Contributed by Lisa Magana Flores
Designer: W Aubrey Thomas
Built: 1908 - 1911
Location: Pierhead, England
Specifications:
-322 ft from ground to the Liver Birds' feathered heads.
-The Birds are 18 ft tall.
-There are 17 floors.
-There are 483-steps from the basement to the tower.
Pronunciation:
-The earliest example of multi-story reinforced concrete construction; precursor to the modern skyscraper.
-Modernists and traditionalists are divided on the building's architectural merits.
-Thomas was inspired by the Hellenistic temple at Baalbek and the Marshall Field Wholesale Store in Chicago.
-The clock tower is the building's most striking feature.
-Clock faces are 25 feet in diameter.
-In 1911, the Liver clock tower was the largest electrically driven clock in the UK.
-Features the Liver Birds.
-Liver birds inspired by the eagle and the commorant.
-Designed by German Sculpture Carl Bernard Bartels.
About Carl Bernard Bartels:
-Aside from the fact that Bartels was arrested as a German citizen and imprisoned on the Isle of Man, little else is know about him. Evidentially, his arrest coincided with World War I; consequently, any information on Bartels was purged from British records shortly after the start of World War I.
