An Alternative Anfield Stadium

[dave u]

I got this email, and the guy asked me to post it on here for everyone to see:

Dear Fans,

I am a Liverpool supporter since 1965. I studied architecture in the city 65-68.
Like many of us, I am increasingly frustrated by the distancing of the 'club' from the supporters as a result of the unrestrained 'free market' that has enveloped English football.

With the help of my colleagues, we have designed an ALTERNATIVE NEW ANFIELD seating 75,000 which can be built for £300m, probably less.

We did this in one week, and sent it to Hicks, Gillett and Parry along with a summary cost estimate before their meeting in NY on 9th January 2008. We sent a hard copy to Rick Parry at Anfield. There has been no reply.

Since then, we have worked on the design a bit more, (although still a concept) and I would like Liverpool fans tosee it. It is designed by a fan who understands the passion of Anfield, and the English football ground.

You can see images at:

http://www.ianritchiearchitects.co.u...ws_2008_1.html

The images show an alternative English Anfield stadium concept to give you sense of how the emotional feel of the stadium could be. Our planning and structural ideas are reasonably well worked out, and we will have some more fully developed images in mid-February.

A NEW ALTERNATIVE ANFIELD STADIUM

It has been designed for free by a Liverpool fan ( since 1965 ) for the fans to have an alternative to consider since the nearly all Americans only want Americans to design their buildings wherever they go in the world. It has been designed to seat 75,000.

It would cost less than £300m. The Kop can be all standing (25,000), which would take capacity to 90,000. OR, the stadium costs can be reduced by about £25m if we have 65,000 all seated (to meet FIFA regulations when FIFA World Cup matches are played here) and 75-80,000 when the Kop is all standing.

This is allowed for league matches throughout Europe. Only FIFA (World Cup Games) and the FA Premier League (at the moment) insist on all seats anywhere in the world.

It has 92 VIP boxes above the second tier, and none in the Kop.

There are no ‘tunnel’ entrances / breaks in the lower and middle tiers. They occur only in the top tier and the top area of the Kop, allowing a ‘wall of red sound’ to be imagined.

The Kop is very identifiably the Kop.

I am keen that the other fans of Liverpool are aware that that an alternative design exists, and can make up their own minds whether they think it a far better new Anfield and Kop is possible than the one the Americans want to build.

Personally I find the stadium design very poor. My critique of the latest HKS design is available below.

Regrettably, Hicks and Gillett’s expertise is clearly not in design, nor design judgement, nor treating Liverpool FC with respect, nor, it seems in understanding English football.

This is an unsolicited proposal, done for the Liverpool fans and the club. Each of us wants to do what he can to save our club from being ripped apart. I am not seeking to usurp any architects currently engaged or involved with the club.

If any of the above is of interest, I would be happy to discuss it with you.

Liverpool FC simply deserves far, far better.

Ian Ritchie
Director of Ian Ritchie Architects Ltd.
Royal Academy of Arts’ Professor of Architecture.
CABE Emeritus Commissioner.
Co-founder of Rice Francis Ritchie (RFR) design engineers, Paris.







A CRITIQUE OF THE HKS PROPOSED DESIGN FOR OUR NEW ANFIELD

“The Bowl View to Kop; The Bowl View to the North Deck”

What is this American language to describe a new football stadium, the Kop and north stand?

This American’s design of a football stadium is awful. It has no soul whatsoever and is a total mess inside and out.

Externally, there is almost no sense of a stadium – more of an office building, with typical green glass, and some bent metal banana wall “on steroids” attached at one end – the Kop.

There is no wow factor, or sense of thrill.

It is the worst sort of visually illiterate American architectural stunt-making.

If the architects were instructed to try to capture some bygone age when stands were built at different times (as with Anfield and most English clubs) in order to somehow relate to the past then it has resulted in something awful and absurd for the 21st century.

It will become an embarrassment to Liverpool FC and undermine our club’s world-wide reputation.

From the inside, the huge gaps without seating at the corners lose any sense of enclosure and togetherness. This is an essential character of our present stadium! Allowing views in (to see the undersides of the roofs) from Stanley Park is not only unnecessary, but also a fictional interpretation of some idea that transparency makes architecture somehow more democratic. Claptrap!

Separating each side with huge windows does nothing for the atmosphere.
The new Anfield should have stands which create a continuous wall of colour and sound.
This is not achievable when the stands don’t join up visually or physically.
Are the designers unable to understand the geometry needed to achieve it?

The new thick edged flat roofs look as if they have been borrowed from a stadium of the 1950’s and stuck on their old design. Are they supposed to reduce the cost and make the stadium cheaper? Well, the latest roof certainly looks cheap.

The structure holding up the different roofs is visually uncoordinated – two different types of arches holding up 1950’s roofs! The columns in the corners supporting the roof beams look like alien giant cigars and have no scale relationship to the rest of the design!
And, there is nothing about the roof which blends with the now facetted edge of the pitch and the shape of the lower tier of seating. It also looks like those supporters who will be sitting in the lower tiers will get very wet when it rains – and it does rain a lot in Liverpool.

