GPA reveals Manchester Digital Campus design
Nearly 900,000 sq ft of offices are proposed in the Government Property Agency’s plans for the former Central Retail Park site in Ancoats – a project that the agency says could generate £310m for the area’s economy during its four-year construction period.
That is, of course, if the GPA’s recently submitted planning application is approved by Manchester City Council.
The application for Manchester Digital Campus provides a first glimpse of what the proposed two office blocks could look like. Designed by AtkinsRéalis, the North Building would be eight storeys tall, while the South Building would be seven storeys. Both could have an additional two storeys added to them to service plant.
The South Building would be more public facing than its northern neighbour, containing 10,800 sq ft of ground-floor retail and a 320-space cycle hub, alongside locker and shower facilities.
Both of the office blocks are targeting a BREEAM rating of Excellent and NABERS score of five stars.
The buildings would sit on the western side of the former Central Retail Park plot, bordering Redhill Street and Great Ancoats Street.
Vehicle access would be from Great Ancoats Streets, with 50 basement-level, accessible car parking spaces provided in an undercroft. This would include 15 spaces with electric vehicle charging capability.
The digital campus is meant to service 7,000 civil service jobs, of which approximately 3,500 would be new to Manchester. During its construction phrase, GPA projects that the digital campus will support 4,900 jobs.
AtkinsRéalis designed the campus for the GPA. Credit: via planning documents
GPA’s Manchester Digital Campus is part of the first phase of the city council’s plans for the 10.5-acre former Central Retail Park site. The retail park itself was razed in 2019.
Other aspects of the masterplan for the Ancoats plot include a park and a large-scale mixed-use development. Plans for the park have also been submitted to the council’s planning department for approval.
GPA has agreed to contribute to the cost of the future park’s maintenance as part of its planning application terms.
In addition to designing the campus for GPA, AtkinsRéalis is also the scheme’s landscape architect, structural and civil engineer, and M&E engineer.
Deloitte is the planner for the project, with Gleeds as cost consultant and project manager.
Rounding out the project team are Arup, Stephen Levrant Heritage Architecture, E3P, Delva Patman Redler, and Counter Context.
Learn more about the project by searching application reference number 141607/FO/2024 on Manchester City Council’s planning portal.
Lovely floor to ceiling glass on that back block to take in the stunning new Manchester park that we’re getting… oh wait, not a pane in sight!
By Anonymous
This is really bad. No wonder they were so vague about the details on the previous pencil renders.
By Byronic
I’m normally pro-development, but these look so out of context. Why go with a white outer material and a blank wall against the park? Redhill Street is one of the most uniquely “Manchester” streets in the city and will now be ruined by this. Avro is another red brick icon across the road. A red brick facade like the new Island office building on John Dalton Street or just a red cladding like Havelock on Great Bridgewater Street would tie this into the fabric. Such a shame.
By Are You Serious?
That site could easily have been the perfect location for a new city park which is clearly needed given the rise in city centre population.But no Manchester city council is only interested in money and not its citizens physical and mental health. Instead more offices to be built at a time when office market is in terminal decline so building yet more of them is the sort of stupidity you get from provincial politicians and developers who are living in.the past.
By Barbara Roche
More government pump priming for a city that no longer needs it, in turn continuing to needlessly economically weaken others.
It’s understandable why tokenistic civil servants might prefer to base in Manchester rather than a real move out of London.
But it only serves to further delegitimise their corrosive rule over the rest of us.
By John
‘corrosive rule..’ don’t agree but love the phrase
By Tannoy
More spreadsheet architecture
By Rye
Delighted for the investment but Manchester isn’t exactly desperate for that anymore. Is it not time now for the planning department to focus more on aesthetics and placemaking instead of encouraging investment by waving through any old scheme? There’s a lot of changes which need making on this app. It really does look like it’s been parachuted in from space.
By space arc
Such bland by the numbers design, it just screams ‘that will do’
By Jon P
Bland, soulless and anodyne.
