Sheppard Robson scoops North Manchester hospital job

The design firm has been appointed as the lead architect for a major redevelopment of the North Manchester General Hospital, being led by the local NHS trust and its delivery partners including Bruntwood.

The project last week received £54m of funding from the Department of Health and Social Care to help progress the plans, which envisage a mixed-use campus offering a healthy living-focussed residential cluster together with specialist healthcare facilities and training and employment opportunities for local people and hospital staff.

North Manchester General Hospital spans 67 acres in Crumpsall, 4km outside the city centre. It is home to a district general hospital, intermediate care facility and a mental health hospital. The site requires a full redesign and investment to upgrade service provision, with around 70% of the estate identified by planners as in need of rebuilding. The hospital is managed by the Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust.

Under the contract, Sheppard Robson will serve as lead consultant and architect for the acute hospital buildings and medical architecture, as well as the education centre and administration buildings.

The firm has been working on a masterplan for the development for almost a year, in partnership with a project team that also includes landscape designer Gillespies, transport consultant Curtins and planning consultant Turley.

The plans focus on “creating a focal point for the community with integrated health and social care facilities, high-quality homes and access to better education and training, alongside the creation of major new public open spaces,” the firm said.

This will be achieved through a collection of buildings set around a ‘village green’, serving as the focal point for the local community.

Alex Solk, partner at Sheppard Robson and the practice’s healthcare lead, said: “It’s rare to work on a project with such ambition and that will have such transformative outcomes for the local community.

“We are radically rethinking the estate, and the services and facilities provided, while also reshaping the relationship the hospital has with its community – a process that will have a far-reaching and lasting impact.”

The £54m from Whitehall will fund enabling works, the provision of temporary accommodation for administration staff and other site preparation activity that will commence this autumn.

Once the blueprint and final funding for the redevelopment of the hospital site is agreed in early 2021, the main build work can begin shortly after that, Sheppard Robson said.

Last month, the trust lodged a planning application for a 32,000 sq ft temporary office to house hospital stuff once redevelopment work commences.