High flyers

The 169 metre high Manchester Hilton, which mixes hotel and private accommodation over 49 floors, sets new standards for urban development – it is the UK’s tallest residential skyscraper and is sited just minutes away from the city’s bustling centre. There really is nothing quite like it anywhere else in Britain – yet.

There has been a flurry of planning submissions for skyscrapers outside London in recent years. Motivated as much by civic pride as any pressing regeneration concerns, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, Birmingham and Brighton all have soaring residential towers in the pipeline (see map overleaf) but none, apart from Manchester Hilton, have yet materialised.

Developed by the Beetham Organisation, designed by Ian Simpson Architects and built by Carillion, Manchester Hilton is arguably the most significant British building to be completed this year.

CM visited the scheme and spoke to the key players: the contractor’s project manager, the developer’s project manager and the building’s architect. This is an elite team that is rare in the UK – construction industry veterans with a track record in residential skyscraper design.

With a project cost of £100m and on site for 34 months, Manchester Hilton may become the blueprint for other UK cities. Let’s hope their project teams are equally ambitious.

The contractor

Talking to Carillion’s project director Kevin Critchley and design manager Stuart Loftus about Beetham’s Manchester Hilton, a busy, complex, inspirational project is revealed, where gantry platforms “grew like flowers” on the concrete frame, and the tower’s crowning “blade”, once erected, “paled into the sky”. Some buildings seem to invite such commentary, and Britain’s tallest residential tower is one.

However, for every waxed lyric, there’s a hard construction fact. So if you want to know how to stop concrete setting before it reaches the upper floors, for example (“add a retardant”) or whether or not to use fly tables in a city centre ("don't"), the Carillion team will tell you.

Working with concrete at height brings other problems too: the hazards of axial shortening for one. “Imagine crushing an empty can, it compresses in the middle. That's what happens to a skyscraper when another pre-tensioned concrete floor is added,” explains Loftus.

It means calibrating tolerances and super-elevating core and columns, so that floor and wall junctions align once the building is fully loaded. It’s a tricky exercise but, adds Loftus, concrete removes the need for a massive amount of fire protection and provides excellent acoustic installation. “Once it’s done, it’s done,” agrees Critchley, another fan of the grey stuff.

For Critchley a skyscraper project is all about logistics. In fact he puts the logistics manager’s importance - on this particular build - on a par with that of the project manager. “Getting 500 men up and down 50 floors was the single biggest challenge,” he says, and because of the sheer volume of materials used, preloading each floor for internal works was vital. “We had to do it in the evening because the two internal lifts were used to move workers around the building during daytime.” This meant having a night logistics manager on the payroll too.

But the biggest problem with tall buildings is wind. Critchley admits it slowed progress in Manchester. “We were using a weather-dependent monorail system for the cladding installation, but a slight gust of wind could send it crashing into the structure,” he says. As they were already behind on the concrete frame (again, because wind affected use of the 22-storey cranes), using the monorail to both transport and install the glazing was too slow. They ended up using tower cranes – once the frame was nearing completion – to lift the curtain wall units on to gantry access platforms instead. “As a recovery package it got us back on track,” notes Critchley.

Cranes in general are not without their difficulties – they need to be jumped, for instance, and then tied to the frame above a certain height. It’s a specialist job with contractors throughout the country placing their jump schedules in the hands of just a few experts. “When you’re doing this type of work, you need to be ultra-cautious. You can be on programme, ready to jump, then the weather worsens and you have to postpone. We can’t expect them to hang around.” And tying cranes to the frame is problematic as it is dependent on the frame package being on schedule.

There is one aspect of skyscraper construction however, that Carillion gladly welcomed: the amount of repetition. “In both frame and cladding – it’s the same all the way up,” says Critchley. That maybe the case with Manchester Hilton but another Beetham tower designed by Ian Simpson Architects for Blackfriars in London, is more complex. “It’s a complete contrast with the Hilton. Every floor is different, every piece of glass is different. Break one, you need a unique order,” explains Critchley.

However, if Carillion is appointed main contractor for the London high rise, there is every chance its idiosyncrasies will be primarily a source of inspiration.

What the contractor advises:

• Start logistics at the design stage.
• Establish fire strategy early.
• Reduce working at height – emphasise off-site fabrication.
• Fully enclose the building.
• Monitor the interaction between the frame’s progress and curtain wall installation.
• Secure cranes overnight with anti-climb measures.
• Avoid sharing key access equipment – you’ll never get it back.
• Timescales – allow for poor weather.
• Don’t forget the wind – the higher you go the worse it gets.

