No.1 Spinningfields (formerly 1 Hardman Square) is a 92-metre office tower in the

Spinningfields Spinningfields is an area of Manchester city centre, in North West England, developed in the 2000s between Deansgate and the River Irwell by Allied London Properties. The £1.5 billion project consists of twenty new buildings, totalling approxima ...

district of

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

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

in the United Kingdom. The development was previously known as 1 Hardman Square which was a 140-metre skyscraper but was cancelled in 2009. The development was revived in 2014 with a 92-metre office tower and the revised design gained planning approval in May 2014. Demolition of the former building on the site, Quay House, began in early 2015 and construction of its replacement began shortly afterwards.

Background

1 Hardman Square (2004-2013)

The skyscraper was first proposed in 2004, linking in with the new developments in the Spinningfields district of Manchester and the growth in proposals for skyscrapers in the city at the time. The

financial crisis of 2007–2008 Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of fi ...

paralysed the development market, particularly in the expensive sector of constructing skyscrapers. In 2011, it was reported that developers of the tower,

Allied London Allied London is a property development and investment company that develops landmark projects ranging from re-use to regeneration developments across retail, commercial, office, residential, restaurant, and leisure sectors. The company also offe ...

, were on the verge of sealing a £165m deal with German fund manager, Union Investment. As part of the deal, Union Investments will forward-purchase 1 Hardman Square, thus giving Allied London capital to construct the skyscraper. Construction of the skyscraper will be dependent on whether Allied London can sign up tenants for half the building, which could take up to two years as the economy recovers.

No.1 Spinningfields (2014-2017)

Following the news in 2011 that a deal to build a 350,000 sq ft office tower was possible, plans for such a scheme were finally released in January 2014 and submitted for planning permission. The 92-metre tower will contain 350,000 sq ft of Grade A office space over 20 storeys. The building will be Manchester's tallest office block since

CIS Tower The CIS Tower is an office skyscraper on Miller Street in Manchester, England. Designed for the Co-operative Insurance Society (CIS) by architects Gordon Tait and G. S. Hay, the building was completed in 1962 and rises to 118 m (387 feet) in h ...

, constructed in 1962.

References

{{UKSkyscrapers, Proposed Skyscrapers in Manchester Buildings and structures in Manchester