Update on the Downing site and New renders of the Wilmott Street proposal.

Noticed work is well under way on-site, so a thread is necessary. These blocks will have a massive impact on the Mancunian Way and surrounding area. You wouldn't think they were student blocks either. Hats off to Downing.

078574/FO/2006/C3

Former ATS Site Bounded By Wilmott Street/ Newcastle Street/ Chester Street And The Mancunian Way
City

Proposed residential student accommodation (718 rooms) with associated commercial floorspace and landscaping

http://www.publicaccess.manchester.gov.uk/associateddocs/MCCList1.aspx?078574%2fFO%2f2006%2fC3

Following completion of the hugely successful development New Medlock House – 671 student bedrooms in a magnificent eight storey landmark building, Downing are working with Manchester City Council on master planning the Central Spine Area of the City Centre.
Work has commenced on site for a £30 million state of the art scheme, designed by architect Ian simpson, featuring 718 student cluster bedrooms and 5,000 sq ft of commercial space.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v397/jrb041067/a2-1.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v397/jrb041067/a3-1.jpg

http://www.downing.com/sectors/index.cfm/sector/3 (Note the Broadcasting Place development in Leeds aswell. Very nice)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v397/jrb041067/stu.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v397/jrb041067/gpupup.jpg

Is that a CGI model or a 'real' one?
Its very nice and would love to run a Scaletrix and a train set through it if it is real.

Is that a CGI model or a 'real' one?
Its very nice and would love to run a Scaletrix and a train set through it if it is real.

No Longy. That's my GP circuit. Still haven't heard from Pat yet.

I find it hard to get my head around these renders - so they're three blocks? One mirror-windowed, one grey and assymetric windows and the other brick and assymetric windows? I'm not judging or suggesting a like or dislike - I just don't get it properly! Are these images more massing than anything else?

I find it hard to get my head around these renders - so they're three blocks? One mirror-windowed, one grey and assymetric windows and the other brick and assymetric windows? I'm not judging or suggesting a like or dislike - I just don't get it properly! Are these images more massing than anything else?

Click on the planning application link for info Beard.

Click on the planning application link for info Beard.

Oh aye! These images are useful:

http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/1178/b01qn8.jpg

http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/2594/b02cq5.jpg

http://img275.imageshack.us/img275/7744/b03bg2.jpg

just in case you didn't already know, cor-ten steel is what the "B of the Bang" is made from, so expect comments along the lines of "they should have painted it to stop it going rusty" from those that have missed the point...

what is that other huge tower behind beetham is that manchester house or central spine or whatever its called looks like beetham without the blade.

just in case you didn't already know, cor-ten steel is what the "B of the Bang" is made from, so expect comments along the lines of "they should have painted it to stop it going rusty" from those that have missed the point...

One of the best buildings of the 1970's, The Wills Building in Bristol, was built from cor-ten aswell. Its a good look if you get it right (which they did here!)

http://www.riskybuildings.org.uk/img/30wills/01.jpg
http://www.riskybuildings.org.uk/img/30wills/02.jpg

what is that other huge tower behind beetham is that manchester house or central spine or whatever its called looks like beetham without the blade.

That's the main tower of Central Spine. Manchester House is right next to Spinningfields, but on the opposite side and Spinningfields is on the opposite side of Beetham to this. Best point of reference is that Manchester House forms a kind of triangle with Albert Bridge House and the CJC.

just in case you didn't already know, cor-ten steel is what the "B of the Bang" is made from, so expect comments along the lines of "they should have painted it to stop it going rusty" from those that have missed the point...

Maybe it could do with a bit of this. (http://www.completeshite.com/davethewave-adverts/1992/hammerite.wmv) :)

One of the best buildings of the 1970's, The Wills Building in Bristol, was built from cor-ten aswell. Its a good look if you get it right (which they did here!)

http://www.riskybuildings.org.uk/img/30wills/01.jpg
http://www.riskybuildings.org.uk/img/30wills/02.jpg

Sorry Longshanks but that thing looks foul. It looks like they put up a frame for a bigger building, changed their minds, put a smaller one inside and let the old frame go rusty. If they put something like that up in Manchester I'll demolish it myself.

^^ There's one of those in Longsight opposite the Police station. No windows of course. Been there years.

ohhh right is there a central spine thread anywhere

ohhh right is there a central spine thread anywhere

Clickety (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=271025)

^^ There's one of those in Longsight opposite the Police station. No windows of course. Been there years.

The difference being it wasn't intentional... I hope......

Went past here this morning ,,the cores are really coming on now the 2nd crane is up .

looking good .

