Belfast building contractor Gilbert-Ash has been appointed main contractor on the £30 million redevelopment of Tate Liverpool.
The project will see the landmark gallery transformed to include a new public art hall on the ground floor and new gallery spaces.
Funding for the £29.7 million project has come from the UK Government, including £10m from the Levelling Up Fund, as part of a successful combined £20m bid with National Museums Liverpool, and £6.6m from the DCMS Public Bodies Infrastructure Fund. The Liverpool City Region Combined Authority also awarded funding for the developmental phase of the project via its Strategic Investment Fund.
The project adds to company’s experience in the arts sector which have recently included work on the National Portrait Gallery in London and previously worked on the Stirling Prize winning Everyman Theatre in Liverpool. It has also acted as the main contractor for other celebrated cultural capital projects, including Battersea Arts Centre and Bristol Old Vic. Its heritage portfolio includes the refurbishment and restoration of the Grade II-listed City of London Freemen’s School and the refurbishment and extension of the Grade I-listed kitchen and dining building at Jesus College, Cambridge.
Emma King, Capital Director, Tate, said that experience made the firm a good fit for the project.
“Gilbert-Ash’s track record of working to the highest standards on both cultural and heritage buildings makes them the perfect contractors to deliver the reimagined Tate Liverpool,” she said. “We look forward to collaborating with the architects and contractors to deliver this once-in-a-generation renewal, creating an art museum fit for the 21st century.”
Gilbert-Ash Project Director Rodney Coalter, who recently completed the National Portrait Gallery, London, will head up the team working on Tate Liverpool, Raymond Gilroy, Construction Director, Gilbert-Ash, said.
“The team is already in place finalising plans to deal with the many logistical and technical challenges that lie ahead, in advance of a start on site in early 2024,” he said. “We are looking forward to developing successful and collaborative relationships with both our new client at Tate Liverpool, the wider project consultant team, and to a very successful project delivery.”
Tate Liverpool is housed in an iconic 1846 warehouse that was redesigned by Sir James Stirling and Michael Wilford in the late 1980’s as the cornerstone of the reinvention of the Royal Albert Dock. It helped establish Tate as a pioneer for arts-led regeneration in the UK.
