Arup also designed the Beijing Water Cube for the 2008 Olympics
The team is being led by designers and engineers Arup, which built the Water Cube swimming centre in Beijing for the 2008 Olympics, and includes KKA Architects, Royal Haskoning DHV Engineering and cost consultants Turner and Townsend.
They will provide a fully costed plan for a terminal capable of handling 3,600 embarking and disembarking passengers with baggage, three times as many as the existing facility.
The site will include passport control, passenger lounge, café, toilets, taxi rank, vehicle pick up point, coach layover area and a car park.
The former Princes Jetty at Princes Parade, close to the landing stage, is preferred location and a potentially suitable site.
Since news of the new terminal has been announced, Cunard has said it may reintroduce transatlantic crossings from the city which last took place regularly in 1968.
It follows a doubling in the number of vessels visiting Liverpool since it became a turnaround facility in 2012 – up from 31 to 61 predicted for this year.
Passenger numbers are up from 38,656 four years ago to an expected 86,365 this year.
Mayor of Liverpool Joe Anderson said: “I am determined to see huge continued growth in the cruise liner industry in Liverpool.
“To do that we need a permanent building to replace the facility we have at the moment which has limited space.
“We are now commissioning detailed plans which will give us a clear picture of how much of a commitment we are going to have to make.
“Clearly there will be a cost to the construction of the facility, but the figures speak for themselves in terms of the economic boost we get from cruises coming to the city.”
The cruise liner terminal is estimated to have generated £7 million for the city’s visitor economy last year, up from £1.3 million when it was a port of call destination.