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y12/ANTEATPETE/100_1279.jpg?t=1171908431

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y12/ANTEATPETE/100_1278.jpg?t=1171908499

'Scuse if this is naive - first posting here ever.

The student buildings are presumably the three nearest the Mancunian Way. What are the four (?) silver towers behind? Are they approved?

One looks as if it's being built almost inside the courtyard of the new Macintosh Mill building (opposite Chorlton Mill) - presumably this is on the current car park next to the Salvation Army centre?

Any points appreciated.

Cheers
K.

welcome Karelia ,, those towers were just the massing model for the Southern Gateway area , part of the Manchester bid for the Beeb , i think something big is planned for this area ,, but not in the courtyard of Chorlton Mill lol .

Thanks for that.

There are some remarkably interesting threads here. Am a Londoner, but have been in Manchester for six years or so and love the place! It's changed so much just in the time we've been here, and there's so much more to come.

HOpe to be able to contribute more than questions.

Cheers
K

The more the merrier K :)

Couple of my best mates are Londoner's also and have been here for years and say the same thing, the place as definatly changed ,, its just ignorant peoples minds that dont change :)

Where about do you live ?

Have moved about a bit. Started off in a cosy attic in Longsight, but my wife objected to the mice inside and the shootings outside. Don't know why, I liked the place. Then a flat on Whitworth Street, which we loved. Then we spent a miserable year in Nottingham - both of us hated the town bitterly. Back now in Victoria Park. Spend at least a day most weekends wandering around looking at new developments rising up - partly out of my academic interest in intersections of space, society and aesthetics (architecture and built environment, town planning and regeneration, etc.), partly my wife's interest in photographing urban scenes, partly vague notions of moving on again to somewhere new in the city ..... were looking at Royal Mills this weekend, would be cool having a place overlooking the canal and having a birdseye view of New Islington growing, and that's the part of town I find most exciting at the moment. Not very realistic though, given the prices.

I still love London, love visiting and walking around and seeing how it changes, but don't think I could live there again (bearing in mind house prices, certainly couldn't!). I love several other big cities I know quite well - Berlin, Moscow, Manhattan. To my mind Manchester manages to combine the edginess, dynamism, grime, quirkiness, cosmopolitanism etc. of these places, but packaged a bit more manageably. Actually, my grandad came from round here, and his eleven brothers, so I've got Mancunian roots and presumably extended family some place nearby (my mum gave me some phone numbers when I first came up here, but unfortunately I never got in touch), so maybe this contributes to my feelings for the place. I lived in Birmingham for three years in the mid-nineties and didn't much like the place (still don't, but nothing compares to how much I HATE Nottingham!!!).

G'night!

K.

Welcome Karelia.
What got your goat so badly peeved over Notts?

Thought I might get asked. Hard to sum up - everything, really.

The town centre is incredibly ugly, and planning agencies over the last thirty years seem to have done their utmost to make it even uglier, with some of the most brutal and historically insensitive reconstructions I've ever seen. Maid Marion Way, a three-lane dual carriageway which was driven perpendicular through the old streets joining the Castle and the Town Hall Square, and lined with grey rendered multi-storey car parks, Holiday Inns and office towers, is only the most shocking example.

In the 1990's the town square and immediate environs were sold out to mega-bars, which make the area nasty, violent and disgustingly dirty from Thursdays to Sundays. The rest of the centre is occupied by bog-standard retail, which all day every day swarms with truants, pregnant teenagers and druggies from northern Nottinghamshire (areas wiped out by the end of mining twenty years ago, and which have never recovereed).

Owing largely to the drug problem, the whole of Nottingham is violent, and you can feel the tension on the streets. I don't think I know anyone who hasn't experienced some aggravation on the street. It is also riven by gang rivalries - much more palpable than in Manchester (even having lived in Longsight).

We lived in The Park, which is a beautiful area, but an oasis in the middle of the wilderness - and I hated the notion of a gated community, which it effectively is, which concentrates 90% of the wealth and snobbery into about a square kilometre of posh mansions (most of them now very badly coverted into too many badly designed and overpriced flats). The Lace Market is interesting, but lies between the city centre and particularly nasty areas. West Bridgford is the Didsbury of Nottingham, but I didn't have much cause to go there, and I'm not much of a suburbanite anyway (though I have a sneaking liking for Didsbury - it must be middle age racing down on me). Thinking of bringing up a family, primary and secondary education is almost the worst in the country. I did, I should say, experience better primary healthcare than here in Manchester.

