Neville/Giggs's plans for Manchester city centre.

[Gareth Barry Conlon]

Just more awful, oversized monstrosities to add to a quickly deteriorating landscape.

Its depressing when you go to Cities like Prague and see how the historical quarters have been retained or old buildings renovated yet over here the Planners/Developers are so quick to demolish and replace.

No wonder Ian Simpson has got the penthouse as thats probably the best view in the city now, looking out, as his beetham tower has blighted everyone elses. Still I am sure him and the developers will make a quick buck on it.

Look at the building opposite the library is there any building more unimaginative or out of character?

I work around the corner and can confirm that what we are taking about is a dump! Lets get some perspective.

 

[Bluebee2]

You've imagined wrong. It has about the same capacity as the old one according to the plans.

The only part of that block that actually adds to the character of the area at the moment is the frontage of the police station on Southmill Street. It would be much better if they could incorporate that as part of the new development. My understanding is that the Abercromby will be replaced by a new pub on the same site on Bootle Street adjoining the smaller of the two towers. As it has no original features, its history is more related to the location than the actual building anyway.

As they own the freehold of the land the current synagogue is located on, it would be practically impossible to kick them out anyway. The council would never support a CPO to boot out a congregation from their place of worship whatever religion they were.

I meant the footprint of the Synagogue site not the size of the congregation.

 

[west didsblue]

I meant the footprint of the Synagogue site not the size of the congregation.

The footprint of the site is also very similar. It's just that part of the site has the taller tower on top and other parts of the site have hotel facilities and an outdoor public area above. There is also a car park below the whole site.

 

[discopop]

A very interesting article in the The Time Arts pullout today by Richard Morrison and it pretty much destroys the The Giggs/Nevile/Lim consortium along with Leese and the council for even considering the development, classes the whole thing as ugly and nothing more than footballers building towers for the Wags.

The whole article is against the tower fixation Manchester council currently has and if the development gets the green light the communities and local government minister should step in.

 

[Ric]

Good article in The Guardian on this:

https://www.theguardian.com/comment...buildings-skyscrapers-ryan-giggs-gary-neville

 

[Cheadle_hulmeBlue]

I work around the corner and can confirm that what we are taking about is a dump! Lets get some perspective.

why is that a dump ? lots of old historic buildings, lots of character. if it was in the northern quarter all the developers and hipsters would think it was great. shiny glass buildings look shit, which is what most of the city centre is turning into.

 

[york away to this!]

We need to start a petition to replace this urban design farce with the city clock tower...

 

[Gareth Barry Conlon]

I stand by my view that the area is a dump and needs to be put to better use. I'm all for saving nice old buildings but the police station and pub on this site are typical examples of finding a reason to save any old tat. These buildings are mediocre in the grand scheme of Manchester's historic architecture and the rest of the site has nothing going for it in any way. Save the arguments for genuinely decent old buildings. The plans are ugly but i'm all for the principle of big buildings in the city center.

 

[manctheknife]

Yet another reason to leave.
Fk Manchester, if I wanted to live in London I'd move there.
Actually, where are all the Mancs going?...the only local accents I hear in town these days are begging.....any social/affordable units going in these new towers?...i would wager not.
Looking to sell up and move out this year, any ex-pats on here got any reservations about leaving?

 

[west didsblue]

I stand by my view that the area is a dump and needs to be put to better use. I'm all for saving nice old buildings but the police station and pub on this site are typical examples of finding a reason to save any old tat. These buildings are mediocre in the grand scheme of Manchester's historic architecture and the rest of the site has nothing going for it in any way. Save the arguments for genuinely decent old buildings. The plans are ugly but i'm all for the principle of big buildings in the city center.

Fully agree.
Buildings in Manchester that deserve keeping have in general been kept with a few exceptions. There's still loads of fine examples of good Victorian and Edwardian architecture as well as more recent architecture. The buildings in question have very little architectural merit and would be no loss.

Yet another reason to leave.
Fk Manchester, if I wanted to live in London I'd move there.
Actually, where are all the Mancs going?...the only local accents I hear in town these days are begging.....any social/affordable units going in these new towers?...i would wager not.
Looking to sell up and move out this year, any ex-pats on here got any reservations about leaving?

Manchester's one of the UK's fastest growing cities so most people don't agree with you.

Bye.