The project, developed in partnership by Grosvenor Estates and the City of Liverpool, aimed to establish a new urban grain with pedestrian space surrounded by a mixture of different uses and activities.

Haworth Tompkins originally took on a key retail building, Site 3, and in 2005 were asked to add a major mixed-use development on Paradise Street itself, containing 74,000 sqft of retail accommodation with 30,000 sqft of residential accommodation, and a 5,000 sqft crèche.

The site is located on Paradise Street between School Lane and College Lane and mediates between the new large scale developments on Paradise Street to the west and the smaller scale existing architecture around Bluecoat Chambers to the east. The scheme also incorporates the existing Russell Building.

It has primary retail frontage onto both Paradise Street and St Peters Arcade where we collaborated with Dixon Jones the designers of the Arcade.

The residential accommodation is on four floors above two retail levels and is grouped around a shared courtyard garden created on the roof of the retail accommodation.

Access to the courtyard level is provided via a shared core from street level, and the courtyard provides access to secondary cores and galleries that serve individual flats.

Most flats have living rooms and balconies overlooking the courtyard, which also maximises their natural light.

Building on the work we carried out for Coin Street Community Builders on London’s South Bank, the development aims to create a secure community in the heart of the city.

The garden and creche, raised above the public level, gives residents a calm focus above the buzz of the busy streets below, a haven in the city centre.