Renaker tables plans for Manchester’s tallest building

Deangate and Oxford Station can’t handle thousands more people using them at peak time. Can the infrastructure in the centre of Manchester be sorted out first before .ore homes are built?

So many units but so little amenity/green space. Does the council have a long term thought-up strategy to create quality, well balanced homes for its residents?

Never before have I seen something so tall and yet so boring. Please wake me up when Renaker and Simpson-Haugh get some new ideas. I have read through the planning documents and the D&A and there is zero for me to get excited about – this is just another tall box, except this time for some reason they’ve included a road looping around it which turns the whole site into an island. A car crash of architecture and planning, and an embarassment for Manchester if this is allowed to go ahead. And surprise surprise, no affordable housing either.

The 4 towers are absolutely god awful. This desire to have almost all the buildings (9 and counting) at virtually the same height is truly baffling too – a real shame they opted away from the brick finish of the previous scheme for that area. More than happy to have the tallest block but some serious re-thinking is needed on the blocks because at present that visual looks worryingly dystopian in nature.

Yes.

7000 homes, with how many affordable within the average income of the locale?

I hope they have done a wind assessment, was walking past over the weekend it was exceptionally windy walking past the current towers.

WSP is the wind microclimate consultant on the project.

July 05, 2023 at 5:02 pm

By Julia Hatmaker

A grim existence

Some of the images showing Great Jackson Street when viewed from Hulme Park are pretty embarrassingly emblematic of two very disparate communities. Soon to be used in geography classes across the country for the wrong reasons.

Uniformity works for me here. When this is packed out, it will look striking.

Manc-hattan!

This ongoing nonsense from Simpson-Haugh and Renaker has gone into the realm of urban vandalism by this point. Why do they think Manchester and its people deserve to live in places so boring, with so little infrastructure or green space?

These identikit towers represent a miserable way to live.

Phew, I’ve been feeling for a long time Manchester is missing a bland glass / checkerboard tower designed by SimpsonHaugh! Really glad we’re introducing some much needed variety!

If this doesn’t get affordable housing the whole system is broken. Get a grip Manchester and get some proper contributions from Renaker, they have made hundreds of millions from our city and put little back in!

We all know rectangular uniformity helps maximise profits but yet again another boring tower ZZzzz…

Great to see more towers go up, but I’m really disappointed with the 4 smaller ones.tge heights really need to be different to each other as that skyline looks weirdly flat. As it’s the middle section, stagger them between 200m – 300m! I really hope the last plot contains a supertall.

I have no objection to skyscrapers and actually think they add an interesting element to a city skyline. My real issue is the absolute lack of any architectural merit in any of them. They are all so boring. Travel the world and see some amazing Skyscrapers such as Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia absolutely iconic then look back at the sterile design produced by Simpson & Co in Manchester. Surely we can do better. Why are they not opened to international design competition instead of always being designed by the same boring architects?

It’s getting ugly now. They are growing out the ground like weeds. Look at the above image that could pass for China and is dead at street level.

Plans for a 213m skyscraper which looks the same as the rest, just a little taller. In my opinion, a new look would make it stand out. The name Manchester sells this in itself. Never mind ‘Tallest skyscraper outside London’ and the prime location within the city. Surely this gives more wiggle room in terms of a higher budget to change up the design. Make is a landmark project.

On another note, more development is good and look forward to how this eventually turns out

Always makes me laugh when the usual suspects start wittering about affordable housing, blah blah blah…absolutely no idea.

Stack it high. Stack them in. The only people winning here if it’s approved is the Developer. Horrible design, no greenery for residents and to not include affordable housing is a disgrace. Hope its refused.

Manchester is concerned about the Manchester environment and look at all the concrete. It has poured into Manchester in the last few of years.

Bland design and no affordable homes…

What about social housing? Or is Manchester council just greedy! It already looks like Hong Kong harbour at night

Although this is such exciting news. It would have been amazing to see a building of a different, unique design/build. Something that breaks the common box builds going on in that area would’ve looked great.

Awful designs devoid of architectural interest, too close to one another and what is it about 47 and 51 stories? Let’s have some variation in height.

I wonder whether this is the tipping point for the cheerleaders of this type of development in Manchester. As a resident of Liverpool, LCC’s planning department has many questions to answer i.e. their almost cult objection to tall buildings in the small area they previously designated for tall buildings, but, but, their planning policy seems to favour building on a more human scale across the city. Surely there is a happy medium between what is granted in Manchester as opposed to what gets refused in Liverpool.

Overall, the scheme – which features a 20,000 sq ft office block
Seriously? It is good to have some offices there. It would be great if at least one of the blocks is a hotel.

