Kawneer systems to help regenerate City of Culture

Kawneer chosen to supply curtain walling for the new John Lewis store at Grosvenor's Paradise Street project in Liverpool.

Architectural aluminium systems company Kawneer has been chosen to supply curtain walling for the new John Lewis store that will be the principal anchor of Grosvenor's £750million Paradise Street project in Liverpool.

Kawneer's AA100 system provides a unique, dry-jointed facade solution and Cap Aluminium Systems have been awarded the £3.9 million contract to install the system for main contractor Laing O'Rourke on the 240,000ft2 multi-storey building at the corner of Canning Place and Paradise Street.

The area is being recreated as a wide pedestrianised boulevard-style shopping district with flagship retail stores such as John Lewis that has traded on its former Liverpool site for more than 60 years, until recently as George Henry Lee.

The new, full-range store will represent the next generation of this High Street retail giant's department stores and will be the largest shop in the region.

Designed by BDP Architects, the materials palette is warm to complement the listed buildings on neighbouring Hanover Street - brick, terracotta, sandstone, glass and steel.

The grid of the building aligns with the edge of the old Canning dock and the western elevation cantilevers out to add protection.

The foundations sit either side of the dock wall, with the structure bridging it.

CAP Aluminium will curve much of the curtain walling.

Cap's design and business development director Ian Lord said: "The technical complexity of the building with its differential deflection, interface with two bridges and balustrading and hand railing has meant we were heavily involved in helping the architects to find design solutions".

The Paradise Street project incorporates 148,000m2 of retail, 21,500m2 of leisure and 364 residential units over 42 acres as part of the transformation of central Liverpool for the year 2008 City of Culture festival.

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