Manchester city centre regeneration (EDAW)

The EDAW Masterplan was announced as the winner of the International Design Competition in November 1996. Supplementary Planning Guidance was then formally adopted to underpin the masterplan and to give a spatial definition and statutory basis to the vision

On Saturday 15 June 1996, a 3,300lb bomb exploded in Manchester City Centre injuring 220 people and causing immense physical, social and economic damage. The bomb threatened the livelihoods of hundreds of people and the future of many businesses, destroyed buildings and dealt a severe blow to the economic base of the heart of the region. Some 49,000 square metres of prime retail space and 57,000 square metres of office-based activity were lost.

The rebuilding of central Manchester was immediately recognised as a national priority and within weeks, the Government and the City Council had established a public and private sector Task Force - Manchester Millennium Ltd - to develop and manage a recovery strategy.

The immediate priorities of the Task Force were firstly to make the City Centre safe and operational as swiftly as possible, including the relocation of many businesses which had been displaced by the bomb; and secondly to bring forward a strategy for the permanent redevelopment and regeneration of the City Centre.

Right from the start it was decided not merely to repair and reinstate what had been damaged, but to adopt a much more radical approach - turning the adversity of the bomb into an opportunity to re-plan and rebuild the heart of the City Centre. The first major step forward was the launch of an international design competition to produce a Masterplan which would set out a vision for the new City Centre and act as a guide for the rebuilding programme.

The competition resulted in the selection of the widely acclaimed EDAW Masterplan, which has proved invaluable in shaping and defining the future of the City, in raising the level of expectation and aspiration, and in giving added impetus to the continued regeneration of the wider City area.

The rebuilding was made possible by a dedicated four-year funding package and the close support of the key public and private funding partners.

The vision & strategy

The reconstruction programme for Manchester’s City Centre was guided by a strong vision of the kind of place local people would like to see emerge from the devastation caused by the bomb. That vision embodied in the Masterplan builds strongly upon the aims and objectives of the ‘City Pride’ Prospectus and other strategic priorities of the City.

The destruction caused by the bomb raised a major threat to the continuing vitality and strength of Manchester as the Regional Capital. This blow to the heart of the City came at a critical time with the Trafford Centre - over 1.2m square ft of out-of-town shopping and leisure facilities - due to open. This competitive threat, coupled with pressure from insurance companies, loss adjusters and businesses created a very tight time-scale for the rebuilding programme.

The driving vision behind the rebuilding programme was clear. Manchester’s long term future lies in strengthening its role as a regional centre in a Europe and global context. It must offer a quality of life and urban environment that is attractive for all those who want to live, work, shop and have fun in the City Centre. Manchester’s predominant role as the retail and business centre of the wider region must not be threatened as a result of the bomb. The City Centre must provide additional investment opportunities to attract new activities and the distinctive quality of its architectural and historic urban fabric must be preserved and further enhanced so as to contribute to the City’s future success.

These key requirements, coupled with the need for realism, ensured the delivery of a new City Centre by the Millennium.

The fundamental purpose of the renewal of the City Centre was to provide a strengthened and forward looking City. This goal was expressed in the following six strategic objectives which direct the activities of Manchester Millennium.

Strategic Objective 1: Restoration and Enhancement of the Retail Core
This objective seeks to reinforce the City Centre as the retail heart of the region by the timely restoration of retail floorspace destroyed by the bomb and the creation of an enhanced range of shopping opportunities.

Strategic Objective 2: Stimulation and Diversification of the City’s Economic Base
This objective seeks to secure investment and development of leisure and cultural activities to broaden the interest and attraction of the City Centre. It seeks to underpin the economic vitality of the region by the direct creation of jobs and ensuring that local people have the skills and opportunities to access those opportunities.

Strategic Objective 3: Development of an Integrated Transport Strategy
The development of an integrated transport strategy is essential in underpinning the success of the City Centre. The primary objective is to deliver an integrated strategy which offers an efficient and effective system, accessible to all, striking a sustainable balance between good car access and encouraging more use of public transport.

Masterplan

Buildings

Public realm

In 2002, six years after the project got underway, the final elements of the public realm were opened. The masterplan for the city’s new public spaces involves a simple cruciform structure of routes running east-west and north-south across the city centre – each made up of streets and squares, each anchored by a major rail station, and each crossing at the city’s retail core. Within this structure, a series of activity zones reflects the uses of the spaces, and the adjacent streets and buildings. This strategy led to the design of three public open spaces – two of them new and one of them refurbished.

The creation of Exchange Square at the site of a carriageway dotted with traffic islands is the heart of the project. The design brief called for a vibrant, active space that would form the busy heart of the city’s main shopping area. The resulting square, designed by Martha Schwartz, is never empty, and has become the meeting place of city workers, skateboarders, shoppers and tourists, and in this respect has more than fulfilled its brief. The challenge now is to maintain it under the constant pressure of heavy use and activity, and to resist attempts to modify it in response to issues raised in connection with its use.

In contrast, City Park, which is located next to the cathedral, the new Urbis culture centre, and Cheetham School of Music, is a quiet contemplative garden area about a hundred metres from the bustle of Exchange Square. The park extends the existing cathedral garden across land formerly used for car parking, and consists of lawns, earth sculpture, extensive tree planting and art installations. It acts as a foil to the modernity of the Urbis centre and makes it possible to rediscover the area around the cathedral.

The third and final public open space is Piccadilly Gardens, the city’s traditional heart. Formerly a sunken garden of ornamental planting and cherry trees, the area had become the haunt of drug dealers and was thus virtually a no-go area. Its decline was exacerbated by decreasing use of adjacent office buildings, and by the overwhelming pressure of the transport infrastructure on the site.

In order to raise funds for the project, substantial private sector contributions were sought. These were provided on condition that the enhanced public realm would be built to a quality that would substantially upgrade the area and stimulate wider regeneration activity.

Project data

Manchester City Centre Redevelopment
Location: Manchester, England
Date of design: 1996
Date of completion: 2002
Size: 25 hectares, extending from Victoria Station to the Royal Exchange and from River Irwell to the High Street
Client: Manchester Millennium Ltd. and Manchester City Council, Manchester, England

Design team
Lead designer
EDAW Plc: Master planning Consultants and Design Co-ordination

Consultants & Engineers
Oscar Faber: Transportation Consultants
Davis Langdon Everest: Quantity Surveyors
MACE: Programme Managers

Consultants on public projects:
EDAW Plc: Public realm works in bomb damaged area, City Park concept design, Piccadilly Gardens
Martha Schwartz Inc.: Exchange Square
BDP: City Park
Ian Simpson Architects: Urbis Centre