Shortlist for Piccadilly Gardens design competition coming in March

As we wait for the announcement, one anonymous enthusiast has already commissioned a CGI of what they think the Manchester park should look like.

North Made Studio was commissioned to bring the individual’s vision to life, which included returning the Heaton Park colonnade to the city centre. The historic arch dates back to 1822 and was designed by Francis Goodwin to be the façade of the Old Town Hall on King Street, which ultimately was replaced by the 1877 building. The colonnade was moved to Heaton Park in 1912.

Helen Gardner, head of business development at North Made, described how the colonnade could fit into Piccadilly Gardens: “By the use of a predominantly vertical monument there will be very little impact on green space and it will restore the unloved concrete pavilion to its former glory…

“The arch will add an attractive feature and provide a stunning backdrop to the gardens, events, markets and concerts. In the evening it will be floodlit to give off a cheerful glow and it can also be used for themed floodlighting!

“It is hoped that the council will look at this visionary proposal for the gardens and be more ambitious in their decision,” she continued. “This proposal will restore the arch to its full potential giving the gardens a new, historically relevant identity.”

While the idea is nice, the CGI does not represent an official entry into the design competition, which is not open to members of the public. The shortlisted design teams are expected to be announced in early March and will be asked to develop concept designs at that point.

As for the CGI suggestion, the spokesman said: “We will not be commenting on unsolicited design ideas which have not been submitted as part of the consultation or with reference to the competition brief.”

Your Comments

Read our comments policy

Love the idea of bringing the collonade back into the city centre. Excellent vision!

By Anonymous

Was the individual Liberace?

By Alan Partridge

Actually love this idea. This is the sort of vision this area needs

By Bob

If we are being honest Planit, LDA and Gillespie’s will be on there. They always are.

By MJ

This has to be a joke, absolutely ridiculous

By Bradford

Looks amazing, the place needs to be lit up everywhere at night time as well. Making it look both amazing in the day and night. Maybe a few disgital art displays would look cool around as well?

By Anonymous

Nice to have the amateur submission as a benchmark for what the professionals will come up with. This area needs real ambition – for all the talk of “iconic” designs in Manchester, the city centre really has become quite generic and soulless. A huge opportunity to redress that here.

By Devoid

Yes lets turn the city centre into the Trafford Centre. Brilliant.

By Curly

This could save the gardens.

By Elephant

People will be quick to judge and slag off flamboyant designs like that in the CGI yet be the same to moan at Piccadilly Gardens being one of the worst areas in the City. Can’t win.

By Roman Manchester

Insult to places like Rome

By Anonymous

Small piece of Liverpool St Gorges Hall in Manchester

By Anonymous

It looks like the Brandenburg Gate.
Manchester needs its own look.

By MP3

This genuinely looks awesome! Really hope this is incorporated into the future design.

By Byronic

No doubt it will be promoted as international standard but come from the Revit book of landscape plans…..part of the problem here is that the powers that be and the designers ( trusted partners ) they choose want to be revolutionary and they always, always, always get it wrong…
They would be most revolutionary if they proposed something a bit more ordinary and timeless.
I think we all know where it will end up don’t we….forgive me for being cynical and all that.
Go to Denmark and have a look at what they do.

By anonymous

The Taggers would love that collonade. It would be wrecked in weeks. Go to the NQ and see what they’ve done there. So many fantastic buildings ruined with mindless and pointless tagging.

By jrb

I like this idea because it blocks out the hideous Piccadilly Tower & Hotel, its amazing to think this isnt even a professional design

By Jon P

I know it’s a bit retro, but I would like to see a full scale replica of stone henge in Piccadilly Gardens. Make it happen.

By Anonymous

The CGI looks great. The comment back from the council is predictably conservative.

By 1981

For what could be the most difficult urban design brief in the UK right now, this seems like an excellent suggestion. There’s absolutely no chance of pleasing everyone here, but incorporating some genuine Manchester history into the mix seems the right way to go. The current iteration of the “gardens” has shown that the modernist approach doesn’t seem to work

By Motley

‘Manchester needs it’s own look’
This dates from 1822 on King St… how original does it need to be?
The design seems to have ruffled a few feathers… wonder why.

I like the idea and something with historical charm would be fantastic but as per the other comment regarding tagging… surely this would just get ruined?

By Anonymous

I have long thought that the colonnade in Heaton Park should return to the city centre, I was thinking St. Peters or Albert Square but why not Piccadilly Gardens.