Considering the height of these buildings there should have been much more generous landscaping. Unfortunately the streetscape around Deansgate Square is already pretty depressing. Dying trees, the smell of dog wee plus a wind tunnel. I can’t see it getting any better with these proposals. Plus the architecture is REALLY dull. A wasted opportunity.

Some variance in the height of buildings is required. Why are so many allowed to be the same height? Generally speaking, I’m for. But let’s mix it up a little.

Looks like it won’t be the tallest for that long . Wasn’t there that 231 m proposed recently for the bottom of Regent rd.? Bring em on.

No imagination for our city & where are the affordable housing for our younger generation.

It’s not possible to preserve Manchester in aspic forever. We can’t have 21st Century population levels with a 19th Century skyline. It’s either up or out. I doubt the whingers in the comments want to have dense mansion blocks expanding into the greenbelt

What about the crap roads from the 70s? A ring road that’s laughable. The bottleneck at Water Street/ Mancunian way despite recent improvements has made no difference. The Swan Street Lane markings, the long queues at Gt Ancoats Street or maybe the bus lane on Chapel St that causes long tailbacks in the left lane on Trinity Way? These are the silly roads serving probably Britain’s second largest city centre area, when skyscrapers house more people who will drive here.

I must admit for the tallest building it sure is boring. The top part could be at least like 20 stories by giving the city it’s highest roof to bar / restaurant. Also the cladig option could start out more as it just another glass box. And finally make it at least 30-40 m tallest as all the buildings there are almost the same hight and it just starts to look like a glass wall.

What’s with all the Reneker bashing today! They are a great developer, that have found their niche, able to reliably and consistently deliver at pace, with no fuss.

The variety you all all craving can be seen across the city – it does not have to be within this scheme.

I personally think it looks great

There was a time when ISA were designing some of the most interesting and unique buildings in the city. However, fast forward to retirement age and the S-H copy-paste approach for Renaker has lost its sparkle. Time to let the younger generation take over and pump some fresh ideas into the mix. Perhaps also an opportunity for MCC to assess the design impact of what has been built so far, and provide considered guidance for future tall buildings.

I love this – what a testament to the aspiration of this great city. I disagree with all the criticism – I see this as a statement of intent and I’m sure if we keep on our upward trajectory then the variety will come. Without Renaker we’d still have just one skyscraper in Manchester. Others will now follow and I can’t wait. What an exciting time to live in Manchester.

71 storeys! Great stuff, hopefully not long before we hit 100 storeys in Manchester!

Superb this one imo. Some of the above comments are laughable and I would guess not all from people who live in Manchester. To put it into perspective this was a surface car park less than 10 years ago, it is now home to 1000s of people paying council tax, supporting the local economy and filling jobs for Manchesters booming economy.

Cgi not great tbh. Some of the shapes and finishes are quite different. Renaker do need to look over at The Victoria tower though, now that’s a nice design.

More please, keep it coming. Affordable apartments here? You’ve got to be joking. Wrong place obviously. Let Manchatten rise !

This is fast becoming the most bland skyline in all of Europe. It’s great to see development and skyscrapers in the UK outside of London but this is just a step too far in terms of lack of variety. Please let this plot be given to more creative architects or have a design competition to see who can build the best looking towers and best street level landscapes. It would be such a shame to let these boring boxes be built on the little space available to tall buildings in the city centre.

Could they not build it to look like a iconic Manchester chimney and therefore have a link to he past. All for skyscrapers, but this design seems stale next to the others four square towers.

Wow that’s truly terrible, also that skyline image, is that from the intro of Dallas? Were building rubbish in the name of so called progress. So much glass, too many people in one spot. The architecture, terrible!!!

No affordable homes included. Wow what a surprise! Shame on you Manchester council

It is worth noting that this application has not been approved or refused by Manchester City Council. This story is about the fact these plans have been submitted. The city council could very well reject it. – J

July 06, 2023 at 1:09 pm

By Julia Hatmaker

Oh I don’t like cities or tall buildings or glass for that matter, that’s why I love PNW , it gives me that hit of misery that I often need to get through the day. Thank you PNW.On a serious note..this , more..great! Not that many years ago we’d have given both arms and half a leg for the coming skyline, I know it does drive some jealousy for obvious reasons but It’s what is still to come that excites me most.

It’s sad to see that even the tallest tower isn’t opened up to an international competition. Manchester used to have an edginess that permeated its music and design. Unfortunately it’s been superseded by the need for maximum profits per square metre. Oh to have just one design by BIG or Herzog & de Meuron. Or do we just not care any more?

How very interesting! A checkerboard facade – what imagination… what flair!

Affordable homes in a 71 story building? I think even MCC aren’t that stupid! Affordable homes elsewhere yes, and I believe Bev has many in the pipeline but she has a bit more common sense than some of the comments on here thankfully😅

I’ m not against tall buildings and have seen some great examples around the World but some of these in Manchester are very bland.
I can never understand why Manchester planning doesn’t send these schemes back to the ‘ drawing board’
Is it that they are frightened of the developers pulling out or they couldn’t care less.
A city like Manchester should be building statement buildings by now.

