Hodder + Partners’ Manchester towers win council’s approval

Hodder + Partners has received planning permission for its plans for more than 1,000 homes across two 56-storey skyscrapers in ManchesterThe city council’s planning and highways committee granted consent to the local practice’s scheme at 34 Great Jackson Street yesterday.At 172m tall, the new buildings will be slightly higher than Manchester’s Beetham Tower, but SimpsonHaugh’s 200m South Tower at Deansgate Square will remain the city’s tallest structure.Planning officers had recommended approval of Hodder’s plans, saying the site was appropriate for tall buildings and the ‘well designed’ towers would create ‘important’ city-centre housing.The development would not have a significant detrimental impact on the settings of nearby listed buildings nor the character and appearance of the nearby Castlefield Conservation Area, according to a report to the committee.Backed by property investor Aubrey Weis’s Great Jackson Street Estates, the project will see two industrial sheds demolished on a 0.6ha site close to the Mancunian Way, 1km from Hodder + Partners’ Kelso Place studio.The new towers will provide 620 two-bedroom apartments, 342 one-bedroom flats, 62 three-bedroom apartments, 11 townhouses and two studio flats. They will also include a 180m2 commercial or social infrastructure unit, such as a pharmacy, 236 car parking spaces and more than 1,000 bicycle spaces.The proposals include residential amenity space across the two buildings as well as rooftop gardens and landscaped public realm at street level.Air source heat pumps and photovoltaics will be located at roof level. The gross area of the proposed development, including all plant and car parking facilities, is 113,496m².A payment of just over £1 million is sought by the council for provision of offsite affordable housing.Hodder + Partners has completed several high-profile schemes in Manchester, including a 37-storey student accommodation tower at Great Marlborough Street, which won a RIBA North West Award in 2013.The city council in 2018 approved a ‘lozenge-shaped’ rework by the practice of the design for the controversial St Michael’s Tower, backed by the former footballers Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs. American outfit Skidmore, Owings & Merrill has since been brought in to deliver that project but the local practice remains involved as design guardian.