In general, though, it's probably mostly because I love BIG cities - Manchester is just big enough (and so many traces of its earlier metropolis status survive to impress and inspire), but Nottingham was never more than a small provincial town with small-scale trade and industry (lace-making, then bicycles and rubber goods) which died fifty years ago and, unlike Manchester (and unlike Leeds, Sheffield, Bristol, etc.), has never managed to reinvent itself satisfactorily. It had Boots, but even they are laying people off. Fifty gigantic pubs and twelve branches of New Look do not compensate for the lack of jobs and amenities in the city and its hinterland.

There is some regeneration going on, but it looks rather half-hearted. EMDA (East Midlands Development Agency) leaves a lot to be desired in terms of energy, initiative and intelligence. Certainly, their efforts pale into insignificance when compared to what seems to be happening in East Manchester at the moment.

I think I'll stop there :-)

I still work in Nottingham, but am happy to commute from here.

Best
K.

I still work in Nottingham, but am happy to commute from here.

Christ that sounds like a ball-ache.

Thanks for the opinions on Nottingham. Its always interesting to hear impartial thoughts on cities. Particularly when expressed by someone who has both been there long enough to know the place and also have lived elsewhere long enough to draw real comparisons.

I've moved around a bit myself and I find my knowledge of other cities fundamental benchmarks when assessing whats good and bad about Manchester.

I do find that I've never lived anywhere else that makes me feel as much of a sense of 'belonging' as Manchester does. It just feels like everyone's fighting for the same team and they all give a shit about the outcome.

I used to live in the Park in Notts Karelia during the mid nineties, its a small world! Your right about Nottingham, the Park is great in the sense that it is like an oasis but so easy for the city centre. Slab square was rough before and I think even worse now. The lace Market used to have a couple of interesting late venues. Loads of tarts, the tower blocks by the petrol st on the Derby Rd in Lenton, I've been approached there by girls while filing up with petrol....at 8.00am! Unfortunately strictly business only. And no I did not take up these propositions...it was to early!!

Thought I might get asked. Hard to sum up - everything, really.

The town centre is incredibly ugly, and planning agencies over the last thirty years seem to have done their utmost to make it even uglier, with some of the most brutal and historically insensitive reconstructions I've ever seen. Maid Marion Way, a three-lane dual carriageway which was driven perpendicular through the old streets joining the Castle and the Town Hall Square, and lined with grey rendered multi-storey car parks, Holiday Inns and office towers, is only the most shocking example.

In the 1990's the town square and immediate environs were sold out to mega-bars, which make the area nasty, violent and disgustingly dirty from Thursdays to Sundays. The rest of the centre is occupied by bog-standard retail, which all day every day swarms with truants, pregnant teenagers and druggies from northern Nottinghamshire (areas wiped out by the end of mining twenty years ago, and which have never recovereed).

Owing largely to the drug problem, the whole of Nottingham is violent, and you can feel the tension on the streets. I don't think I know anyone who hasn't experienced some aggravation on the street. It is also riven by gang rivalries - much more palpable than in Manchester (even having lived in Longsight).

We lived in The Park, which is a beautiful area, but an oasis in the middle of the wilderness - and I hated the notion of a gated community, which it effectively is, which concentrates 90% of the wealth and snobbery into about a square kilometre of posh mansions (most of them now very badly coverted into too many badly designed and overpriced flats). The Lace Market is interesting, but lies between the city centre and particularly nasty areas. West Bridgford is the Didsbury of Nottingham, but I didn't have much cause to go there, and I'm not much of a suburbanite anyway (though I have a sneaking liking for Didsbury - it must be middle age racing down on me). Thinking of bringing up a family, primary and secondary education is almost the worst in the country. I did, I should say, experience better primary healthcare than here in Manchester.

In general, though, it's probably mostly because I love BIG cities - Manchester is just big enough (and so many traces of its earlier metropolis status survive to impress and inspire), but Nottingham was never more than a small provincial town with small-scale trade and industry (lace-making, then bicycles and rubber goods) which died fifty years ago and, unlike Manchester (and unlike Leeds, Sheffield, Bristol, etc.), has never managed to reinvent itself satisfactorily. It had Boots, but even they are laying people off. Fifty gigantic pubs and twelve branches of New Look do not compensate for the lack of jobs and amenities in the city and its hinterland.

There is some regeneration going on, but it looks rather half-hearted. EMDA (East Midlands Development Agency) leaves a lot to be desired in terms of energy, initiative and intelligence. Certainly, their efforts pale into insignificance when compared to what seems to be happening in East Manchester at the moment.

I think I'll stop there :-)

I still work in Nottingham, but am happy to commute from here.

Best
K.

