Renaker tops out 60-storey Manchester skyscraper for Starlight

I’m constantly amazed by the originality SimpsonHaugh bring to each design they produce. Every tower they’ve designed in Manchester is so unique, with such a wide range of materials and façade styles – it creates such a rich tapestry of architecture in our city……………

Has there been any further questions regarding the supposedly “£40m in dividends” as reported in the press for Whitaker?
Is this true?

These actually look really cool in the flesh. I can’t quite believe how quickly they have been built.
There’s no nonsense in Manchester.

Fancy littering the Manchester skyline with buildings that all look identical.

The speed of which these buildings are going up is incredible! Nearly as incredible as the speed in which they obtain consent!

One the one hand, we need housing and there was nothing on that land before (and they’re not bedsits/HMO slums AKA co-living)
On the other hand, I predict Manchester will become a world leader in curing insomnia. Just move patients to some where they can see Simpson’s ‘best’ efforts.

Copy n paste

Prefer this over the overengineered buildings like the walkie talkie in London, different strokes I guess!

I agree these are cool buildings which enhance the Manchester skyline. Excellent design in my view.

I’m impressed at how a local lad has built an architecture empire by gutting the architectural landscape of his home city. The crazy thing is, he can actually design half decent buildings…….in London and Internationally. It’s just here he creates the same chequered glass extruded boxes time after time after time. Actually to be fair, he did do a circular and rectangular extruded chequered glass one a couple years ago. The developers also have a lot to answer to as they have no interest in making something slightly more interesting as it my have an impact on their bottom line. The reason developers are building in manchester and not London is because MCC will allow the same cheap design pass every single time. The reason London has lower margins is because they demand quality design. It fantastic that manchester is getting all this investment, but if you look at the skyline, it just looks so uninspiring and dull. It’s basically a more polished and expensive version of the copy and pasted soviet apartment blocks. I know the guys and gals at SHP read these comments, for the love of god, do something new and original. You are capable of it.

Re some of the comments, yeah because all these mills and chimneys that once littered the Manchester skyline were all so different. We have never had a skyline to protect.

It’s seems incredible how quickly they go up until you live in one, then you realise they are not built to last.

I prefer high density mid rise neighborhoods with shops, parks and amenities rather than identikit statement towers devoid of soul and no street interaction.

They do vary in shape and cladding colour. A pointy bit to swing from would be nice though..or some setback as in the Victoria tower…(or was it Elizabeth tower?) or another round one like the 360…or another one like the Blade?…or a really big one..100 storey or more. I know it’s coming , I just want to be around to see it. I promise I won’t try to climb it this time.

The architects needs their head wobbling. They have destroyed the Manchester skyline. This is not Manchester and will not be Manchester. Glass and steel is not architecture ,it’s an eyesore and lacks soul. People from outside of Manchester inflicting maximum damage to Manchester. We did not ask for this

532 Build to Rent apartments. Why is this city so against home ownership? We have a massive issue with it and yet it seems only the Build to Rent options are being approved?

Hi Manchester Resident. The 55-storey tower next door is open market sale. Best wishes, Dan

January 22, 2026 at 7:20 am

By Dan Whelan

Another ugly building in Manchester

Manchester the new Benidorm with the same build it fast build it cheap, looking philosophy.

In less than 10 years we’ve seen more than a dozen 40-66 story buildings pop up close to Manchester’s inner ring road. There’s another dozen 30-40 story boxes.
On the whole they’ve avoided the Victorian/neo-gothic centre. St Michael’s is closer than I would personally like but at least it seems like a quality development.
Having been brought up in the area I remember the surface car parks (old bomb sites) derelict factories and even a run down Manchester Central.
You really couldn’t have realistically hoped for a better pace and quality of development.
The energy around Town is amazing. To the sceptics – get yourself to Manchester and see for yourself!
I had concerns about the prominence of uniform SimpsonHaugh checkerboard cladding but in reality it’s working and there’s enough variation from other departments and the overall effect works much better than the mess we see in Leeds and Birmingham.
looking forward to Lighthouse, Nubo and the others!

No other city is queing up for a SimpsonHaugh.

I don’t mind the towers, some are better than others and the Deansgate Square cluster, is impressive. My gripe is with the streetscape beneath them. Is there anyone in this city capable of designing decent open spaces? Even Oldham is better at public realm. The area around these two, is dire. A scruffy riverscape, and a bridge covered in graffiti.

