transform

by Tom Bloxham MBE, Jonathan Falkingham, and Nick Johnson.

transformation

© Urban Splash, 2011

Published by RIBA Publishing, 15 Bonhill Street, London EC2P 2EA

ISBN 978 1 85946 396 3

Stock code 74717

The right of Urban Splash to be identified as the Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1988.

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Printed and bound by Butler, Tanner & Dennis Ltd, Frome and London.

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When Tom met Jonnie 5Work talks 7A space, called home 23Places matter 39From old to new 51

Royal William Yard, Plymouth 52Lister Mills, Bradford 60Chimney Pot Park, Salford 66Fort Dunlop, Birmingham 74MoHo, Manchester 82The Matchworks, Liverpool 88Midland Hotel, Morecambe 94Budenburg HAUS Projekte 2&3, Altrincham 102Rotunda, Birmingham 1083Towers, Manchester 114Chips, New Islington, Manchester 120Park Hill, Sheffield 128Lakeshore, Bristol 136Saxton, Leeds 144Longlands, Stalybridge 152

Conclusion 159Projects 160The final word 164Acknowledgements 166

transformation

Slater Street, Liverpool6

TomWhen we first started the business, many were sceptical that we’d succeed – and some still are! We appear to ignore the property industry’s three golden rules – location, location, location – but this is because we’ve never been interested in buying completed properties in top locations. If you do this, you are not creating value: your investments will simply rise if the market rises, and fall if the market falls.

Adding value through great design has always been at the heart of the company. By finding undervalued buildings and sites, we’ve used the wide-ranging skills inside the company to create wonderful new buildings that look great, work well and are a joy to live in, work in and visit.

JonnieIt’s hard to pigeon-hole our approach, but we like problem sites and problem buildings – especially ones where a conventional approach will not deliver a solution. Unlike most developers, we do not have a core proposition relating to types of use or types of buildings. Yes, we create space to sell and rent – that’s our business – but we are flexible about what it is, how it works and how it looks. It can be residential, studios, workspace, retail, hotel… whatever fits best.

The company has, over time, worked with world-renowned architects and nurtured younger ones to create great spaces. It’s worked with communities to define new places in which they play a part. It’s strived to deliver high-quality service levels to its customers and at the same time to be responsible about the environment. The aim is to show that these things are not mutually exclusive, and that they make more money, not less.

Tom We don’t always get it right. We’ve had our share of good luck and bad luck – especially in the banking crisis of the last couple of years. But I believe in the same values that we started with: value in good architecture, and working hard to create great spaces. Our belief in the power of regeneration to improve places and lives still holds true today.

The transforming projects in this book are testament to what can be achieved with vision, a lot of great people, some damned hard work and a little bit of luck.

Most of all, we are very proud that we can swear an oath like the citizens of ancient Athens did, that ‘we will leave this city not less but better, greater, than it was left to us…’

Urban Splash started in 1993. It was a chance meeting of minds between two men, fresh from university.

One, Tom Bloxham, a history and politics graduate, was an already serial entrepreneur who funded his way through university selling second-hand records, then the posters that promoted the records, then the space that people rented to sell the posters and the records.

The other, Jonathan Falkingham, was an aspirant architectural graduate of the Liverpool school with two jobs in architecture, one for a respected practice in the city, the other his emergent architectural practice Shed, later to merge with Dave King, his old tutor, to become shedkm.

JonnieI graduated as an architect from Liverpool University in the late eighties, when the property industry was in a serious trough – much like today. This meant that work was thin on the ground and what work there was tended to be perfunctory and poorly paid. Times like this are always challenging but they also force you to confront convention, encouraging new ways of thinking and new ways of doing things. This is very much the story of Urban Splash, and I don’t think I’m going too far in suggesting that a company like ours would be much less likely to emerge in the good times.

The thread that pulled them together was a bar on Fleet Street, Liverpool. Jonathan was renting space for shedkm from Tom, at the top of Liverpool Palace. At the bottom was a labyrinth of small shops. Tom wanted to add a bar, and Jonnie managed to convince him that a cheeky, modern well-designed bar was the way to go: Baa Bar was born.

TomWe turned over more in a month than the cost of the freehold, and I realised the real value in Jonnie’s approach to design.

After Baa Bar came Concert Square in Liverpool, just around the corner – the first project that the DNA of Urban Splash, its emerging philosophy and its likely potential can be traced back to.

The company has been transformed from these humble beginnings into what we hope is now one of the most respected regeneration companies in the country.

It’s been an amazing journey: learning how to grow a business, develop award-winning buildings, deal with bankers, planners, politicians, conservationists, builders, media, and – we hope – thousands of satisfied customers. It has taken us from Liverpool to Manchester and on to Birmingham, Plymouth, Bradford, Sheffield, Leeds, Morecambe and Bristol.

When Tom met Jonnie

Jonathan Falkingham RIBAGroup Chief Executive and Co-Founder Urban Splash Group Ltd

Tom Bloxham MBEGroup Chairman and Co-Founder Urban Splash Group Ltd

7

Matchbox, The Matchworks, Liverpool14

Fort Dunlop, Birmingham 15

Park Hill, Sheffield / MoHo, Manchester32

Mills Bakery, Royal William Yard, Plymouth / Rotunda, Birmingham 33

Saxton, Leeds50

Lister Mills, Bradford 51

ContactUrban SplashTimber Wharf16 - 22 Worsley StreetCastlefieldManchesterM15 4LD

0161 839 2999www.urbansplash.co.uk

305 awards for design, architecture, regeneration and enterprise.

We would like to thank everybody that has been a part of the Urban Splash story. There are too many of you to name individually but you know who are.

Photography and CGI's Adrian BurrowsAndy BrownBen BlackallBristol Records OfficeCharlotte Wood PhotographyDaniel HopkinsonDuerden CollectionHugh BurdenJason LockJoel Chester FildesJonathan KeenanJonathan Moore PhotographyKaren WrightLen GrantLuke UnsworthMartin CrombieMcCoy Wynne AssociatesMorley Von SternbergNic Gaunt Nick Hufton Paul GroomPeter Bennett PhotographyPrice & MyersPlymouth Naval Base Museum Robert Whitrow Richard Cooper, PhotoflexSimon Webb Shaw + Shaw Tim SmithTom BennTrevor Burrows Uniform

Design Mhairi Smith, Urban Splash

Printing Butler, Tanner & Dennis Ltd

Publisher RIBA Publishing

© Urban Splash 2011

Architects and designersAdjaye AssociatesAlison Brooks ArchitectsAlford Hall Monaghan MorrisArkheionAustin-Smith:LordBDPBen Kelly DesignDavid Morley ArchitectsDalton MaagDe Metz Forbes KnightDesign StudioDSDHAFATFeix & MerlinFerguson MannFielden Clegg Bradley ArchitectsFlacqFoster + PartnersFuture SystemsGareth Hoskins ArchitectsGillespie Yunnie ArchitectsGlenn HowellsGrant AssociatesHawkins\BrownIan Simpson ArchitectsIce ArchitectsKineticLatham ArchitectsLevitate ArchitectureMakeMatthew HeywoodMaurice Shapero ArchitectsNORDNorthPlanitProject OrangeQuerkraftQ2Reiach and HallRichard Rogers PartnershipRiches Hawley MikhailRyder ArchitectureshedkmSMC AlsopSnookSpace CraftStephenson BellStudio 3Studio Egret WestUnion NorthWeston Williamson

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