Renaker’s £370m twin towers tipped to progress 

Manchester is destroying itself

There are so many 50 odd story towers planned or going up I’d forgotten which ones these are. At least they are in the right place close I presume to where the Blade and cylinder will be. Can we have one here that breaks 70 stories next and has a pointy top. Just asking.

Looks Good, more please.

Fabulous! Get them built

Aside from Elizabeth Tower (which will be hard to beat in terms of design), I’m looking forward to these. Different materials other than just glass/back panelled glass and I love those chamfered edges.

Cal, this is an impressive proposal I don’t see how it is destroying Manchester.

These tower blocks proposed for Great Jaskson Street look exactly the same as the proposed project for the bottom of Regent Street, “The Trinity Project”, and that design looks remarkably similar to the four existing tower blocks at the start of Chester Road, Deansgate East,West,South and North.
I am not sure what look Manchester/Salford is going for but, with our pretty dull cloudy and cold climate we might end up looking like some former Soviet Union city housing estate with these huge overbearing ugly tower blocks engulfing the real city below.

More of the same dullness… Manchester is crying out for something striking like the shard

Love the edges on these. More quality apartments that will all be filled with people paying council tax. And more homes not built on Greenbelt. Don’t listen to the moaners on here, they probably never go into Manchester City Centre anyway. Get these built

The views in the central tower isn’t going to be great with 4 towers surrounding

Sure, Cal.. the rate at which we are going, we are going to lose every single one of our treasured “dustbowl” surface car parks on the periphery of the city (the thought of which is enough to keep you awake at night.. )

Manchester, once a unique city with unrivalled Victorian and industrial heritage and architecture now beginning to look like a second rate Tokyo, nondescript flats with only the greedy developers winning. Very sad to witness the destruction.

Looks good, exactly what the city needs. I really hope when they develop the final plots in the Greater Jackson Street framework (between the Crown Street cluster and the Deansgate Square clusters) they go big! At least one 300m supertall and the others all in excess of 200m, there’s room for at least 5, but more likely 6/7 more towers. Go Big! Put the city on the map as a modern 21st century city!

I can’t understand people who are saying that these towers are destroying the fabric of Manchester. As someone who is in the city centre on a daily basis I have to disagree. Pretty much all the towers built, and proposed, are on the periphery of the city centre on land that has been derelict for years, sometimes decades.

If you go to Manchester, the Victorian architecture is still there within the core of the city…in fact, at street level you really don’t notice these towers unless you are in close proximity. I was born in Manchester and have been here for 60 years and I certainly don’t buy into this nostalgic view that Manchester was better in the old days. I remember the dirty, polluted, city with poor job prospects that I grew up in.

I want to continue to live somewhere that is progressive and forward thinking….get them built.

It’s already desolate and windswept, nobody wants to go there

Ugly and will snarl up Regent Rd even further

Same of the same.

Well said Manc Man. I think most people in Manchester agree with you. Onwards and upwards.

Terrible design. Manchester looking more like a 5th rate American city. Is SimpsonHaugh the only architect working in the city?

Totally agree with you Manc Man.

Hello Roger Dat…Can you tell me how to find a list of these 50 odd storey towers please?I’m also in agreement about seeing skyscrapers of 70 plus storeys.We should be building landmark buildings in this great city of Manchester.

I agree with a lot of the comments here. These are very generic looking and look a bit passé already. The heart and soul has been ripped out of Manchester – you would be surprised at how many Mancs are leaving!

Peter, , not so much a list, but current and proposed developments can be found on the Manchester Metro area section of Skyscrapercity Forum. There is a lot to wade through though!

Loving the look , I agree about the chamfered edges, look different. Looking forward to the build of the 360 and the Blade though. They really are different.

Err 1981…I don’t think we would be. Not anyone who reads the reports on PNW anyway. Manchester is one of the fastest growing and developing cities in Europe. I think you must be thinking of somewhere else in those reports. They are very illuminating !

Agreed MC we do need a super tall now, 200m in Manchester is becoming passé!

I’m not sure what the issue is with these. Sure tower blocks are pretty generic, but so is all the Victorian architecture, which looks just like Victorian architecture in other cities across the world, which is why Hollywood movies are filmed here – because it’s cheaper than filming in Brooklyn, but looks exactly the same. Individual buildings don’t define the architecture of a city, it’s the mix – for better or for worse.