By Monty

for piccadilly gardens to thrive it needs to be policed more than anything tbh the people that are in the area are the ones that make it undesirable

By Jordain Dawkins

Love the ambition, but probably need to get rid of the bus station and concrete wall.

By Rob

All the landscape architects involved in the scheme know the challenge is designing public realm that will still look good once following the inevitable occupation by drunks, drug users, homeless and assorted trouble makers.

By Knit 2022

Why not chuck a few random pyramids in there, it’ll be just like Ancient Egypt!

By Disgruntled Goat

A couple of Renaker towers on this site would do the trick. Plain sailing to get approval given recently set precedents, tons of Band A-D council tax money coming in to fund a bus interchange [and a cycle lane] at Stephenson Square, who would argue with that?

By Catching the Rona got me thinking

‘Manchester needs its own look’..? Doh! read the article, what is the colonnade and where was it from? Manchester is and has been neo classical, neo Gothic and post industrial. This is Manchester’s own look! This is a great idea as currently it’s wasted in Heaton park. It’s unlikely to fly though, not because the armchairs experts and the ‘not brights’ are actually allowed to have a say but cost will dictate a more ‘contemporary’ design . Pity.

By Anonymous

As long as they do something positive which wouldn’t be difficult. If they drag this out any longer it will start sounding like Liverpool Waters!

By Anonymous

That actually looks great! Why the issue with it? It was saved originally, so even then it was considered of historical importance. It was moved from the city center so why not move it back? It serves no purpose and looks pretty forlorn in Heaton Park at the minute. It’s a lovely looing bit of architecture, nobody outside of Manchester would consider it odd to have something like that in a main city square. Re the tagging, there are statues there that don’t get tagged and a huge concrete wall that isn’t covered in graffiti so can’t see why that would be an issue. Light it up a night, would be a great focal point.

By Loganberry

What Loganberry said…exactly!

By Geoff

This is a brilliant idea, let’s get the old Town Hall facade into Piccadilly Gardens to bring some much needed beauty into the heart of our City, which at present is an an embarrassment to every Mancunian.

By Drew Steele

I think this is a great idea, far more radical and challenging than other proposals I could imagine. To bring the colonnade back into the city centre to take pride of place is a fantastic story in itself. The concrete bunker style pavilion urgently needs to be removed, as the section of concrete wall was already. Well done for a visionary proposal and a well-executed visualisation.

By Aidan O'Rourke

It is indeed a fabulous visualisation . This is a terrific idea and seems to be a popular one despite the occasional small minded response from the usual suspects. Get rid of the bunker, improve lines of sight increase security measures and make proper use of the largest public space in the city centre. If they spent a fraction of the money here that they have on Albert square and the town hall (more complex though it is) we could have another world class public area.

By Anonymous

The CGI carefully crops out 1 Piccadilly Gardens so the scene looks more harmonious and and coherent than it is.

In reality, it would look quite incongruent next to that hideous orange office block and the existing pavilion.

To be fair the office block looks incongruent against most other structures in the gardens area.

By Aesthete

Lovely idea. I want it and I want it now.

By John D

I love it, instead of that pavilion. Mount it on a base so that people walk around it, finished in something polished that posters and tags can be wiped off easily.

By Anonymous

B OF THE BANG!

By Gaz

Few places in Manchester garner more comment than Piccadilly gardens.This would look incredible though. Whatever they do it needs to be a multi agency approach and a a long term solution otherwise just build the hospital back there and forget about public space. Which of course should not be the answer.

By Anonymous

The best idea for Piccadilly Gardens I’ve seen in years. It will look great towering up behind the Christmas market

By John

The mistake all councils make is asking designers and architects. Look at what Urban Splash has done to the former half of Ancoats they call New Islington. Not a single aesthetic feature in the entire area. It’s a total mess. Those streetlights by the Ancoats Dispensary make you think “but why?” And all those rotting lumps of wood everywhere. Meanwhile a beautiful piece of heritage was left to crumble. These designers have egos bigger than talent. Let the people who pay for these schemes do the designing and let us vote on it.

By AR

Brilliant

By Anonymous

Related Articles

Sign up to receive the Place Daily Briefing

Join more than 13,000 property professionals and receive your free daily round-up of built environment news direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Join more than 13,000 property professionals and sign up to receive your free daily round-up of built environment news direct to your inbox.

By subscribing, you are agreeing to our Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

"*" indicates required fields

Your Job Field*
Other regional Publications - select below