The Lexington is a 35-storey residential building at Princes Dock in

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. Part of the larger

Liverpool Waters Liverpool Waters is a large scale £5.5bn development that has been proposed by the Peel Group in the Vauxhall, Liverpool, Vauxhall area of Liverpool, Merseyside, England. The development will make use of a series of presently derelict dock sp ...

re-generation project, it was completed in September 2021. Estimated to cost £90 million, the "New York style" building includes 325 apartments, a sky lounge, gym and rooftop garden. Upon completion, it became the third tallest building in Liverpool at .

Timeline

In 2015,

Peel Holdings The Peel Group is a British infrastructure and property investment business, based in Manchester. In 2022, its Peel Land and Property estate extends to of buildings, and over of land and water. Peel retains minority stakes in its former ports ...

(owners of Prince's Dock) and developers MODA Living, agreed a deal for the latter to build a 40-storey residential tower at the site, as part of the

development. It was to be known as "Princes Reach". In April 2016, the design proposal, by architects Falconer Chester Hall, was revealed, now as a 34-storey building comprising 304 residential units; a public exhibition was held. In September, planning permission was granted, with the scheme now under the name of "The Lexington".New Princes Dock skyscraper could kickstart Liverpool Waters scheme

Liverpool Echo The ''Liverpool Echo'' is a newspaper published by Trinity Mirror North West & North Wales – a subsidiary company of Reach plc and is based in St Paul's Square, Liverpool, Merseyside, England. It is published Monday to Sunday, and is Liverp ...

. 21 September 2016. Retrieved 26 July 2020. However, in July 2017, amendments to the approved plans were submitted, most notably proposing to add an extra storey and an additional 21 units, raising the building height from 109 m to 112.5 m.The Lexington S73 Amendments Supplementary Statement
Ove Arup & Partners Ltd. 17 July 2017. Retrieved 27 July 2020. These changes were approved in February 2018. Chinese construction firm

Beijing Construction Engineering Group Beijing Construction Engineering Group (BCEG) is a Chinese construction and engineering firm that has built important structures in Beijing and infrastructures and buildings overseas through international branches, in particular, an active subsid ...

(BCEG) were subsequently selected as the main contractor.Chinese firm to build £90m Liverpool rental tower
Construction Manager. 8 November 2018. Retrieved 26 July 2020. Construction ultimately began in November 2018. The tower topped out in August 2020,The tallest tower on Liverpool’s waterfront
Moda Living. 25 August 2020. Retrieved 27 August 2020. and was declared complete in September 2021.

Design

The design was inspired by the historic

transatlantic Transatlantic, Trans-Atlantic or TransAtlantic may refer to: Film * Transatlantic Pictures, a film production company from 1948 to 1950 * Transatlantic Enterprises, an American production company in the late 1970s * ''Transatlantic'' (1931 film), ...

ties between Liverpool and

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

.Proposals unveiled for 34-storey waterfront tower
YM Liverpool. 11 April 2016. Retrieved 26 July 2020. In recognition of this legacy, the emerging vision for the project was to create a building "paying homage to the slim stylish skyscrapers of New York." Buildings from both cities influenced the form of The Lexington; elevations of the

Empire State Building The Empire State Building is a 102-story Art Deco skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The building was designed by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon and built from 1930 to 1931. Its name is derived from "Empire State", the nickname of the st ...

Rockefeller Center Rockefeller Center is a large complex consisting of 19 commerce, commercial buildings covering between 48th Street (Manhattan), 48th Street and 51st Street (Manhattan), 51st Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The 14 original Art Deco ...

and

Liver Building The Royal Liver Building is a Grade I listed building in Liverpool, England. It is located at the Pier Head and along with the neighbouring Cunard Building and Port of Liverpool Building is one of Liverpool's '' Three Graces'', which line the ...

as well as an old, iconic transportation link between the cities, a Cunard Cruise Liner, all contributed towards the architectural approach.PRINCES REACH PUBLIC EXHIBITION
Moda Living. April 2016. Retrieved 26 July 2020. The proportionality and elegance of the Empire State Building was considered particularly appealing. The architects' main observation was the commonality of a protrusion or "beacon" arising from the top and middle of the main body of each elevation referenced. Thus it was decided such a feature would be the main design element of The Lexington, including a specific "lighting strategy" to "accentuate the presence of the beacon". The New York based

modernist Modernism is both a philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new forms of art, philosophy, an ...

works of

Mies van der Rohe Ludwig Mies van der Rohe ( ; ; born Maria Ludwig Michael Mies; March 27, 1886August 17, 1969) was a German-American architect. He was commonly referred to as Mies, his surname. Along with Alvar Aalto, Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius and Frank Lloyd ...

, such as

Lever House Lever House is a office building at 390 Park Avenue (Manhattan), Park Avenue in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. The building was designed in the International style (architecture), International Style by Gordon Bunshaft a ...

and the

Seagram Building The Seagram Building is a skyscraper at 375 Park Avenue, between 52nd and 53rd Streets, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe with minor assistance from Philip Johnson, Ely Jacques Kahn, ...

were also studied to determine the attributes needed for The Lexington to successfully echo the city's high-rises. Conclusions included the need for strong vertical lines in order to accentuate the elegance and slenderness of The Lexington, with a much weaker emphasis on horizontal elements. An "unfussy form" was also seen necessary to stress the building's verticality. Consequently, it was decided to use an aesthetic illusion to emphasise The Lexington's slimness by splitting the building, visually, into three distinct, narrower vertical sections with articulation of the bounding edges. New York influences also contributed to the final

Americanised Americanization or Americanisation (see spelling differences) is the influence of American culture and business on other countries outside the United States of America, including their media, cuisine, business practices, popular culture, tech ...

name for the building. Internally, the residential units are a mix of studio, 1 bedroom, 2 bedroom and 3 bedroom apartments. The main building is abutted by a car park which is topped by a roof terrace, forming part of the 15,000 sq ft of amenity space; also included is a gym, cinema room, 17th floor sky lounge, community dining and kitchen, cycle parking, and work space.The Lexington to bring New York style living to Liverpool waterfront
Liverpool Express. 20 September 2016. 26 July 2020.

Gallery

Under construction: Princes Dock, Liverpool (geograph 6220422).jpg, July 2019 The Lexington 03-2020 .jpg, March 2020 View of The Lexington, Liverpool, u-c 06-2020.jpeg, June 2020 The Lexington, Liverpool, u-c 09-2020.jpg , September 2020 Lexington Liverpool.JPG , October 2020 Complete: The Lexington, Liverpool 2.jpg, September 2021 Rooftop terrace of The Lexington, Liverpool.jpg, View of the rooftop terrace

References

External links

The Lexington, Liverpool
at MODA Living
The Lexington
at Liverpool Waters
The Lexington
at

Emporis Emporis GmbH was a real estate data mining company that was headquartered in Hamburg, Germany. The company collected data and photographs of buildings worldwide, which were published in an online database from 2000 to September 2022. On 12 Sept ...

{{UKSkyscrapers Skyscrapers in Liverpool Residential buildings in Liverpool Residential buildings completed in 2021