Also, the point about Mancs leaving is both hilarious and ridiculously insular. Who cares if they are leaving. The ones leaving are most likely the people who have been holding the city back for decades. It’s quite often the fresh blood moving in who are making it great again.

Manchester must be really panicking now……all flats in the city centre are full, speculative office buildings being built, hotels are full, can’t get a meal unless you book, overseas students flooding back……..it’s a windswept desolate place that mancunians are leaving….mmmmmm

So all the towers are the same……..I don’t think they are actually. The 4 deansgate square towers have a star shaped plan and change beautifully during the day……there is a drum and a blade and these two are different again. I’m not sure the Manchester market could sustain a shard I’m afraid but no other city in the Uk is building anywhere near the quality of build in Manchester and that in an undeniable fact

@Cal ‘Manchester is destroying itself’ is the most stupid statement, it’s doing the exact opposite

What a shame

These little bits of misinformation in some of the comments (from down the road?) are a shame. Onwards and upwards for Manchester.
Whatever the opinion is on the Great Jackson St developments, this small corner of the city centre is not representative of the whole city

“DESTROYING ITSELF”?
Barmy , obviously from someone who has no idea how a modern city in a modern economy works.
Some want this ‘quaint olde Victorian mill town’ to remain just that!

If a country and or a town doesn’t expand and progress, it dies……

Someone mentioned the 360 and the Blade, isn’t there also the pair of 56 story twin towers also around Great Jackson st being developed by the mysterious Aubrey Weis on plot G. I seem to recall the finish on these was quite different to the Renaker developed ones. Manchester is quite literally looking up!

I’ve lived in Manchester 32 years and if anything people are even more excited to be part of the city, particularly the 20-40 crowd.

I can understand that people want Manchester to maintain it’s soul and I agree they need to start having much more Mancunian architecture but this is a boring car park. Hopefully some momentum will start picking up for alternative designs.

My favourite so far is also Elizabeth Tower, but i will be happy to have a fair few to choose from to change my mind especially when they build the One Heritage Tower in Greengate, that looks really good.Thats another point, anyone going on about ‘loss of Heritage’ ‘Victorian buildings’ blah blah clearly doesn’t know the city or understand the zoning process for where the towers are being built. They are in particular areas and they are hardly pulling down The Refuge Building or the Town Hall to get these built.

Liverpool city council take note please. Instead we have Peel sitting on half of the city centre doing absolutely nothing with it for 20 years & Liverpool City Council rejecting anything that is over 2 storeys. Well done Manchester, what a skyline you’re going to have!

Manchester is trying to replicate its mill chimneys with skyscrapers, I think. Very sentimental, but who’s going to live in them?

Absolutely great. But… it’s time Manchester got a ~250m statement skyscraper.

Well done Manchester only if we had these type of developments dotted along our waterfront.

boring!

I agree with ALL.Manchester has become a byword for how a failing city can be turned around.When HS3 is built from Warrington and connected to the airport and HS2, there will in effect be a mega city, stretching from Warrington down to Wilmslow and over to the West Yorkshire border, including all the GM boroughs.The skyscrapers will get taller and taller and the city will get bigger and bigger. We can embrace it, or skrike for a past which never existed.

@ Peter Chapman

Obviously not the best source, but Wikipedia’s article on the list of tallest buildings in Manchester also includes, under construction, approved and proposed developments. From Wikipedia you should be able to derive the sources used. Interestingly as well are the cancelled proposals such as the Picadilly Tower and Intercontinental Tower.

As a proud Manc, I always have a warm feeling when I hear of more and more investment in the city, seeing more skyscrapers, and particularly when many of them are concentrated in one area, but why-oh-why can’t someone else design some, other than the:

Boring, uncreative SimpsonHaugh?

They’re all the same, save for minor tweaks, but still so unimaginative!

There’s also the lack of affordable units, which is clearly amiss, and inexcusable on the parts of both Renaker, as a major investor in the area, and more so by the City Council.

Ah Liverpool Romance, but what you’d give for just one of those ‘mill chimneys ‘ .Don’t worry though we’re spreading west!