I have to be honest, I’m a little confused. I’m no developer, but I simply cannot understand all the objection with regards to so called affordable housing. Can someone explain to me why there should be so called affordable housing in the city centre. There are plenty of places in Manchester where I would like to live, but I cannot afford to, so I live where I can afford. Build costs in the city centre are high, therefore it makes no sense to me that affordable housing could be built there, unless the developer is willing to sell it at a loss. There are plenty of places on the periphery of the city centre that would be far more suitable for affordable housing…plus you’d also get far more bang for your buck. On the subject of the new tower, I absolutely agree we need another architect on these schemes….these towers are so unimaginative and painfully boring.

All these skyscrapers and an evolving concrete jungle. As a resident here currently, the place is severely lacking a green space. Seriously, get with the times.

I think anonymous 2.56 what you’ve done is make the mistake of living in the city centre which is by definition the very definition of concrete and buildings in general. What you’ll be looking for is the countryside. That’s where there is lots of green and very little concrete. Just head in any direction for about 20 miles, there’s loads of it out there. Be careful when you go west though, if your hat floats you’ve gone too far.

Taller ones on the way by all accounts, the city really is booming like no other in the UK. Let’s have a real signature building too though, doesn’t have to 100 storeys but something with a bit of Deco flair. Ok Gothic then. Love it though, despite the ‘no affordable housing brigade ‘ They’ll be asking for bungalows next!

Manchesters skyline is really impressive, in the last 30 years so much progress has been made developing a fantastic city centre.

High-rise development is unsustainable environmentally. Large towers of concrete and glass create increases in local temperature and are high in carbon production during construction. They are also virtually impossible to maintain when subject to serious damage.

I think people are misunderstanding the anger on affordable housing, it’s not about including it here, it’s about this developer providing little or no off site contributions despite making hundreds of millions of profit.

That’s the thing about these type of towers………..it would appear the only challenge left is to be higher than the rest. Nobody gets a headline for building “a tower nearly as tall as some others”. Architecture is diluted down to a single basic parameter. Also…..let’s not refer to “units” …………….it’s homes.

Not more sky highs Manchester is looking awful the worse skyline in the UK.

“That Manchester with its booming tech economy, high wages and 100 storey skyscrapers, who does it think it is? Why can’t it still be Shameless, and not Cold Feet?”

Definitely the most impressive skyline in Britain now and by a long way ! I think kidding yourself otherwise likely means you have have no skyline , or any tall buildings full stop. love tall’s , properly zoned of course, they do generate a lot of comments though!

Amazing! Manchester just rocking it right now. Hadn’t visited since the late 70’s Incredible changes since that time!

Always get the spokesman for the Green Party whenever anything taller than a bungalow goes up anywhere. Luckily nobody seriously cares . Isn’t there a bigger one on the way? Also let’s have some in Liverpool too please, Manchester and Leeds are monopolising this stuff.

Keep them coming…the best skyline in the UK !

Ok Renaker, you’ve read the comments. For the next one we want a Green building not made of concrete or glass but ideally cheese or something sustainable. it should be built in the countryside, with affordable housing be more than 100 story’s but no taller than my house. It should have a restaurant on top and a viewing platform that shows the formation of the universe. We want it cheap, we want it now and we’ll want more tomorrow when by the way the rules will change so you’d better pay attention. Alternatively just do one with a pointy top.

Potential interview with Renaker re. variation on cladding and their outlook on future schemes/visual impact?

Looks great. Feels like a proper city now. To be honest, I’ve never felt this ‘wind tunnel’ effect people talk about and as a Hulme resident, I use that new path along the new flats as a shortcut. I think the moaners on here are never in the city centre or they would see how much more improved it is. Hulme is much improved as part of this and still affordable. There hasn’t been affordable housing in the city centre since the 19th century slums – maybe that’s what people want a return to? is there affordable housing round where they live in Chorltpn – if not, then shall we get some built there?

Well done Manchester for being ahead of the curve! Most people believed the 60s council estate multi storey flats easthetic was dead. Not Manchester!!! Please stop kidding yourselves that Manchester has some kind of Manhatten or Hong Kong style lack of space and bursting population. It doesn’t and hasn’t. Talk of aspic and needing to move on are ridiculous. Rather than enhancing life in Manchester, some of these blocks are now doing the opposite and creating windy dead zones, lacking in meaningful green space and creating urban envronments that are beginning to feel unsafe to walk in at night. And before the silly comments, I actually live in Manchester city centre. All of those people in Liverpool bemoaning Liverpool city council planning department should look at the image on this thread. Lit up tall buildings at night, do not a good city to live, make. Be careful what you wish for.