I know where you're coming from K...I'm originally from Nottingham (no offence taken!) but agree with those 'sentiments'! I have family in North Notts and I'd struggle to find comparative villages in Manchester...pretty grim unfortunately.
Notts feels more like a large town (everything circles Market square within a 5 min walk), although there are some fine independent stores (especially clothes) dotted around. The Lace district is a lovely area but seems to be full of the 'Posh Zammo's' crowd doing Columbian of their post ironic Vidal mullets.
Always trying to get my mates to relocate here in fact...

The Lace Market has its good buildings, but there's been a lot of VERY poor quality redevelopment in the last five years or so. When we first moved out of our Whitworth Street flat we thought we'd relocate into a city centre flat in Nottingham, but were SHOCKED by the comparative size, quality and cost. You know how bad so many of the new builds and conversions in Manchester centre are - think a lot, lot worse for Notts, where developers really went mad. One example - I was looking round a 'penthouse' in the Lace Market, and thought I felt a draft in the corner of one of the rooms. So while the estate agent was out of the room, I pushed hard and three fingers went straight through the one layer of plasterboard to the outside - no joking, the brickwork didn't meet up at the corner, and they'd just covered it up with plasterboard, which of course immediately became saturated and turned to paste on being touched! I've encountered shoddy workmanship here in Manchester too, but nothing like that. Prices in the Lace Market have recently crashed by 20-30%, and I pity the idiots who did buy.

You're right there are scattered spots and shops which are interesting, esp. in The Lace Market / Hockley areas - but I know some of the owners, and they have trouble paying their way. The Council seems still keener on tax breaks for Yates Mega-Wine Bar, providing work for 20 bouncers and 50 beleaguered police officers, than for a fifties retro-furnishings boutique that scrapes by, but causes no trouble and lends colour and quirkiness and interest to a neighbourhood. Apparently, the Council has just withdrawn the alcohol licence from the Broadway cinema's bar (for Mancunians, this is Nottingham's equivalent of the Cornerhouse - so you can see how stupid that decision is). EMDA publicity boasts that Nottingham has more artists per square kilometre than any other town in Europe - I'd love to know how they arrived at that statistic! Presumably the extrapolated from one table at the Broadway bar ... oh, before they were prohibited from serving drinks, that is .....

What I MOST don't like about NOttingham is precisely the absence of that idea that we're all in it together, and we all really do give a shit about what happens, that an earlier poster correctly said motivated Manchester's old inhabitants and quickly wins the loyalty of most newcomers. I felt a real 'them versus us' antagonism in Nottingham - as if social divisions, that exist everywhere, seem to deform everday encounters between people much more than elsewhere, expressing themselves as much in the snobbery of Park residents as in Radford kids spitting at us down Alfreton Road, or shooting at us (with mini-air rifles, nothing drastic) while we played five-a-side in Radford Sports Centre. It also makes people in shops instinctively rude and grumpy - you know, they immediately expect grief from customers, so they're really guarded and cold - utter contrast to Manchester (more like Moscow).

We had a bad start - in the first few weeks after arriving in Nottingham, my wife and I kept getting yelled at by incredibly tall, skinny, white-faced, spotty kids in hoods. Weirdest was that a few times people shouted 'GAY BASTARDS' at us - which seemed a strange thing to shout at a man and woman walking hand in hand. I could only think it was Nottingham dialect for anyone who looks vaguely 'middle-class'. The jump from Manchester's tolerance and variety (and we'd just lived three years opposite Canal Street) to Nottingham's antagonism was shocking.

Need to get back to work ... don't commute every day, by the way, I have a flexible job.

K.

Moby pics

http://img170.imageshack.us/img170/1146/dsc00219yr9.jpg

http://img206.imageshack.us/img206/2024/dsc00218pq9.jpg

Cladding is flying on

Interesting mix - blue, white and red painted aluminium panels to the Mancunian Way facing wing and brown weathered steel panels to the Cambridge St facing wing.

http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/4540/68461376qz5.jpg

Fantastic picture :) Cheers for the update.

Today .


http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y12/ANTEATPETE/100_1795.jpg?t=1200076479

Today

IMG]http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y12/ANTEATPETE/100_1795.jpg?t=1200076479[/IMG]

i can see the news headlines 'pedestrian egged by student from 20 storeys up' lol

Taken on 14/02;
http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg270/SteKnight/140208002.jpg?t=1203246892

I pass this quite often on my travels and it's gargantuan.

