Alastair Upton, Chief Executive at the Bluecoat.'My god, this is good'. These are the opening words of the first review of the redevelopment of the Bluecoat. They were published at the end of last week in the RIBA journal and written by the editor.

I’ve spend the last year and a half telling everyone I can find in the City what is being built at the Bluecoat; how they will walk through the Bluecoat from the finest 18th Century building in Liverpool out to the finest 21st century one.  The RIBA article is a tribute to the staff and board who, years before I arrived, bravely backed a Dutch architect Biq, who had never built a public building before, with the commission.

Sit up and pay attention everyone. Make no mistake the Bluecoat will be a star of 2008 and one that will last way beyond the year.

And the year seems to have started. I was at the Turner prize announcement on Monday. The man in the bear suit won it (see my earlier blog Art in a City ) but according to the announcements on the evening for his work ‘State Britain’. The failure to mention ‘Sleeper’ has rather ungraciously been pointed out to Mark Wallinger by the press in most interviews he has done that I’ve seen.

From the uber-trendy art scene I walked to St George’s Hall for a reception at the Royal Variety Show after party. It was all black tie and what seemed like 250 WAGs though I was insulated from the glamour in a back room with all the City’s arts and regeneration crowd and the Minister for the Arts Margaret Hodge. She promised to come to our building next time she is up in Liverpool. I bet she says that to us all but I’m prepared to bet that as the news gets out about the Bluecoat she will be with us soon enough.  

Read the RIBA article