Sorry Anonymous 1.51, tell me you don’t live in Manchester without telling me you don’t live in Manchester! It’s ok though to have an opinion but it needs to be grounded in some reality and that’s not the reality of many people who do actually live here , who are employed here and who understand that this is just one small part of what makes a great city vibrant. Manchester is growing and changing all the time and don’t worry about Liverpool , it will get more investment and there will be talls there too, just a matter of time. And it’s no bad thing!

I wonder what it is about these huge structures thrusting mightily into the sky that some people find so threatening? I mean this is just one tiny part of quite a large city centre at the end of Deansgate. Once the wailing and the chewing of keyboards is over you’ll see lots of big cities have some tall buildings, it’s just a part of a growing process, they are not really that scary, or windy if they are designed properly. Now reviewing some overall designs or the type of glass or cladding is valid and may even be useful. I agree it would be great to get Renaker on for an interview. But an existential crisis every time Manchester gets yet another skyscraper, well I think that speaks of other things going on yes? Context people, context.

Please please please put some of the vast profits you are making back into out City. Don’t hide behind a bluff of viability to remove affordable housing, pay your fair share!!

Indeed Well done Manchester for being ahead of the curve…as usual ! Always love me a tall and with so many between here and Greengate that is actually a skyline now. Get that 231m built next although I agree with Nimrod..let’s have a pointy top.

Renaker should give back to the community and pay their fair share like building a new school and a doctors’ surgery/health centre. Oh wait, they are already doing this. The lack of research and awareness from some commenters on here is nothing short of ignorance.

Ah but some commentators are ignorant , deliberately so. As soon as see anything shiny over 3 story’s it’s almost a reflex response. Same on every story no matter where it is. I mean I’m sure it wouldn’t be a problem if there were a Labour council in power…oh hang on…

My view : looks brilliant and they should build more! These guys have changed the city for the better bringing high quality housing to Manchester, meeting with the needs and demands of house buyers / generational needs – pre this, the quality and amenities of apartments across the city was simply shocking.. Appreciate the point re design, however the more complex the design, the higher the build cost which again uplifts the sale price – Simple economics.

It would be good to understand the point re ‘affordable housing’ what is considered affordable – are you wanting a penthouse apartment with restaurant and swimming pool for £100k? Should Ferrari build an ‘affordable car’? Should affordable homes be built on broadway road in hale? We also need to remember here that 2 towers are solely owned by aviva and the apartments can not be bought, just let – I.e this is how we receive a pension when we retire

The point on landscaping I agree with – more needs to be done to soften the build I.e more flowers, trees, grass etc, however we need to remember this is a city!!

Manchester is already an awesome city and stuff like this makes it even better – look at the jobs and restaurants that are popping up –

71 storeys isnt quite tall enough
I recon you aim for 300 metres

Manchester, please have a look at Singapore. All new tall rises have roof gardens
and internal gardens every 20 or 25 storeys. You have to protect climate nowadays.

It’s a lazy boring design, the council should tell them to up their game and give the city something to shout about.

Like how the Manchester skyline is coming a long. My only issue is that they all look like square boxes. Seems to be a lack of imagination on the exterior designs.

As others have said these buildings seem to lack imagination. Just back from a week in New York and there is some pretty ugly stuff there but equally some quite exciting tall building architecture in display. I love tall buildings but equally I don’t love blandness. I have travelled through provincial China where there are lots of towns and cities with multiple skyscrapers and frankly they are as ugly as hell.

Looks like a badly designed lampshade.

Looks awful all the same size and shape just looks like 1 building it’s a mess.

Deansgate Square residents are fighting this. We won’t see any movement soon,

Nevermind the comments from teenage skyscraper fanatics who just want to see tall buildings. What’s much more important is how it hits the ground and the quality of public realm and integration to shops and services that make these places livable for residents.

I would like to see much great focus on that because that’s ultimately what makes a city not a dormitory in the sky.

Deansgate Square residents are fighting it? That is irony, even Alanis Morrisette would get. Fighting what? Another building like the ones they live in? Or is it just a “Your Dad’s bigger than my Dad.” scenario?

Highly unlikely Deansgate Sq residents are fighting the building of a skyscraper in a zone that has been designated for skyscrapers when they already live in …oh what are they called ?…..oh yes skyscrapers. Sometimes I think people just make stuff up because they’re bored.

Nick – I think that you misunderstand the problem. Build homes in the city centre and those people don’t need to use the Deansgate or Oxford Road Stations, they mostly work in the city centre. The infrastructure needs work, but that it to get people who don’t live in the city, in to the city to work.

Yet more cars in the city centre, there are hundreds of cars in the three story car park at Deansgate Square