AXIS (also known as the Axis Tower) is a residential tower in

Manchester city centre Manchester city centre is the central business district of Manchester, England, within the confines of Great Ancoats Street, A6042 Trinity Way, and A57(M) Mancunian Way, which collectively form an inner ring road. The City Centre ward had a ...

, England. The tower has had two iterations, one as a stalled construction project which was cancelled due to the

Great Recession The Great Recession was a period of market decline in economies around the world that occurred from late 2007 to mid-2009.

in 2008, and the other as residential which was announced in 2014. When completed in 2019, Axis Tower became the seventh-tallest building in Greater Manchester until the completion of the

Deansgate Square Deansgate Square, formerly known as Owen Street, is a residential skyscraper cluster on the southern edge of Manchester City Centre, England, consisting of four towers, the tallest of which is . The site is just south of Deansgate railway stat ...

and Angel Gardens projects.

History

Based on Albion Street, AXIS was originally conceived as an office development. Designed in 2007 by architect HKR, and first developed by the Property Alliance Group, it was notable for the inclusion of a tall LCD video wall, which in 2008—the time of its construction—was believed to be the largest in the world. Located close to Manchester Central, the 18-storey building was to be tall, and was originally intended to create of Grade A office space. This was made possible by a design that enabled the building's upper floors to overhang the site. The main contractor for the project was Russell Construction and the building's design features unitised curtain walling from Wicona Projects. The construction of the building's foundations and the complexity of the site presented a civil engineering challenge. The site is subject to restricted covenants and

party wall A party wall (occasionally parti-wall or parting wall, shared wall, also known as common wall or as a demising wall) is a wall shared by two adjoining properties. Typically, the builder lays the wall along a property line dividing two terraced h ...

awards on all four sides, and it is located immediately beside the

Rochdale Canal The Rochdale Canal is in Northern England, between Manchester and Sowerby Bridge, part of the connected system of the canals of Great Britain. Its name refers to the town of Rochdale through which it passes. The Rochdale is a broad canal be ...

. In 2009 with the piling work completed, development was put on hold in response to the global economic downturn. As a consequence, the plan to establish Axis Tower as a landmark commercial site was never realised.

2012–2018

In 2012 a new developer took control of the project. The company devised a new scheme to transform it into a residential building, and in the same year, obtained the planning permission necessary to do this. The re-design project was awarded to 5plus Architects, which was established in October 2010 after the closure of HKR. The scheme's objective was to create a 22-storey residential building comprising 136 private apartments. The project manager was Evolve 2 Consult, and the structural engineer was

Capita Symonds Capita Property and Infrastructure (previously Capita Symonds) is a UK multidisciplinary consultancy operating in the building design, civil engineering, environment, management and transport sectors, part of the Capita Group. They employ aroun ...

Arup Group Arup Group Limited, trading as Arup, is a British multinational professional services firm headquartered in London that provides design, engineering, architecture, planning, and advisory services across every aspect of the built environment. ...

was appointed as fire engineer, and Compass Energy Consulting Engineers Ltd (Ce2) as the building services consultants. Russell Construction remained as the main contractor for the project. In May 2014, Atlas Blue Property released a document to Chinese investors signalling a changed design for the tower, drawn up by 5plus Architects. Axis Tower's use was to remain residential, but the new design was 28 storeys tall with clad sides. Construction began in January 2017 and completed in 2019.

Construction progress

File:Axis 2017.jpg, 7 August 2017 File:Axis Tower September 2017.jpg, 2 September 2017 File:Axis tower and owen street.jpg, 2 September 2017 File:Axis 24 January.jpg, 24 January 2018 File:Axis tower 16 04 18.jpg, 16 April 2018 File:Axis 26 april.jpg, 26 April 2018

References

External links

{{Official website, https://alliance-investments.com/axis-tower/ Buildings and structures in Manchester Skyscrapers in Manchester Apartment buildings in England Residential buildings in Manchester

History

2012–2018

Construction progress

See also

References

External links