BDP picks Elliott as new Manchester chairman

BDP has appointed architect director Gavin Elliott as chairman of its Manchester studio, replacing David Cash, who recently took up the post of international development director.

The company boasts the largest design practice in the North West, as well as the UK, and is set to move its 260 staff from Sunlight House into the landmark self-designed 33,000 sq ft headquarters at Piccadilly Basin later this month. The new studio was the first naturally ventilated office building in Manchester to achieve an 'excellent' BREEAM rating.

BDP posted turnover in the last financial year of £84.2m, with the Manchester office contributing £17.8m.

Elliott said: "Our new building exemplifies BDP's ethos of sustainability and design quality – and that we embrace Manchester as the heart of the growing regional economy.

"The building will help us deepen and broaden our relationships in Greater Manchester. We aim to become a more visible partner with both the public and private sector and to communicate BDP's unique offer of world-leading inter-disciplinary design."

BDP's work in recent years included the redesign of Manchester Piccadilly train station, the Cathedral Street retail thoroughfare and Cathedral Gardens public realm, and the Abito mixed-use building at Greengate, Salford, which won 10 awards including those from RICS, RIBA, and The Civic Trust. In Merseyside, BDP was responsible for the majority of the design, architecture and public realm of Grosvenor's Liverpool One and the new stand at Aintree racecourse.