The ignorance on this site beggars belief. People are entitled to their opinion on whether they like the appearance but to call this buildings cheap is wrong and can only be based on total ignorance. They are eye wateringly expensive and Leeds Birmingham Liverpool and most of London would walk over hot coals for this level of investment. I agree that the checkerboard has been over done but it’s not my money!! I think most Mancunians who like me grew up in post industrial blight love what has happened to their city. They keep voting for the same administration year in and year out so I’m guessing that is the case.

Well said, Anon 9.52.

The design and time these were built in is impressive, keep them coming Manchester, we need more!!!!

If we keep calling the tiny Medlock Brook a River folk will believe it. Like the myth that Manchester has above-average UK rainy days. Also not true!

I think seeing development like this has a psychological impact on younger people who are studying or starting careers in the city. It encourages them to stay here as they can see investment, growth and momentum. Anything – direct or indirect – that keeps talent in the North is a win for me.

2 thoughts: The Simpson Haugh stuff is generally good background architecture, although they don’t meet the ground in the best way. This is in no way wrecks town’s Victorian/Edwardian legacy architecture, the fact its generally on the edge creates a unique framing for what we’ve chosen to preserve in the centre. I was in Birmingham yesterday, and I’m not down on it as a city at all, but it’s clear Manchester has been built out with a stronger more coherent vision.

I think they look all right. Although why on earth you’d want to live on this land-locked junction with traffic blaring day and night is completely beyond me.

The belt of post industrial blight between the railway viaduct and the Mancunian way has been totally transformed and many thousands of people ow call it their home. Those on this site who whine on about how the City’s heritage is being ignored seem to value post industrial blight for some reason known only to them. None of the towers have replaced a piece of heritage.

Another dull straight off the shelf uninspiring SimpsonHaugh design.

The high rise developments are generally clustered on the edge of the city centre on former vacant sites. The idea that Victorian gems have been cleared to build the new high rise structures is nonsense. I remember Manchester in the 70s, 80s when it was rundown and shabby. The current city centre is vibrant with a bright future. Keep building high rise glass and steel buildings they look great.

Impressive buildings, in my opinion. I also don’t mind the design and think they’re quite sleek – especially compared to the brutalist SHP tower quite rightly rejected last week. However, the public realm and ‘experience’ at street level is awful. One of the most over-engineered junctions I’ve ever seen.

The hype and investment in Manchester at the minute is great. However, the question is, what is all this going to look like in the long-run? Yes, the growth in Manchester is great but in 20-years time will be pay the cost? Poorly built, typecast towers with awful public realm and very little green space. That doesn’t sound like a city that I want to live in and/or visit in the future. Surely, MCC Planners can be pushing to improve all of these things without having too much of an impact on viability. Why do we not have a Design Review Panel?

Two very banal glass towers plonked on what looks like wasteland care of SimpsonHaugh. I have lived in Paris for more than 40 years. These two towers ressemble the much cursed Montparnasse tower that is presently undergoing a facelift by Renzo Piano. Everybody hates the building that dates back to the 70s. These SimpsonHaugh towers are ugly and horribly outdated. Manchester does not seem to be able to rid itself of the infernal spiral since the 70s of poor designs. What Manchester needs are mid rise buildings with balconies such as those we can see here in Paris or elsewhere in Europe. it would be nice to see less steel and glass and even less brick and more stone cladded buildings ( portland stone) like the beautiful Ryland building in Manchester – a more Art deco style approach to building in Manchester. Manchester must abandon this kind of architecture ( the glass towers and awful cladding). Manchester is being inundated with dull red brick, glass and steel boxes. Unless a change comes soon, Manchester will very well soon find itself in the same situation as in the 70s and 80s.

So, baths, libraries, run down Manchester City Council tender out everything from the bins to housing to save money ,crime and knife crime At an alarming high but there’s a 70.8 million pound loan at a ridiculously low interest rate, what a load of bollocks

It’s extremely windy at ground level because of these towers. On a major traffic junction with narrow pavements and fast moving traffic, it seems very likely that there are going to be accidents.

Lien ttilopp – This loan has nothing to do with Manchester City council and therefore does not impact the funding of swimming pools, libraries etc.

It’s always the big ones that threaten the usual suspects ! These are great, zoned properly and forming a real cluster now. I know there are many more to come here so hopefully the streetscape will improve too over time. Agree that good low level designed apartments as in Berlin and Paris have a place too and the world generally needs a move back from post modernism to architectural beauty but that’s a general issue with architecture design schools and materials and supply chains that will take a long time to fix. In terms of development Manchester is quite literally second to none now in the UK so these things will come in time as the city continues to grow. In the meantime anyone who grew up in the sixties and seventies and remembers the post war and post industrial mess of a city in decline will be delighted to see such significant growth.

If only they had the vision to design one that looked like a chimney.