In Manchester we do things differently 😂
By Raimonndo
agree that this is architecture by numbers. Ostensibly “quality”. It in reality it’s St Peter’s square lifted and shifted a kilometre eastwards
By Anonymous
There are are few reasons to be disappointed in this. But go online and look at the details for the North Building. Don’t know which Govt dept this is, but the 3 to 3.6m high concrete wall around the frontage means they sure don’t want you to find out in a hurry.
Anonymous 12.14pm – No windows on the park? That’s the least of the problems with this building
By Rich
Why can’t they build this at Mayfield? Much better location and the people would get the park they want.
By Anonymous
Incorporate the existing skate park! It’s a huge asset to lose
By Anonymous
Dull as dishwater design, very disappointing.
By Anonymous
I don’t know why we keep building new offices when people prefer to work from home now, people coming to these offices will drive there and park in nearby car parks
By Anonymous
A Trojan horse. 4 days a week maximum and most days working from home. For the birds.
By Anonymous
Hideous, bland non design. Absolutely no imagination involved. Where’s the park going to be? Overlooked by a concrete block! This could have been built at Pomona where it belongs. I would have thought a Right To Light claim is in order for the residents who face out to Redhill St.
By Anonymous
Is it only me that likes it?
By Alone
7000 civil servants? Surely they’ll all be “working” from home?
By Moomo
These building could easily be combined to provide a higher structure with the additional space used to provide some real green space, rather than the public realm they are calling a park.
By Anonymous
Office development continues apace in most Northern cities bar Liverpool. When will LCC and the Combined Authority do something about this?
By Anonymous
FFS. What a load of rubbish. Why do most be buildings in Manchester look like a bunch of rectangles my 5 year old could have drawn?
By Resident
Is anyone really surprised that a Government Property Agency (GPA) designed building is uninspired? This is the first generation of development that the GPA have embarked upon where they have stepped into the development role as the GPA think they can do it better than the private sector (and make savings). BUT we get 7,000 jobs in the Digital Hub – when we all understand what part of Government these jobs are serving then there may be reason to get really excited about the value of these jobs to the city region.
By Anonymous
What a load of boring rubbish. Is this really the best they could do? Embarrassing from all involved. Council, government, Designers etc.
By Anonymous
This is meant to be an alternative part of the city in terms of mentality and architecture. And then they spew this rubbish. It’s insulting.
By Anonymous
Great use of the site, and glad to see offices there to break up resi tower after resi tower. Shame the design is boring and the same as pretty much every building currently being built in the city
By Anonymous
How many office schemes is that now in the last few weeks………hopefully .those sad people who would rather work from home must be being re socialised
By Anonymous
MCC and designers really do need to up their game on what is submitted and passed. This is a prime site, show some ambition please. This city is evolving into a load of bland boxes we will come to regret. The words of Tony Wilson should be echoed in every decision.
By Anonymous
While the ambition behind the Manchester Digital Campus is commendable, the proposed design feels disconnected from the city’s architectural identity and heritage. Manchester has a rich tradition of blending innovation with a deep respect for its historical context, but this proposal seems to prioritize a generic, overly modern aesthetic that could belong anywhere. Instead of creating a meaningful sense of place, it risks contributing to the growing trend of soulless developments that fail to resonate with local character. Manchester deserves a campus that not only embraces the future but also honours the past. Frankly, I hold all of the consultants and the unelected civil servants accountable for this failure of poor design.
By Anonymous
Not sure what the issue is with a box. It’s basically the most efficient way to design a building, and has been that way since the dawn of time.
Though it is really terrible news that the government is moving 3,500 jobs to Manchester – one of the poorest places in the country. You’d think they were trying to level things up or something. Jobs, who needs em….
By ALL
How is this meant to make people think that this is a worthy alternative to one large greenspace?
By Get lost
Why can’t they build this at Mayfield and have the jobs there instead?
By Anonymous
Bland vanilla coloured boxes. We keep seing the same banal designs in an already rather bleak city.
By Schelling