Taken on 14/02;


:)

took about 10 pics (skyscrapernews (http://www.skyscrapernews.com/searchresults.php?nameAddress=ats+site&postcode=&council=&county=&region=&country=&status=&buildinguse=&completiondate=&heritagestatus=&roofheight=&spireheight=&eitherHeight=&floors=&landcost=&constructioncost=&lastsalesvalue=&companies=)... :runaway:)

13/2
http://www.skyscrapernews.com/images/pics/256ATSSiteBlock1_pic32.jpg

http://www.skyscrapernews.com/images/pics/256ATSSiteBlock1_pic26.jpg

cladding detail
http://www.skyscrapernews.com/images/pics/256ATSSiteBlock1_pic29.jpg

street level (south side)
http://www.skyscrapernews.com/images/pics/256ATSSiteBlock1_pic30.jpg

http://www.skyscrapernews.com/images/pics/4716ATSSiteBlock2_pic20.jpg
http://www.skyscrapernews.com/images/pics/4716ATSSiteBlock2_pic24.jpg

That looks jeffin excellent!

That looks jeffin excellent!

thanks, and the building's not bad either ;)

what i think the cladding is (and i stress 'THINK') is something like coloured aluminium panelling and over it a layer of glass laid down afterwards. the windows sit flush with this glass and so the whole thing looks to be a big glass sheet. very reflective. i wonder if the technique is used to ensure the bright colours don't fade.
glass looks a bit wavy and cheap (probably doesn't matter as they won't be looked through...) but the window glass looks normal and flat.
the style seems to mimmick beetham, and that seems apt to me as in that area they are the two biggest things and seem to face eachother.

Took this the day ,, i see they have demolished the burnt out building in the foreground .

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y12/ANTEATPETE/100_1831.jpg?t=1204226837

crane went couple of days ago

Took this the day ,, i see they have demolished the burnt out building in the foreground .

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y12/ANTEATPETE/100_1831.jpg?t=1204226837

yeah i have some pics somewhere of them leveling this area from a few weeks ago. i can't remember what's going here. the map thing on the planning website is not working right now so i can't check either. anyone?

http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg270/SteKnight/WilmottStreet170308.jpg?t=1205770865

http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/5031/b1fs1.jpg

from manchester museum? :)

from manchester museum? :)

Nearly - Manchester Business School

nice picture BG, walked round this building yesterday I really like the cladding

me too, it looks brilliant in the sunshine...

hah, I only until now thought the green was part of the cladding.

I'm a bit blind, see.

The rusted steel cladding looks great next to the older red brick buildings. Also the slanted rooves work really well- Thumbs up!

Bit in-your-face when viewed from Hulme.

http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/ee85/mancplanner_2007/yetti2.jpg

http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/ee85/mancplanner_2007/yetti1.jpg

I don't think the cladding has turned out that well. Too busy and colourful when viewed from some angles (such as from the housing estate on the other side of the Mancunian Way). It also is far too bulky.

Found this http://www.downing-developments.co.uk/sectors/index.cfm/include/viewDevDetails/cityid/96/devid/96/devstyle/7/sector/3
but don't know how to upload the images it isn't working for some reason.

The NCP car park in the foreground has been closed and fenced off.

http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg270/SteKnight/WilmottStreet020508.jpg?t=1209735788

From that view, they look quite impresive.. would look quite good at the Quays I reckon..

This is called Parkway Gate opening in Sept it says it on the hoardings .

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y12/ANTEATPETE/100_1867.jpg?t=1210432296


All the crappy derelict building around this were getting demolished today .

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y12/ANTEATPETE/100_1866.jpg?t=1210432388

thumbs down to the name

Could'nt give a shit what its called .

i prefer the name new medlock house, its neighbour

A bit of inofrmation here about Parkway Gate

http://www.manchesterstudenthomes.com/privatehallsadverts/2008ParkwayGate.html

A bit of inofrmation here about Parkway Gate

http://www.manchesterstudenthomes.com/privatehallsadverts/2008ParkwayGate.html

£106 a week! F***ing hell.

Contact Phil. Ask him to take off his black mask and tell him to put his pistol away first.

http://www.cartoonstock.com/newscartoons/cartoonists/abr/lowres/abrn219l.jpg

on that maths that's £77,274.00 of revenue each week, or £3,245,508.00 per year (42-week rentals).

http://www.unite-students.com/HMSOnline/QuickSearch.do?propCode=M15PARKW

Where is it?

Parkway Gate is located in the city centre of Manchester and is only a few minutes walk from the main University Campus. There are great transport links, so a short bus ride will also take you to the bustling student area of Fallowfield and right into the heart of the City. There are a number of great bars, clubs, restaurants nearby as well as theatres and venues to see bands every night of the week. Also only five minutes walk away is Oxford Road train station and a Metrolink station meaning that everything Manchester has to offer is within easy reach.

What do I get?

Well, to start, you get a brand new property right in the heart of the city where you'll find a great choice of apartment sizes that you can share with your mates. We also have a great choice of bed sizes with under-bed storage areas and you get internet included in the price of your rent. You also get a fully fitted kitchen with lounge area, so don't forget to bring a TV so all your flatmates can watch. Topping it all off, we've got a dedicated maintenance team on hand for any problems you might have.

