborough, Heysel etc. as well as an immersive experience simulating the powerful atmosphere at a local derby game.
Elsewhere in Cultural City, visitors immerse themselves further in the rich tradition of art and performance in Liverpool. “Writing on the Wall” is a flexible exhibit area, where visitors explore the age-old crafts of storytelling, writing and humour in the city. Mersey Voices is a live performance space, where visitors can actually become part of Liverpool’s tradition of live entertainment.
Resource Centre and Community base The intermediate first floor of the museum will be a fully functioning resource centre, community base and learning suite delivered to high level of finished design and incorporating the History hub collections showcase (local studies, photography, natural sciences, costume etc) and the hands-on Regional Archaeology Centre where children and families can act as history detectives to uncover the secret history of the city below ground. It also provides space for the serious researcher to investigate the museums collections in more detail
The first floor will also feature a series of exhibitions relating to the Liverpool Overhead Railway – an original railcar will be the focus exhibited over the ground floor gallery but with access at first floor. Other features will include a working model of the original railway and some unique film footage taken form the line when operational.
Community Connections
The other feature that permeates all aspects of the museum are the community connections. Throughout visitors will be able to discover exhibits and events that encourage their involvement and may also have been assembled by community members themselves. Key elements will include:
Whilst the above illustrates the day 1 plan nothing is envisaged to be permanent and the building and exhibition systems are designed in a way to allow straightforward refreshment and replacement of exhibitions.
Current Status
The current position of the project is that all funding and statutory consents are in place to allow the building to proceed, the main contractor has been identified and notices to close and decant the current operations on site are in place. The physical construction will start in September.
The programme for the exhibition is more complex and we are working with two scenarios. Under the first option a major benefactor is confirmed by the start of 2007 which will allow the full scheme to be implemented as a single phase with a grand opening at the start of 2010. Alternatively the exhibition will be funded through “normal” levels of grants and donations which will mean a phased delivery of the full scheme over a four to five year period.
Under the alternative scenario the museum would still be full on day one but with only minimal levels of interpretation. The design of the museum then allows for upgrading of successive galleries to be efficiently and economically undertaken with minimal disruption to the wider visitor experience.
Summary
Leading this project has certainly changed my views of museums and the people who work in them; I can genuinely confirm that I have not previously been involved in a project that has been both interesting and enjoyable and involved such a diverse but really good team of people.
The project has also changed my view of Liverpool, I had rarely been there previously and my views were probably typical of many from outside the city. I continue to be impressed by its people, the legacy of its great history and its determination to now move forward.
From a project perspective I believe we have proved that with commitment, energy and enthusiasm linked to the right balance between creativity and pragmatism it is possible to deliver an iconic cultural project providing an unrivalled visitor experience and to do so within realistic budget and programme constraints.
One of the great Liverpool institutions is the Grand National and at times the project has seemed like the great steeplechase race that it is. Each time you clear one major fence another immediately appears ahead of you. So far we have cleared all those big and famous hurdles, there are still a few smaller jumps ahead but the home straight, albeit a long one, is in sight.
This feature was first published on Arts Hub Global’s sister journal Arts Hub Australia.