Have the acoustics been studied to keep the world-famous acoustic atmosphere generated by fans – it is not just keeping the Kop voices together, or sound reflections from the roof of the Kop, but managing the air spaces so the sound doesn’t escape and indeed resonates within the stadium! The approach might be to preserve the Anfield roar but surely we should also aim to improve on it! And you can keep all of this sound and still make the PA system work. This is all well known to any good acoustic engineer. The designs don’t suggest that they have.

And, they’ve split the Kop with what looks like VIP boxes.

This design approach is not untypical of much US commercial architecture, where design elements have little harmony of scale or form, and many elements appear over-sized, and building designs appear as images collaged together without any sense of unity. Is it that American architects bend over backwards to please the ‘tastes’ of clients who have very little design awareness or sensitivity?.

Regrettably, Hicks and Gillett’s expertise is clearly not in design, or design judgement, or treating the manager or fans with respect, or understanding English football. Their architects simply don’t understand what they are designing and who for. It has no relationship to Stanley Park.

It will be a tragedy for all of us if this design gets built. It will be with us for at least 100 years!

The club deserves every support for its physical and social regeneration ambitions, but if the Liverpool FC Board accept this design it is will be one of the saddest days for both club and city.

Everyone who has been associated with Liverpool FC for a long time supports the ambition to regenerate this part of Liverpool, to keep the atmosphere of the Anfield stadium, and the irreplaceable value of the Kop. Surely we need a design by designers who understand what a football stadium is, and will be in the future.

While everyone who loves the club has their sights set really high, this proposal flies in the face of good design and architecture.

The whole design is a messy collage, from inside to out, from ground level to roof, and has, from its brief history with Hicks and Gillett, all the symptoms of becoming more expensive as time goes on.

A glorious opportunity wasted if it is built, and a tragedy for club and city especially when success at every level is so very possible.

Ian Ritchie

[silverlining]

The last one looks like he did it on an Etch-A-Sketch.

[Scouse Missionary]

WHilst I applaud their efforts, I don't see a 'wow' factor in the above design. It's very bowl-like, and the Kop is not distinct from the other areas of the ground.

[Karl]

Distinctly average and a very bitter sounding critique of the HKS design.

[WeAreTheBest]

Prefer the one we're supposedly getting.

By miles.

[stringvest]

Well, I designed a car once that was capable of reaching 200 mph. And it could fly like a helicopter over traffic jams. I was 12. And it was at least as good as this fellas drawings. I sent it to Rolls Royce, and guess what? I never got a reply either. So I wrote back slagging off their Silver Shadow. If only t'internet had been around then....

[Bob Spunkmouse]

havent read the wordy bit yet as im busy, but not overly impressed with the design. definately prefer the hks one.

[silverlining]

Originally Posted by stringvest

Well, I designed a car once that was capable of reaching 200 mph. And it could fly like a helicopter over traffic jams. I was 12. And it was at least as good as this fellas drawings. I sent it to Rolls Royce, and guess what? I never got a reply either. So I wrote back slagging off their Silver Shadow. If only t'internet had been around then....

heh heh

[Gary Byron]

It looks awesome. RICK BUILD IT!

[jackofdk]

Why is he going on about The Kop being all standing, surely thats not allowed?

But I must say that I like the view from the inside of that design. A lot. Whether or not it's even buildable like that and within the price range is impossible to say.

Also I find it a bit unprofessional and unhelpful, that he goes on an anti-american rant.

[freehold]

WOW.Build build build.

[stringvest]

I feel an MS Paint stadium design competition coming on.

[philyburkhill]

I like the inside, but eh.

[Cardie]

The inside is pretty much a copy of the millenium stadium, three tiers around three sides with a single tier at the end (although granted Millenium has a smaller tier at the 'KOP' end.

The overhead shot reminds me of an another stadium as well but can't remember which.

[Anny Road]

And they costed this how exactly?

[Karl]

Originally Posted by Anny Road

And they costed this how exactly?

It's not too difficult to estimate the cost of a building if you have experience, they may have had a hand from a QS also.

[dave u]

Originally Posted by Cardie

The inside is pretty much a copy of the millenium stadium, three tiers around three sides with a single tier at the end.

I see the similarities with that too, but does the Millenium have a single tier stand behind the goal? I thought they were both double tiers, although I'm far from certain and could well be wrong.

[hamstrung]

About the only thing I like about what H & G have done is the stadium.

I am no architect, but I know what i like.

(p.s. the one above looks bland)

[Havant and Wart]

looks like new dell from the outside. chicken feed compared to the spaceship one.

[rargh]

That design there really isn't my cup of tea at all. It looks like Cardiff with one end of the Stade Velodrome bolted o