For more info email: ParkwayGate@unite-group.co.uk

no gym or tv?

..

£106 a week! F***ing hell.

Contact Phil. Ask him to take off his black mask and tell him to put his pistol away first.



they are having a laugth with the prices. but at least now they are using proper architects. unlike their biggest scheme in liverpool which in my opinion is one of liverpools worse buildings

http://www.unite-students.com/HMSOnline/html/content/L3GRANDCPropertyInfo/image/Grand%20Central%20Ext%201.jpg

well at least it's bills and internet included. hopefully the rooms are large but i doubt it from what i saw in new medlock hall.

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/business/s/1048303_40m_parkway_gate_milestone

^^topping out ceremony eh. seems a bit late, to me.

From that photo at least it looks okay Future Architect, but I guess there a re plenty more angles.

At £106/wk, that's not bad for key workers, if you get your own kitchens (or are they shared?). Most one bed apartments are £500-£550/mnth+ . Equivalent on a 5wk month, but then you have bills on top.

From that photo at least it looks okay Future Architect, but I guess there a re plenty more angles.





you should see it in real life. its like a 9 storey prison made of ol light grey breeze blocks. the finish is awfull cheap compared to both the schemes have in manchester (this one and the none next to picaccadilly)

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/66/182543735_1f00ace3bc_b.jpg

this one and the none next to picaccadilly



have you been on the sauce matey? :cheers:

The rustic industrial styling of the main block looks great, especially when walking along Cambridge Street out of the city centre. Unfortunately I don't have a photo from there, but I do have this from the top of the Sackville Street Building...

http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/ee85/mancplanner_2007/88.jpg

Much better IMO than the rubbish plastic looking cladding on the two other blocks, which you can see on either side above.

is that how it's going to be left? is it basically cor-ten steel?
i've never seen a proper render of this, just something that was really basic and didn't show the materials.

just in case you didn't already know, cor-ten steel is what the "B of the Bang" is made from, so expect comments along the lines of "they should have painted it to stop it going rusty" from those that have missed the point...

:)

wow :shifty:
thanks

two lots from 12th.

http://www.skyscrapernews.com/images/pics/4717ATSSiteBlock3_pic27.jpg

http://www.skyscrapernews.com/images/pics/256ATSSiteBlock1_pic34.jpg

http://www.nickgrayson.net/ssc/2008_06_12/parkway%20gate%20-%20willmott%20street%20former%20ATS/IMG_4976%20copy.jpg

http://www.nickgrayson.net/ssc/2008_06_12/parkway%20gate%20-%20willmott%20street%20former%20ATS/IMG_4942%20copy.jpg

http://www.nickgrayson.net/ssc/2008_06_12/parkway%20gate%20-%20willmott%20street%20former%20ATS/IMG_4906%20copy.jpg

http://www.nickgrayson.net/ssc/2008_06_12/parkway%20gate%20-%20willmott%20street%20former%20ATS/IMG_4897%20copy.jpg

http://www.nickgrayson.net/ssc/2008_06_12/parkway%20gate%20-%20willmott%20street%20former%20ATS/IMG_4890%20copy.jpg

http://www.nickgrayson.net/ssc/2008_06_12/parkway%20gate%20-%20willmott%20street%20former%20ATS/IMG_4887%20copy.jpg

http://www.nickgrayson.net/ssc/2008_06_12/parkway%20gate%20-%20willmott%20street%20former%20ATS/IMG_4884%20copy.jpg

http://www.nickgrayson.net/ssc/2008_06_12/parkway%20gate%20-%20willmott%20street%20former%20ATS/IMG_4881%20copy.jpg

second lot.

http://www.nickgrayson.net/ssc/2008_06_12/parkway%20gate%20-%20willmott%20street%20former%20ATS/IMG_4880%20copy.jpg

http://www.nickgrayson.net/ssc/2008_06_12/parkway%20gate%20-%20willmott%20street%20former%20ATS/IMG_4879%20copy.jpg

http://www.nickgrayson.net/ssc/2008_06_12/parkway%20gate%20-%20willmott%20street%20former%20ATS/IMG_4872%20copy.jpg

http://www.nickgrayson.net/ssc/2008_06_12/parkway%20gate%20-%20willmott%20street%20former%20ATS/IMG_4869%20copy.jpg

http://www.nickgrayson.net/ssc/2008_06_12/parkway%20gate%20-%20willmott%20street%20former%20ATS/IMG_4870%20copy.jpg

http://www.nickgrayson.net/ssc/2008_06_12/parkway%20gate%20-%20willmott%20street%20former%20ATS/IMG_4859%20copy.jpg

http://www.nickgrayson.net/ssc/2008_06_12/parkway%20gate%20-%20willmott%20street%20former%20ATS/IMG_4860%20copy.jpg





abito sign on half demolished building. didn't know abito was in on this area.
http://www.nickgrayson.net/ssc/2008_06_12/parkway%20gate%20-%20willmott%20street%20former%20ATS/IMG_4894%20copy.jpg

