ALLIED London has secured planning permission to redevelop Quay House, Spinningfields, into a new 19-storey office building with a skyline restaurant. The building will be rebranded as No 1 Spinningfields.
The Facts:
Designed by Ian Simpson Architects (Urbis, Shudehill Transport Interchange, Beetham Tower), the building will provide 343,000 gross sq ft of flexible office accommodation that should appeal to a variety of occupiers. The ground floor will also provide space for potential restaurants, café and retail occupiers, which will work with the established public realm of Hardman Square. A pedestrian route will run through the middle of the ground floor, improving links between Quay Street and Hardman Square.
"With No 1 Spinningfields we intend to create the most desirable office building in the UK
The planning application has been compiled and submitted by Deloitte Real Estate. The development preserves Hardman Square as a public realm space, which is a new feature of the Spinningfields masterplan.
No 1 Spinningfields
Michael Ingall, CEO of Allied London said: “With No 1 Spinningfields we intend to create the most desirable office building in the UK. Inspired by buildings from around the world, it will be a powerful statement for us and for the skyline of Manchester.
“We have already had strong interest from several potential occupiers, demonstrating the strength of the Spinningfields offer and the confidence that businesses have in our ability to deliver the product they need.”
Elegy To Quay House (re-published from January 21)
Quay HouseQuay House is one of those sixties buildings that has become derided, abused and thrown in the litter bin of International Modernism, yet, if you look at it objectively, yes, it might be typical of its time, but it is still a building of great subtlety and balance.
The architects are one of the great dynasties of top class Manchester design - HS Fairhurst & Son. The firm still exists as Fairhurst Design Group.
The International Modern style is going through a revival from the sort of people who get nostalgic over vinyl records.
The city would be poorer without the Fairhursts.
Bridgewater House, India House, Lancaster House, Ship Canal House, Rylands Building (now Debenhams) - the list goes on - are all to the designs of HS Fairhurst.
These are key landmarks of the city.
Imagine Manchester without the rows of glittering warehouses along Whitworth Street between Princess Street and Oxford Street. Every visitor I take around the city adores this impressive manmade canyon.
Quay House was completed between 1964-5 - it's fifty-years-old. Given a scrub it still looks sharp, its sandstone textured concrete panels bold, its eight floors and thirty-eight bays somehow heroic.
There was a return to classical inspiration in many Modernist buildings, a return to the discipline of a mathematical assembly of massing with a building.
Lyme ParkThe three (that ancient power of three) protruding bays of Quay House between recessed stair towers recall the design of typical Georgian buildings in Britain - Manchester Art Gallery, Lyme Hall and Cobden House (directly opposite Quay House) are local examples. Just take away the columned protruding centre porticos of these buildings and the basic shapes are similar.
In Quay House, the way the ground floor was cut-away delivering a shady overhang - a pillarless arcade - adds another playful Classical air to the whole. It also adds texture.
Quay House is a good sixties building. For many people this may still be an oxymoron.
Curiously International Modern buildings are going through a revival in opinion at present - see Phil Griffin's review of Concretopia here - albeit often from the sort of people who get nostalgic over vinyl records and the Ford Capri. Modernism has again in certain circles become as voguish as a Brompton bicycle.
Having said all this the replacement design by Ian Simpson looks very strong, even exciting - Simpson still lives by the principles of Modernism himself. His glass palace should be far better than all but the Civil Justice Centre in the Spinningfields redevelopment.
Cobden HouseIn the press release above there's also another welcome gesture - and generous in a commercial development. Michael Ingall at Allied London says he intends to retain the public area in its present dimensions at 'The Lawns'. Good. This has become a much used and loved area of city life.
One of the dreams of the post-war Modernists was for 'streets in the sky', those failed pedestrian walkways that connected flats in developments such as Hulme. With Manchester House, Cloud 23, Hotel Gotham, Great John Street Hotel's cocktail roof and now No 1 Spinningfields the city seems set on course for a network of restaurants in the sky instead.
Back to Quay House.
Maybe for many people when Quay House goes, the fabulous 2009 Manchester International Festival production of It Felt Like A Kiss from Punchdrunk Theatre will be its finest hour.
Jonathan Schofield
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Plan Of Spinningfields
Quay House
No.1 Spinningfields