It’s apparent that whenever towers in particular are mentioned the amount of jealousy from the usual suspects is staggering. There’s something I think about the size of them they find threatening. My own feeling is as long as they vary the designs, and as someone mentioned the other towers that have been approved that are rather different, and that they are in the right place, I rather enjoy the whole spectacle of them. They are just one symbol of the staggering growth and development of the city after years of dereliction.The Neo Gothic, and Victorian post industrial is still very much in evidence and thanks to all of this investment has been given a new lease of life rather than be left to ruin. As Elephant says a byword now for how a failing city can be turned around.

I’d love just one of these in Liverpool. Just one. If only the council were a bit more forward looking.

Now then anon…..why not check out the publicly available viability appraisal which will tell you exactly why there is very little affordable housing………it isn’t a secret

Now then, it’s no secret that, internally, these viabilities need to achieve a certain level of return, which is part of the reason that savvy developer’s and housebuilders alike are making record margins, in a time that livelihoods of a huge portion of the population and the government reserves have been decimated.

I know exactly how these viabilities are prepared, both internally and the publicly available external versions. Please don’t try to kid a kidda, as providing affordable units is more than achievable, if the developer wishes, and more so, if the Council has the integrity to make it happen.

No not happening. Will actually be the least highest towers made out of brick. Site currently owned by DeTrafford and planning already approved for ‘Transition’, a mixed use development inc retirement homes and retail. About half the size of DSQ. Google ‘Transition Manchester DeTrafford’.

Mill chimneys LR? who’s going to live in them? You’ve trotted that one out every time there is an article about Towers. Don’t be threatened by them, In the words of Father Ted , they’re very big, but they’re far away!

Council complains about vehicle emissions and the allow the build of all these flats so these people won’t drive ? . Terrible idea . You are taking the greatness from the city for your own profit . We don’t need any more eye sores blighting our once great city . The plans will be rejected first application then approved second as with all other builds.

Excellent, and looks like even more approved, will look amazing when there are so many across the city as long as they keep the quality. Like so many others I just want that 250 m now.

Honestly there are so many backwards thinking people here. What does everyone mean that Manchester is losing its Victorian architecture. These skyscrapers being built aren’t destroying any old buildings. They are filling up empty derelict land and many empty car parks.

I absolutely love more and more skyscrapers being proposed. It makes me so happy and brings me so much excitement. I would suggest why they fill up the empty car park spaces between deansgate square and where they are building blade and 360. That space in between would love amazing with tall skyscrapers and that whole area would look amazing!!

I hope the council approves these buildings and hope to see them rise very soon !!!

There won’t be a 250m build or even another standalone 200m tall Skyscraper in Manchester.
Not until the average 2 bed apartment can sell for £600k-£700k .

The Deansgate South tower alone is not a financially viable build, it would purposefully have been built at a loss to make an iconic statement (cost of build vs cash from sale of apartment = loss). Hence why Renaker cleverly built 4 buildings for DSQ, although the tallest makes a loss, it also makes a statement for the project and writes the headlines, the other 3 shorter builds in DSQ offset the financial loss and in total….the 4 building project makes a profit.

150 metres seems to be the pivot point, the height at which financial return is at its peak vs cost of build which is why so many Renaker buildings are at this height (ET, East Tower, Blade, Three60 etc). Anything beyond 150m is diminishing returns. The taller you build, the more complex the design, the higher the cost of build (stronger steel, wind resistance, more materials etc), which can’t be recouped through sale of units in today’s Manchester market.

London a different animal of course, 2 bed apartments can be sold for £2m so you see much more creative skyscraper designs and taller buildings. Until Manchester can demand closer to London property prices, perhaps 15-25 years, we unfortunately won’t be seeing a statement 250m tower.

I can happily enjoy a cluster of 150m builds in the meantime and put the thoughts of a 250m monster tower on ice.

Why do European cities, booming and attracting thousands of new residents and new businesses every year, place a height restriction on new buildings. Are they mad … or wise?

Manchester is overpopulated, people who want to live in a packed city can go to London. That’s not what mancunians want.

Will there be an affordable housing provision in these?

The higher the better for Manchester

I’ve lived in Manchester for 78 years and I know which Manchester I prefer. Build them higher and shinie. I love my city but it was hard when Manchester was dirty and grubby. Reach for the sky Manchester 😊