God knows how, but I never knew it was a rusty cladding.. saw it yesterday and I think I literally went 'wow' aloud, haha.. not good when on a train, on your todd.. ney mind..

they look great!

wonder if it holds a uk record with cor-ten.
i wondered the same about cjc's glass wall and it turned out to be not only the uk's but europe's largest glass wall.

wonder if it holds a uk record with cor-ten.
i wondered the same about cjc's glass wall and it turned out to be not only the uk's but europe's largest glass wall.

Isn't Europes largest glass wall in Paris? I have no idea what its called.

not according to mott macdonald.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3200/2656093576_25d63ce282.jpg

That rusty little number looks cracking. Got to applaud the developer for going along with Simpson's ideas. Nice pic.

Hmm.

I lived in Student Village just over the road last academic year so been watching this as it's gone up. When I last saw it in June I was in disbelief at the rusty cladding, looked like a total eyesore.

That pic above though doesn't look too bad though so maybe it'll grow on me. Anymore pics pwease?

This is a great looking development. Nice picture chrisw3.

First time I've seen this one ; it looks very nice .

I hope it keeps the rusty look, reminds me of Sandcrawlers from Star Wars...

http://images.wikia.com/starwars/images/1/1b/Sandcrawler.jpg

Wandered round a bit while I was waiting for the missus to come out of work:

http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/ii16/Goldie_78/P8030016.jpg

http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/ii16/Goldie_78/P8030017.jpg

http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/ii16/Goldie_78/P8030018.jpg

I love the bit where the streamlined concrete pillars sit next to the big square wall of cor-ten.

The blue glass cladding and cor-ten match almost perfectly the blue render and brown brickwork of the smaller block that fronts the roundabout. Neat.

Our own rusting ships hull. Move over B of The Bang.

I saw this properly for the first time last Friday. I have to say the rusty cladding looks much better in real life than it does on the photos. Very striking.

this morning from magnolia court, salford
http://www.skyscrapernews.com/images/pics/256ATSSiteBlock1_pic35.jpg

1 from deansgate metrolink/ car park area today
http://www.skyscrapernews.com/images/pics/256ATSSiteBlock1_pic36.jpg

Phil Griffin longs for dreaming spires in Manchester

Do the new student residences pass the test?

Universities used to build Halls of Residence. These were the Ivory Towers, the cloisters and courts of gilded youth and perpetual summer. Gone are the days. Nowadays students are privately farmed by specialist companies. Rooms en suite, kitchen sitting room communal, rent inclusive. Cosy.

The largest such accommodation provider in the UK is Unite, a Bristol-based company with 37,000 customers. During the summer Unite bought Parkway Gate from Downing, the developer of the three towers containing nearly 800 beds, right by the Mancunian Way at the top of Princess Parkway.

You’ve probably noticed them, curling around each other in a gently rising spiral. One is largely glass, another pale aluminium panels. The third and most striking is clad in Cor-Ten, the rusty steel much loved by architects and American sculptor Richard Serra. (The assembly is reminiscent of Serra’s Fulcrum, a three-part sculpture behind London’s Liverpool Street station.)

I’m told the buildings cause problems for the Red Bricks, the 1960’s council housing on the other side of the Mancunian Way. They reflect traffic noise from the elevated road back into the low-rise streets.

That’s a pity, because for the rest of us, I’d say the impact of these buildings on the city is pretty positive. Students, most of whom appear to have found more sun this summer than I did, are happily stocking fridges and swapping rooms up and down blocks One Two and Three. (Could they not have been named for Manchester notables such as Wilson, Cooper Clarke and Curtis, say?)

Basically, Parkway Gate is a hotel. Front doors cluster in lift lobbies. Behind each are four to six en suite rooms running down one side of a corridor that leads to a kitchen sitting room. Each tower is sixteen naturally ventilated stories. Ian Simpson Architects designed the scheme.

There’s a bike store, laundry and common room on the ground floor of the block closest to Mancunian Way. This is the most architecturally worked of the three. Being Simpson, it is largely glass. Windows onto the street are printed with academic nouns; physics, mathematics, medicine. I’m not sure what, if anything, this achieves, being to my eyes neither legible nor decorative, informative nor practical. The interest in the whole complex is in the shape and disposition of the towers. I’d bet the architect wanted to twist the roofs through one more plane, but that money wouldn’t allow.

