Key apartment schemes get go-ahead on Merseyside

Two significant schemes on Merseyside involving the Liverpool-based architect practice Falconer Chester Hall have been given the go-ahead.

An apartment development close to Project Jennifer close to the Kingsway Tunnel entrance including 277 apartments, featuring communal roof terraces and offering outstanding views of the city centre and across the river to Wirral has been nodded through by the city council’s planning committee.

It has been designed by Falconer Chester Hall for developer The Soller Group and will see a mix of one and two-bedroom apartments contained in blocks of eight and nine storeys.

FCH director Alastair Shepherd said: “When completed this will complement the extensive regeneration currently ongoing along Great Homer Street by making use of what is currently a largely brownfield site.

“It is also another show of investor confidence in the northern edge of the city and adds to the balance of residential accommodation in the area, which includes recently approved student schemes and more traditional housing stock.”

The development will also contribute new tree planting along Great Homer Street and, as well as the communal roof terraces, residents will also benefit from a garden room looking out onto a communal green area at ground floor level.

More than 120 car parking spaces for the scheme will be contained in two basement levels and there will also be extensive provision for cycle storage.

The building will be primarily finished in brick and aluminium cladding, and the central wing will add a level of dynamism by changing colour depending on the light and viewpoint.

Shepherd added: “The final scheme is a result of extensive dialogue with the city council’s urban design team to produce a development suitable for such a highly visible and important site, alongside major routes into the city both from the north and from the Wirral.”

Meanwhile, almost 60 new apartments will be created under proposals for a site within the Lark Lane Conservation Area also approved by Liverpool City Council.

The scheme designed by FCH for Liverpool-based Vinco Group, will see the retention and conversion of an existing villa, and the construction of a new apartment building on the site of a former coach house and stables.

“This is an opportunity to enhance the conservation area with a sympathetic conversion to restore and prolong the life of the existing residential property as well as adding a number of high quality apartments on a disused site,” said FCH managing director Adam Hall.

“It will also bring additional benefits to the area in terms of  extra residents to support existing businesses, and add a building of architectural merit along the Aigburth Road frontage.”

The development site has two frontages onto Alexandra Drive and Aigburth Road. Fifteen two and three-bedroom apartments will be created inside the conversion and extension of 34 Alexandra Drive, while a further 42 apartments will be contained within the new building following the demolition of the coach house and stables at 23 Aigburth Road.

Between the two residential buildings, the existing overgrown gardens will be improved to provide lawned and landscaped communal space for residents.

The apartment building will see one and two-bedroom properties across three upper floors, with car parking below on the ground floor together with a gym.

The existing building has been in use as a care home for more than 50 years and needs considerable internal improvement to modern standards.

Externally it will be enhanced through new elements to bring architectural cohesion to its numerous extensions.