The Christie reveals designs for Paterson redevelopment
The Christie has showcased its proposed 270,000 sq ft replacement for the Paterson Building, which was severely damaged by a fire in 2017, ahead of a planning application in May.
The existing building was ravaged by a fire in April 2017 which left it unusable, and following the incident many of the its staff were relocated to Alderley Park. The Christie had explored repairing the building but concluded either keeping it in its current state or refurbishing it would not be feasible.
Demolition has now started, clearing the site for a fresh proposal, which The Christie hopes will provide “one of the world’s top centres for cancer research” by 2025.
Working with a team including planner Turley, architect BDP, and engineer Arup, the first designs have been showcased for the building following an initial public consultation earlier this year.
The proposed building on Wilmslow Road will include 270,000 sq ft of research laboratories, consultant workspace, a biological research unit, and ground floor exhibition and education spaces.
As part of the project, The Christie is looking to create new areas of public realm along the Wilmslow Road frontage, particularly around the entrance area and close to the junction of Wilmslow and Oak Roads.
The Paterson Building was devastated by a fire in April 2017
To bring the project forward, The Christie is bringing forward an addendum to its existing strategic planning framework, which was agreed in 2014.
This will allow the Trust to bring forward a planning application for the Paterson Building’s replacement, which is expected in May; the addendum to the planning framework has already been submitted to Manchester City Council and is expected to be signed off this month.
A public consultation on the proposals was held yesterday, and a further event is due to take place on Saturday 9 March between 10am and 1pm at Withington Library.
Interserve has been chosen as The Christie’s partner for the project through the ProCure22+ framework, and is working alongside subcontractor PP O’Connor on the demolition of the existing fire-damaged building.
The contractor is also providing initial design and technical work which The Christie said would “inform the redevelopment of the building”.
Interserve also recently completed The Christie’s Proton Beam Therapy Centre at the site in Withington; for its work on the project, the contractor scooped the award for Building of the Year from the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce.
Scale is wholly inappropriate given the proximity of residential, don’t get me wrong understand the need for replacement of the Paterson, and the Christie do wonderful work but they are in the heart of a residential community as a whole. This scheme isn’t working and coexisting with that community, it’s riding rough shod over it !
By Anonymous
Does all the work and education relating to the Christie all have to take place on site? I do not think so. I think that the Christie sometimes believes that, because it is a respected institution, it can build anything right on the doorsteps of the local residents. This is a residential suburb and this building would overhang the whole area and could be seen for miles. I live in the area and do not want to have part of the sky obliterated by a local building. It is completely out of scale for the site and, as another commentator says, does not take the local community into account.
By Erica
Dear Erica & Anonymous, Was the Christie already there when you bought your houses?
By Patient
Whatever they want, give it to them. Good to see.
By nimby
Find the cure for cancer? Not in my backyard!
By Anonymous
Honestly nimbys still alive then! Do they realise the devastating illness that cancer is? This is a fantastic opportunity for good
By seriously
A terrible amount of NIMBYism in the comments. The Christie is one of largest cancer treatment centres in the Europe, the more scale it has, the more lives it has the potential to save…obviously some people care more about their view than the potential of a hospital to treat as many cancer suffers as possible…
By George
Looks really good and a hell of a lot more attractive than the current building. Local residents will of course be obsessed with the scale but in reality it’ll have little impact on their amenity and the creation of public space is a definite benefit that a lower rise scheme wouldn’t provide.
By critical faculty
People are saying this is a residential suburb as if it’s not slap bang between two of arterial routes. It’s not a sleepy dead end back street in Didsbury, it’s Withington – stop kidding yourself. Nothing about the area around the hospital is in any sense sleepy local community. And I say that as someone who owns property there. It won’t even be the tallest building on the site.
And even then, lets be fair it’s not like this is going to be a hive of activity day in day out akin to an amazon delivery centre is it.
By Daveboi
Imagine complaining about a cancer hospital, I can’t believe people would stoop so low, the Christie is a good thing, that should be obvious to anyone
By Didsbury resident
The money should have been found to move the Christie lock stock and barrel to the old Withington Hospital site years ago.
Alternatively a Green Belt site should have been found for it to move to. No one could claim very special circumstances would not exist to support this given the amazingly important work it does.
Eventually it will run out of room to keep expanding on its existing site and what will happen then?
Short sighted government ‘planning’ (or lack of it) as usual is the real culprit here.
By Anonymous
Hope those houses opposite getting suitably compensated for loss of light. Looking at the height and orientation I reckon they’ll lose the sun from about 11am everyday
By Fake News