Each of the towers uses the same cladding system, incorporating the different panels; powder painted aluminium, glass and Cor-Ten. Cor-Ten is the product name of a steel alloy that doesn’t need painting. What looks like rust is a protective layer that forms when the material oxidises. It is extremely durable and very colourful, except we don’t always recognise its vivid orange as a colour at all. We don’t always see beyond the association with rust.

On the other hand, I doubt we’ve ever seen Cor-Ten on this scale before. Especially on the north and south elevations where it forms an almost unbroken surface. It isn’t native, and it isn’t brick. Rust, however, signals decay, as brown leaves signal winter. It takes the sun in September to lift the surface and soak it in colour.

One glass building with a dash of red, one neutral grey, one bright orange (depending on the light). The central courtyard has a triangular bench and trees. Not much of a place for gilding, more for bottle tan. The foyer and admin office is a single storey and forms an enclosure with a retail unit not yet let. The flat roof of the admin block will eventually be flooded to form a reflecting pool (in a five star hotel it might have been the swimming pool deck) that will bring more light into the space. It’s all neat stuff on a budget (£29m). For a city whose student sector is a big deal, Parkway Gate is a significant building.

I just wish it wasn’t quite like this. I don’t have a quarrel with anyone, not the developer, nor operator. I don’t have a grouse with Ian Simpson Architects since the scheme appears to me to have real architectural merit.

It is just that I wish student life hadn’t drifted this far from the Dreaming Spires. Or from Arne Jacobson’s St Catherine’s College Oxford (just extended by Manchester architect Stephen Hodder), or Hull University’s Lawns Halls (just listed) from the 1960’s by Gillespie Kidd and Coia, or Denys Lasdun’s Ziggurats at the University of East Anglia, or indeed Whitworth Park Manchester by BDP.

Universities will never build student accommodation again. Let alone prestigious architectural commissions. Today’s students want to live close to the land hungry city centre in newly built en suite rooms for about £100 a week. Where is the money for generous architecture in that? Perhaps we should be teasing out architectural originality instead. Maybe we should be stacking up ship’s containers on open steel frames, or tucking undergraduates up in inflatable honeycombs, or stringing them out in trailer parks. Or squatting them in unsold city apartments. Right here and now I’d guess that Parkway Gate is as good as it is going to get.

http://www.propertyconfidential.com/index.asp?Sessionx=IpqiNw86IWEkKHqiNwF6IHqi&

Hmmn. Gleaming shiny new buildings, then the Cor-ten really fucks it up. How faddy and idiosyncratic it is.

You can always rely on students for a guaranteed income.

From Place North West.

Unite sales figures boosted by North West input
23 October 2008, 17:36

http://www.placenorthwest.co.uk/assets/_files/cached/img/160x240/oct_08/pnw__1224779696_Parkway_Gate,_Manchester.jpg

Michael Hunt

The North West has been sited as a major factor on sales and rental growth for student accommodation provider, Unite.

The group, which houses around 6,000 students across Liverpool and Manchester, stated the recently opened Parkway Gate in Chester Street, Manchester, had a considerable input on the report this week that 99% of rooms had been reserved for the 2008/09 academic year.

Unite said like-for-like rental growth had increased by 11% compared to what had been recorded over the last academic year.

took these about a week ago

http://www.skyscrapernews.com/images/pics/4717ATSSiteBlock3_pic32.jpg

http://www.skyscrapernews.com/images/pics/4717ATSSiteBlock3_pic31.jpg

http://www.skyscrapernews.com/images/pics/4717ATSSiteBlock3_pic30.jpg

http://www.skyscrapernews.com/images/pics/4717ATSSiteBlock3_pic34.jpg

http://www.skyscrapernews.com/images/pics/4717ATSSiteBlock3_pic35.jpg

http://www.skyscrapernews.com/images/pics/4717ATSSiteBlock3_pic33.jpg

what do we think?

I really like them. They take something that's a necessary evil and disguise it as something very cool and understated. You don't look at it and thing "now that is student halls!" which is a pretty good measure of success in this case.

I agree with CG. All these bloody UNITE blocks are making all our Cities look like Leeds, so this is a much welcomed change

I've driven past these a couple of times, they look great.

Very high standard considering they are student halls.

i like this a lot.

don't think they've managed to pull off the writing on the windows though. i would prefer it without.

http://www.skyscrapernews.com/images/pics/256ATSSiteBlock1_pic1.jpg