ARCHITECT Will Alsop has been forced to redesign Liverpool's Fourth Grace to meet the continuing concerns of heritage groups and city planners.
Negotiations over the future shape of the controversial waterfront project - a key part of Liverpool's Capital of Culture bid - are now at a crucial stage.
Failure to reach a deal could further delay the submission of a planning application, already put back to August, or lead to a time-consuming "call-in" for Government scrutiny.
Backers of the £228m project are desperate to avoid that to make sure some parts of the Fourth Grace can be open for the Capital of Culture celebrations in 2008.
The key sticking point is the height and alignment of the two residential towers on the Strand which help finance the public elements of the scheme.
The original Alsop design saw them placed at an angle to each other at the rear of the Cloud.
But English Heritage and government advisors CABE (the Commission for the Built Environment) felt the towers detracted from views of the Three Graces from the southern end of the Strand.
Revised designs from Alsop aligned the towers, one behind the other, and made them thinner.
But this reduces the number of apartments each can hold, upsetting the delicate financial equation which makes the Fourth Grace attractive to the private sector.
To address this, the Fourth Grace Consortium, which includes architects Alsop, Neptune Developments and Countryside Properties, has proposed to make one of the towers 60ft higher than the Liver Building.
A senior source said: "They proposed the option of an asymmetric design with the southern tower higher to maintain the overall number of apartments.
"That was acceptable to the heritage groups but not the city planners.
"They seem to believe nothing on the waterfront should be higher than the Liver Building."
Both towers were slightly smaller than the Liver Building's 295ft in the original Alsop designs.
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