Kier wins 35-storey Whitworth Street tower
Kier has been named main contractor on a 35-storey tower on Whitworth Street in Manchester by developer Inhabit, and is due to start work on the project by the end of this month.
The site at 10-12 Whitworth Street, opposite Deansgate-Castlefield station and adjacent to the City Road Inn pub, has already been cleared to make way for construction. The tower has been designed by 5plus Architects.
Kier is due to start piling works on the site on 27 November, subject to the approval of planning conditions, marking the start of a two-and-a-half year construction programme. The project has a completion date of 26 May 2020.
Manchester City Council approved the scheme proposed by Brigantes and Duvet Property Management in November 2015, which is made up of 330 apartments, with a bar, library, gym and rooftop garden.
The site has since changed hands and is now owned by private-rented brand Inhabit. The developer also acquired Heap’s Rice Mill in Liverpool from Elliot Group in 2016.
Since the original planning application, a series of design alterations have been approved by the city council, including variations to the building’s façade. The building’s planned basement was also removed “to reduce risk and construction programme”, according to planning documents, while the number of cycle spaces has been increased.
The professional team also includes Deloitte as planner.
What’s wrong with the image, oh that’s it the tower currently being constructed on the other side of the road has been ignored
By Ashtoncol
Will be nice and quiet living in those apartments at the weekend
By City Road
@City Road weirdo
By Ome
Depressing to see the grandeur and uniformity of Whitworth Street degenerate into a series of disparate needles and shouty attention-seeking architecture. It’ll be like Salford Quays in the city centre.
By Not a skyscraper geek
grim
By sad
The visual is misleading… What about Axis tower which is smack bang in the way?
By Padraic
Not strictly true Ashtoncol, the tower being currently constructed is behind and to the right of where the picture was taken/rendered from. No doubt that the combination of the two will change the flavour of that area considerably though!
By Gisajob
Ooops. No it wasn’t. I take it all back, I’m sorrreeee. Will indeed look very different from there with t’other tower in t’way
By Gisajob
Axis Tower not being built now then….
By Pineapple Chunks
Better visuals on 5Plus’s website…nice design.
By Anonymous
Good street interaction and will look great among the other towers, shame about the sides.
By Mansquito
At last.Thought this was not going ahead, even though they had already demolished the old building.Nice cluster going to form around there.
By Schwyz
It’s only kids and people obsessed with image who obsess about skyscraper “clusters” and sheer height. It means they can pretend they’re living in New York whilst ignoring the swathes of empty land and poverty only a few minutes walk from the centre. It’s all so pointlessly superficial.
Investment is great but what sort of environment are these buildings creating? Not a very pleasing one. Not one that feels human and comfortable. Locations for tall buildings should be planned but we’re now beginning to see the downsides of that lack of planning with the emergence of grossly over scaled, inappropriately sited buildings popping up everywhere. It’s ugly. I agree with the previous comment, we don’t want to be creating an in-town Salford Quays.
By Concerned observer
They need to get some facilities around there.You have to walk to the Royal Exchange for a pharmacy.
By Elephant
Concerned observer, you’ve no idea what you’re talking about, don’t try to claim you know how people think and feel.
Elephant, there are pharmacies closer to here than the Royal Exchange, not that that’s far.
By Ome