Article from Construction News today:
New Everton stadium: Plans will ‘preserve docks and maximise crowd noise’
13 Dec 2019 By Zak Garner-Purkis
Everton Football Club's new 52,000-seater stadium has moved a step closer after the Merseyside-based team revealed it would be submitting a planning application to the council in two weeks.
The proposed new ground is located in the Bramley Moore Dock area of Liverpool and is one of the flagship projects in Peel Ports’ £5.5bn regeneration of the city’s dockyards known as Liverpool Waters.
New York-based architect Dan Meis is designing the stadium with a concept design featuring a brick base and a roof made from steel and glass revealed this summer.
Everton confirmed in a blog post today (13 December) that it would formally lodge its plans with Liverpool City Council on Monday 23 December.
The new plans are an “evolution rather than any major changes” to the design revealed in the summer, which was subject to a month-long public consultation, the club said.
Providing further details on planned remediation work on the former dockyard site the club said it would repair and preserve the dock walls under the stadium.
It also wants to retain the water channel to maintain the interconnectivity of the docks and preserve and restore a hydraulic tower.
Located on the banks of the Mersey, Bramley-Moore Dock is naturally exposed to the elements. Everton said it had taken this into consideration in its final submissions including additional measures in the designs following wind, acoustic and pedestrian modelling.
Everton claimed it had studied its current home Goodison Park for learnings on how to maximise crowd noise.
This has seen the Premier League side test the acoustics of the proposed designs for the new stadium to measure “how sounds of celebration will travel, reverberate and enhance the atmosphere but still create the sense of intimacy in a larger space.”
This has been done with the intention of containing the noise within the stadium to maximise the atmosphere, but also limit noise pollution to the surrounding area.
The club said it was also seeking to respond to the climate emergency declared by local politicians. To this, the club said it was looking at “the positive moves that can be made around transport, air quality, energy generation, conservation, waste recycling and how [it] can contribute to a low carbon economy.”
Everton’s stadium plans will be followed by a separate outline planning application for the redevelopment of its existing home Goodison Park, with the intention for both applications to be determined by Liverpool City Council at the same time.
When it embarked on its initial public consultation, Everton claimed the scheme could act as a “catalyst project” that would provide a £1bn boost to the local economy, with more than £255m to be spent through local supply chains.
The club claims the new stadium will contribute to an acceleration of local developments at Liverpool Waters and Ten Streets worth more than £650m.
In November 2017, Everton signed a deal to lease land at Liverpool’s Bramley Moore Dock area.
The formal agreement between Everton and Peel Ports runs for 200 years at a peppercorn rent.
