Fantasy Manchester Buildings/Skyscrapers

I wouldnt ban chewing gum just fine the people who dont use the bins, and parents/schools need to teach there kids and respecting people and the environment we live in the place be alot cleaner then.

I wouldnt knock down the printworks frontage just do something with the back and sides as there bland and with the MEN Arena just needs a reclad or build a bigger Arena on the site across the road and knock down the MEN making way for the New high speed trains if they ever come up here giving Victoria Station the make over it needs.

As an idea if Ordsall was made into a Park could look, looking toward "Manchester" if you was stood on the chester road/trafford road bridge crossing Salford Quays. The Pic is of Oklahoma City i believe its population is sim to Manchesters and if made spinningfields into a skyscraper zone around a park might look.

If we had a park running from Town Hall to the river through spinningfields could end up with something like the two photos below.

mcr guy said:

Hi all im new here but been watching for years.

If you could turn back the clock or money wasnt an issue what would you do to make manchester a better city.

My ideas are

.New Parks,
From Albert Square running down to the river between Lloyd street and Mulberry street so keeping St Marys Church and the older buildings on
John Dalton Street everything else going then over Deansgate running alongside John Rylands Library and Hardman Street till the river.
Then down either side of the park i would build towers from 25-40 storeys for offices, hotels, apartments, courts etc like the park in Frankfurt.

Build the Victoria tower at the train station and get the co-op to move into this.

Printworks is a good idea but the sides and back are not the best to look at. should of done something like the Sony centre in Berlin
but keep the frontage on Corporation Street/Withy Grove and build a tower on the Co-op Bank site.

Re-do the outside of the MEN Arena

The G-Mex- the Greater Northern Complex isnt needed really so the new build at the back facing Hilton could be a new hall/small arena,
where Exchange Auditorium is i would of made this bigger to where the Great Northern Tower is and the capacity between 1500-2000 seat
with a tower built above it. Ian Simpsons ideas for the back end are spot on just have the towers taller.

Close Deansgate and Mancunian way off the traffic then turn them into parks and put the roads into tunnels like boston have.

Ordsall just make this into one big Park!!

These are just some of my ideas feel free to add yours.

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I like the idea of extending Albert Square into a giant open space - have you been looking at the 1945 plan? Something decent could be achieved through demolition of Heron House and ..., you know, the other one as well as Brazennose House and possibly, Centurion House. I'd probably stop there though - Spinningfields will be with us for some time to come.

However big it is, Albert Square will soon be ruined by the addition of a route for the noisiest trams in Europe and the pathetic requirement for an elevated platform with a fence around it. Lose the tram and enjoy the open space for me. Or, if this is true fantasy, maybe get new trams like I saw in Seville last summer that are unobtrusive in terms of noise, acess and everything else. Also, a bit of Seville sunshine wouldn't go amiss...!

A new park is essential. I'm not sure about squishing Ordsall and the people who live there to make way for it though. I would put it between City Road and Chester Road - the Great Jackson Street area. For me, land for parks in the City Centre is as valuable as land for development. I was looking at some pics taken from atop The Rock, NYC last night. The Manhattan skyline stands out, but so too does Central Park. It's huge! I want one.

Oh, almost forgot, Didsbury and Chorlton. You can only keep one, the other has to go to make way for a South Manchester super-park and forest. Don't care which one, you decide. The people of Ordsall voted for this, but you know it makes sense.

mcr guy said:

Hi all im new here but been watching for years.

If you could turn back the clock or money wasnt an issue what would you do to make manchester a better city.

My ideas are

Build the Victoria tower at the train station and get the co-op to move into this...
...and build a tower on the Co-op Bank site.

Click to expand...

I would like to see an array of International Modernist style buildings along Corporation Street (Victoria side) and up Miller Street to complement the two marvels that are New Century House and the CIS Building. Parkers (the original home of the CIS) would probably have to go to make way for a tall building. Needless to say, Ian Simpson Architects need not apply.

I would keep most of the other Co-op Buildings, but replacing the Co-op Bank building with a reconstruction of the building that was there until the 1970s. It was a mirror image of the CWS building across the tram tracks and I think that the area has lost something with its demolition, so lets bring it back.

Now this is madness, and at the risk of getting my head bitten off again... this is a fantasy thread so I think I can shoot for the stars:

A comprehensive underground rail system, integrating Liverpool as well as Manchester.

Basically create two intensive individual city focused networks, with extra lines that run to places like Chester & Bury from the cities - and then have a couple of lines connecting the two clusters running from one city to the other through places like Warrington, St.Helens & Leigh :cheers:
Perhaps two outer connecting lines, a northern one running from Liverpool to skem to wigan to bolton to Manc... and a southern one running from Liverpool to JLA to Runcorn to Manchester Airport to Manc.

With one governing body so you could have one card for the whole network.

That would be perfect. :master:

-

Would cost a mind-boggling sum of money obviously. At say an average of £150million a km, 65km from west Liverpool to east Manchester = nearly £10billion for just one line!!*
(vague guess based on £3bn for 16km jubilee extension, halving for the london factor and then adding a chunk back for inflation)
So a couple of them, 2 outer lines, a few more small city lines each, a few connecting lines to chester, bury & co, then maybe a couple north-south lines in the centre of the network...... vast, vast sum of money.

Hey, i can dream!!!

