The aim of this channel is to document the new construction that is going on in Manchester. The Manchester Building Boom is in full swing and shows no signs of slowing down.
0:00 Introduction
0:50 1-The Fairfax
1:50 2- Student towers
2:50 3- 3 Circle Square
3:15 4- Plot 4 First Street
3:27 5- Circle Square co-living
4:15 6- Deansgate Square Three60
4:45 7- Vista River Gardens
5:15 8- Union co-living towers
6:03 9 – Staycity Apartments
7:35 10 – Bootle St St Michaels
8:00 11- Island workspaces John Dalton St
8:45 12 – Colliers Yard towers
9:55 13 – Waterhouse Gardens Boddingtons site
10:45 14 – Victoria Riverside
11:10 15 – Swan House, Rochdale Road
11:40 16 – One Port Street
New tall buildings are under construction all around the city. I find it difficult to keep up with them all, so I thought I would do a ‘sweep’ of the main high rise construction sites currently in progress on (mostly) the periphery of the city. We see a shapshot of progress of these sites as they looked at the Easter weekend, 31 March 2024, captured for posterity.
In the end I found 17 sites, all are high rise, or at least they are more than a few floors, some might count as skyscrapers, but are on a smaller scale than those in New York. I include a few ‘then and now’ photos including a photo of the abandoned Central Station in 1982, later to become GMEX, then reverting to Manchester Central.
On the AidanEyewitness channel, I produce snapshots of the ongoing development of Manchester, Liverpool and connected cities, focusing especially on new construction, renovation and adaptation of heritage buildings, modern architecture in general, public transport infrastructure, future construction plans as well as questions of urban identity and the uniqueness of cities. I like to document the construction of buildings, taking images at regular intervals and mergin them into timelapse sequences.
I’ve been interested in architecture and city development since I was a child. I was doing projects on Manchester architecture in primary school. From 1997 to 2005 I produced my website Eyewitness in Manchester which documented the reconstructin of the city after the IRA bomb in photos and words. I’ve contributed photos and writing to books, magazines and newspapers. AidanEyewitness is the latest chapter, I dream of a big audience and lots of success, but there is still a long way to go! Please help me by liking, subscribing, sharing, commenting and providing some financial support, so I can fulfil my dream of producing AidanEyewitness full time.
21 Comments
I really do hope that viaducx 2 tower is approved! 241m will look amazing and the design is different and cool. Fingers crossed it gets the go ahead
I love seeing all the bike lanes. The good thing about these developments is that it's increasing density in the city core and making cars less necessary.
“Ornate, Grade II residence…….. belongs to His Majesty” – made me smile.
As far as the Contour Towers are concerned Renaker's spokeswoman said they have learnt what their target group want. Luxury and "work-booths". Look to see them in all Renaker buildings. SimpsonHaugh, are you listening!
I think all Renaker towers have 85% or higher occupancy. All the penthouses are taken.
Demand is so high, I think despite only being approximately at ground level she said for the Contours they will be taking £3,000 deposits.
Great video and looking forward to see how these will look
Thanks for the video, going to rewatch this later. Always informative and interesting, the research you do is much appreciated
Massive concrete bloc's everywhere,I'm just not sure about this as it seems very dehumanising.I hope I am wrong.
I find your video's very interesting and appreciate the time and effort you put into this. It's all impressive in terms of size. It looks like a booming city. But does this architecture (or lack thereof) make the city more beautiful? I don't think so, except for a few projects like the brown brick building. I see a lot of soulless gray glass and concrete boxes. It feels like modern architecture from decades ago which has proven to be unsustainable and disliked by most people. Either way, I hope the people from Manchester like this architecture. One positive thing is that there will be more housing for people.
I reluctantly left North Wales for Manchester a few years ago because I could see no future for my children in Wales and Manchester seemed such an ambitious city. Best decision we ever made. My children are now adults and have great careers with many friends. Speaking to friends and family back in Wales pretty much all of them say how there young adult children can’t find work or meaningful jobs with little prospect of leaving home. I guess our gamble paid off.
Just a bit worried how all these new skyscrapers will be viewed in 20 to 30 years time and beyond ? Will they be viewed with awe like we do say with Manchester Town Hall , Central Library, John Ryland’s library, and Cheethams ?
Hey where did you hear news about the One Heritage tower going ahead ? I try to find news about it every couple of weeks online but I’ve not been able to find anything :/ I do hope it gets built.
Do Liverpool mate
You should ask place north west to post your video on their website.
What a fantastic channel! As a proud Manc interested in architecture and development, glad I have found it. Cheers!
An excellent update, Aidan. Thanks for making the effort.
I'm still taken aback by the amount of change taking place in Manchester. I worked as a surveyor in the city centre from about 1997 and up to Covid and dealt with many residential apartment blocks and other buildings and started coming into the city centre back in the early 1980's for nights out. The change would have been unthinkable back then. I still recollect driving into work as a surveyor and noticing a new timber hoarding having been erected around a car park (usually a levelled bomb site from WW2) over a weekend, or looking out of the office window and seeing a new tower crane, and scratching my head thinking "Was that there last week?"
As I now work as a professional photographer, I enjoy going back into town to get photographs of the new (and remaining old) buildings which make fabulous black-and-white studies, if the light or weather is right.
I have a pal coming over from the USA next week, and whilst he will be spending a lot of time in the Lakes and Yorkshire Dales doing landscape stuff, we will be meeting up for 3 days of shooting in and around Manchester. This video forms part of my research on new locations to shoot!
A great video, keep up the good work!
They will change Manchester forever but not for Mancunians, more hedge funds and asset managers accumulating assets as workers have to live in slums or on the streets, matter of time before the wealthy own everything
One of the few UK cities where it's now easy-ish to find a modern 50m² apartment as you'd expect in Madrid, Frankfurt, Seoul, Tokyo. 19th century terraced houses and semis can be fairly unpleasant places to live. Hopefully we're finished with this image of apartment buildings equating to blocks of council flats.
I left Manchester in September 2008. Beetham tower was the only skyscraper and I thought it looked great despite not really fitting in. I think that there are too many ugly buildings going up that could be anywhere. That one with the brick frontage was nice but most are hidious,soulless and will degenerate into ghettos with no sense of community. Glass and concrete prisons. The actual prison is much better looking!
Aidan I commute a lot to Leeds and there's some development there but mostly cheap looking small towers, and nothing on the same scale as Manchester. Manchester is positively vibrant in comparison. Why is it that Manchester seems to be unique in the UK in undergoing a city centre skyscraper boom? I love it. I know it's out of reach of a lot of people financially but nevertheless it does feel exciting to live in this City and it looks fantastic. The delivery riders will be looking forward to all the new flats.
What is your sense on where flat building boom in Manchester is going over next few years? Up, down, flat? Also do you have an idea on the car/flat ratio. I imagine these new blocks have a few underground car parking spots but with only limited capacity? Is that true?
Great developments but parts of Manchester could do with a good clean