General Projects gives 350,000 sq ft Manchester office scheme a makeover
Approved in 2020, the proposed five-building Electric Park in New Islington has undergone a drastic rethink in terms of its aesthetic, while more amenities have also been added to the scheme under revised plans.
General Projects is seeking fresh planning consent for the 350,000 sq ft all-electric office campus, having opted to swap out the modern industrial aesthetic – originally proposed through the use of coloured aluminium cladding, glazed windows, and expressed structural elements – for a more traditional look.
The facades will now be brick to “complement the local vernacular and remove external circulation”, according to General Projects.
While the appearance of the buildings is the biggest departure from the original consent, other changes have been made following an evaluation of current customer trends and workforce needs that are driving market demand in office space.
These include:
- Changes to the location of main entrances to each building to provide greater diversity of ground floor amenities for the public, visitors and customers
- Alterations to the internal layout, including the building cores, to enhance flexibility
- Addition of new amenity offerings, including an auditorium, customer lounges, coworking provision, cafes, and an on-site gym.
The project team for the development remains unchanged with Deloitte advising on planning and Hawkins\Brown leading on design.
- The original proposals. Credit: via planning documents
- The latest iteration. Credit: via ING Media
Ben Cross, development director at General Projects, said: “The updated plans demonstrate our ongoing commitment to deliver a people-centric and planet-friendly development at Electric Park with a revised approach that delivers greater benefits to the local area.
“Adopting this approach has influenced not only the design of the buildings at Electric Park, but also what they will provide for the people of New Islington. At a time when the way we think about the future of work is changing rapidly, we need to continue to push exemplary standards in terms of experience and efficiency.”
This is not the first time tweaks have been made to the Electric Park proposals. In 2022, General Projects made a host of changes to the approved scheme to make the project more “adaptable and commercially robust”.
General Projects, which recently acquired Royal Albert Dock in Liverpool in partnership with NEO, wants to be on site this year.
The developer has adopted a ‘Manchester-first’ procurement policy, with at least 25% of supply chain spend in Greater Manchester.
Credit: via ING Media
looks like a great improvement
By Luke
Looks worse if I’m honest
By Anonymous
The new designs look a bit bland, at least its in keeping with the area.
By Anonymous
Which car parks will workers use? Park on Store Street and walk?
By Gilly
Big fan of the curved brick aesthetic
By Anonymous
I agree with Luke. As much as I like some colour in buildings, this looks very decent – good fenestration and brickwork, intelligently placed within the landscape.
‘Gilly’. Yes, I’d imagine so. Walking keeps one fit – it’s free exercise.
By Rye&Eggs
Look much more domestic in scale, windows etc. Maybe to allow for later painless change of use to resi given uncertainty around office market.
By J
Gilly – there is so much more to life than your car, Get out and smell the roses
By Anonymous
Yawn. I liked it better before. Not everything in Manchester has to be red brick (or glass)
By Bradford
looks decent! Really in keeping with the local vernacular + good to see more amenity included.
By manc
I’m tired of seeing brick and glass.
By Anonymous
A growing trend for ugly unadorned red brick in this city, I’m aware of the major problems with cladding in recent years but there are safe more attractive exteriors than this
By Anonymous
At least they updated the sky and cloud cover to be more realistic
By Nick
Good old bricks. 🙂
By MrP
More in keeping with the area now. I Like it.
By Matt
J 3.58……..have you heard of the climate crisis? The glazing is smaller to minimise solar gain……it’s pretty obvious if you give it some thought. And we have the usual round of people pontificating about design when these images tell us very little about quality and detail. I have looked on the planning portal and this will be very good and contextual
By Blah
Maybe not as bold, but probably more appropriate. It’ll be good to activate this pocket of Manchester – and on a tram line! Hopefully they can make a start soon and keep people working.
By Manchester Based
Blah if people cared about the climate crisis they wouldn’t approve of development at all
By Gilly
So your suggestion is to stop development altogether is it Gilly. Don’t think this gonna work. I prefer to develop highly sustainable and accessible locations such as this.
By Blah
Love it. Much more fitting than the previous.
Glad they’ve revisited and put more thought into the neighbourhood & surroundings.
By Anthony
So much repetition, all looks the same. More brick in Manchester, surprise. Really disappointing.
By Anonymous
Can we not have New Islington Green as a green?
By Anonymous
This is not a highly sustainable development and or accessible for the people who will construct and work in it, development is not zero carbon and people will drive here to build it and drive here to work in it when it’s finished
By Gilly
By any definition, this is a highly sustainable location. It couldn’t be more accessible. Please tell us what your definition of a sustainable location is Gilly ……I genuinely am fascinated
By Blah
Every development is highly sustainable and accessible, they wouldn’t be built otherwise
By DH
Looks brilliant.
As for Manc being a red brick, steel and glass city, kind of reminds me of another famous city…
By Brook Lynne
These will some of the most energy efficient offices in the city, glazing has been optimised to minimise heat gains in summer, the fabric insulation performance has been sensitively optimized to reach the most effective standard, ventilation systems designed to reduce distribution losses and maximise control so they can be turned down or off when not required and the entire building is electric to take advantage of the decarbonising electricity grid.
By Iain
They’ve got to be all of those things to justify building on vital green spaces in a city with so much office space already available.
By Urbanist
@ January 09, 2024 at 9:42 am
By Iain
It’s a really good scheme, isn’t it? I suspect the mandatory introduction of design codes is also having an effect what what type of materials proposals are made of.
By Rye&Eggs