*actually now I think about it Londons crossrail is £16billion and London already has an underground network so this would be completely fair and rational to do instead :nuts:

I can't think of anything directly in front of Albert Square and the Town Hall down to Deansgate that is worth saving really, apart from that Lincoln statue. No, clear the lot away and extend Albert Sq down to Deansgate as you propose. Maybe have the Lincoln statue closer to the pavement facing onto Deansgate on a slightly taller plinth? neat symetrical grassland stretching all the way back towards the town hall, the view from Deansgate would be fantastic. Some nice modern public sculpture in the centre of the space, lines of trees, maybe even a fountain worthy of a large space and some discreet benches and I think you're on to a winner with that one.

rolybling said:

I can't think of anything directly in front of Albert Square and the Town Hall down to Deansgate that is worth saving really, apart from that Lincoln statue. No, clear the lot away and extend Albert Sq down to Deansgate as you propose. Maybe have the Lincoln statue closer to the pavement facing onto Deansgate on a slightly taller plinth? neat symetrical grassland stretching all the way back towards the town hall, the view from Deansgate would be fantastic. Some nice modern public sculpture in the centre of the space, lines of trees, maybe even a fountain worthy of a large space and some discreet benches and I think you're on to a winner with that one.

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That works for me, although I would rather see Lincoln without the plinth, rather than raised higher upon it. This is how the same statue is exhibited in Cincinatti:

http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM3QEP_LINCOLN_STATUE_Cincinnati_Ohio

I have had my Manchester sculpture book out again this morning and, apparently, when the statue first came to the city it was similarly situated on a low pedestal in Platt Fields Park.

Mention of fountains reminds me ... didn't the flowerbed that sits in Lincoln Square used to have a fountain? Perhaps the Mancunian love of royalty is fittingly represented by this "brick trough" (credit Terry Wyke) that served to celebrate Prince Charles' marriage to Lady Di and is now supposedly a memorial to the dead princess.

Perhaps the Luytens war memorial could be relocated to the new park, where it would be less cramped than in St Peter's Square.

I'm starting work on a competition entry this week, have just over 80 days to get it sorted. I've decided to base it in Manchester, within the land of Pomona Docks - I'll not say owt else yet as I don't want to give it away :| But it'll hopefully be a bit different, and I'm contemplating as to having a highrise incorporated into it - along with keeping as much of the greenery as possible

rolybling said:

I can't think of anything directly in front of Albert Square and the Town Hall down to Deansgate that is worth saving really, apart from that Lincoln statue. No, clear the lot away and extend Albert Sq down to Deansgate as you propose. Maybe have the Lincoln statue closer to the pavement facing onto Deansgate on a slightly taller plinth? neat symetrical grassland stretching all the way back towards the town hall, the view from Deansgate would be fantastic. Some nice modern public sculpture in the centre of the space, lines of trees, maybe even a fountain worthy of a large space and some discreet benches and I think you're on to a winner with that one.

Click to expand...

The south side of John Dalton Street falls under that area and is quite pleasant (including as it does the Hidden Gem Church) and there are several good victorian buildings on the north side of Lloyd Street. A better idea might be to get rid of everything between Queen Street and Mulberry Street for the park and put up new buildings as infill around that new square/garden. The new gardens would then have the Town Hall, the Hidden Gem, Rylands and 2 Spinningfields Square overlooking them, as well as the new hopefully higher quality midrises.

Demolish Central Retail Park which fronts on to Great Ancoats Street, bury the section of road which separates New Islington and Piccadilly Basin, and open up and extend the new park (Cotton Field?) from New Islington across into Piccadilly Basin.

Let the city develop around it as the area continues to be regenerated.

If we're talking fantasies that have no chance of happening I'd like to see the following:

Mancunian Way buried between Regent's Road and London Road and Princess Road buried between Moss Lane and the Mancunian Way.

The pre-Mancunian way street pattern in Hulme and Chorlton on Medlock restored to provide dense inner city town house districts and a commercial artery along Stretford Road.

Central Salford and inner east Manchester to be developed in a similarly dense town-house manner.

Central Retail Park redevloped as extension of New Islington/Cotton Fields as a higher density inner city neigbourhood.

A new square/garden in the city centre as outlined above.

New or bigger parks along the Medlock Valley, Ardwick, Pomona and Central Salford and improve access to the chain parks along the Irwell and the Irk from the city centre.

Demolish the Arndale and redevlop area to restore permeable street pattern while retaining some of the benefits of a shopping centre.

Finish existing Metrolink plans and implement Tram-trains on all possible suburban railway lines at a frequency of at least 6 trams an hour with east west services using a new alignment along Chapel Street, Water/Peter Streets, Oxford Street and Whitworth Street to cross the city.

Tramlines along Kingsway and Pricess Road medians in the south, by Hyde Road in the east, Regents Road and in the west and Rochdale Road and Oldham Road (as far as central Park) in the north to provide inner city regeneration/diversionary routes for the Metrolink. North-South services could possibly operate along/under Deansgate.

Full largely segregated BRT network to be rolled out using trolley buses, including some orbital services. Bring all buses under one regulated brand.

Greater Manchester to develop a comprehensive high quality cycling network.

East-West tunnel connecting heavy rail services between Piccadilly and Salford allowing existing viaduct to provide an improved local rail connection for the Stockport lines, Liverpool south line and lines from the east into Victoria (via Castlefield Curve).

Resetting of the regions university/HE/FE structure to provide better educational opportunities for local people across the city region and to improve the transfer of knowledge to the local private sector. Would include setting up world class specialist research/training centres in different parts of the regional centre (e.g. Life Science near MRI, Design in Ancoats, Media in SQ, Social Science and Public Policy near Mayfield).

Encourage local democracy below level of the met boroughs at either a town level in the outer boroughs or a ward level in the bigger towns/inner cities.

More power to the new Combined Authority (e.g. over public health, policing, energy and free reign over local taxes) and more democracy to go with it. Perhaps by introducing direct election of council leaders?

Commemorate the Peterloo Massacre not with a monument, but with an award (similar to a Nobel) given to an individual/group who has advanced the cause of democracy.