A Civic Workplace

Occupying the site of the Peterloo Massacre before Britain’s parliamentary reform, St Peter’s Square is core to the Manchester’s identity and history. To match the dignity of a distinguished piece of Victorian civic realm, our competition-winning, BREEAM Excellent scheme redeveloped a tired 1970s office block to redefine the south side of the Square.

Our office building enhances the existing urbanism with a better sense of enclosure, acknowledging its context in a tripartite cast stone façade—drawn up in consultation with Historic England. References include the proportions of the portico of Manchester Central Library directly opposite—an important example of neo-classical municipal architecture from the 1930s.

For the workspace floors, our research explored a wide range of core-to-floorplate scenarios before settling on a centralised model to optimise organisational efficiency, enable efficient services distribution, provide lateral stability and most importantly maximise daylight and sweeping views over the Square.

An important aspect of the brief for this historically sensitive site was to extend the public realm with a lively and animated ground floor. Sitting under the grand colonnade, the impressive 8-metre-tall entrance hall with art installations by Mark Titchner—‘Live the Life that you Imagine’ and ‘Dream after Dream after Dream’—incorporates the intermediatory space of a business lounge for occupiers and their clients alongside the public buzz of a restaurant.

Acting as a catalyst for subsequent redevelopment around St Peter’s Square, the 278,000 sq ft building was fully let to best-in-class occupiers including a substantial pre-let to KPMG.

“The City Council is delighted with One St Peter’s Square as it sets a new standard of office accommodation available in Manchester and is ready to support the growing demand from international businesses looking to relocate to the city centre.”
Sir Howard Bernstein, Former Chief Exec. Manchester City Council