The Developer

According to Mark Connelly, project manager at the Beetham Organisation, Canary Wharf is more than simply London’s newest business district, it’s a training ground for those who build skyscrapers.

Sitting in the restaurant of his company’s latest building, the Manchester Hilton, he reflects on his experience there. “It’s where I learned the trade. I was project manager on one of the later towers, 40 Bank Street, completed a few years ago.

“I took a lot of that knowledge to Beetham. It’s without doubt a centre of excellence as far as high-rise construction is concerned. You’ve got the best professionals in the world based there, people who have worked on Battery Park, New York and the KL towers in Kuala Lumpa.”

To get a team on a project that has worked on a high rise is virtually impossible

Mark Connelly, Beetham Organisation

Canary Wharf’s phased development programme is in its final stage and only one more plot is left to fill. Connelly says: “It’s a fantastic place. It’s got the quality that Stephen Beetham aspires to. In fact when I first entered his office, he had a picture of 40 Bank Street on his wall.”

Beetham’s motto is: “If it doesn’t excite us, we won't do it.” A marketing line for sure, but it does sum up Beetham’s approach to development. First, Beetham consistently hires design-led architects. Ian Simpson Architects is behind three of its tall buildings, Allies & Morrison another, while global giant Aedas has also produced work for the firm. Second, it is interested in place making. Connelly explains: “Cities should have a focal point. In years gone by it was the cathedral, then the railway station; today skyscrapers can occupy that role.”

The Manchester Hilton is located in Castlefield, a rough and tumble district just outside the city core. As development continues, gas sites and industrial yards share space with organic snack shops, design agency offices and new build flats. The Hilton and its active ground level of bars and restaurants has enlivened the previously neglected locale and Connelly suggests that planners are now revolving their strategies around the tower. Beetham has similar plans for other English cities: it has a slew of residential towers in Brighton, Birmingham, London, Liverpool and Manchester that are either built, under construction, or in for planning.

“Skyscrapers represent wealth so the quality has to be above criticism,” says Connelly. The procurement and design of Manchester Hilton was “very prescriptive” he says. “We use design and build, so employ all the consultants and tell them exactly how they should be building it. We decide well in advance how we’re going to do it.

I determine what the floor to floor is by specifying the height of the building, which in turn, is set by local flight path requirements. The first call I’ll make is to the Civil Aviation Authority.”

Connelly says that experience is central to the creation of a Beetham-backed skyscraper. “It’s down to the people. You’ve got to have a background in tall building. To get a team on a project that has worked on high rise is virtually impossible. We have a strict vetting process. We’ve got skyscraper experience whereas as most contractors don’t.”

Connelly wraps up by relating that when a CV from a construction manager from Canary Wharf landed on his desk he passed his details straight to Carillion. It can only be a matter of time before Beetham’s name too, will be similarly linked to the art of developing skyscrapers.

What the developer advises:

• Get planners on board from the start.
• Secure skyscraper-experienced people.
• Use ‘line of balance’ programme management – it flags up problems with clear graphics.
• Negotiated contracts are best.
• Don’t call it a skyscraper unless it is more than 150 metres high.
• Remember that skyscrapers are greedy animals and they eat resources.

The architect

Ian Simpson Architects is Britain’s leading skyscraper practice with several in the planning pipeline and at least one ready to start on site. But when discussing the Manchester Hilton with Ian Simpson himself, he’s careful to point out that there’s more to the practice than skyscraper design. Mind you, he says this with pen in hand, seated at a table covered in sketches of crystal-shaped towers – ideas for an invitation-only overseas skyscraper competition. Clearly, like the height of his buildings, his reputation as a high-rise artiste is growing, even if Simpson is reluctant to portray himself and his practice in such an exclusive manner.

Whatever his thoughts, there’s no doubt that the Hilton Manchester provided him with the opportunity of a lifetime – to transform a site with a unique building. Passionate about maximising density, Simpson saw a mixed-use residential tower as ideal. “I really like the notion of a city transforming a piece of itself, from a car showroom into something that has a much wider mix of uses – as we’ve done in Castlefield with the HIlton. It’s an important piece of Manchester’s regeneration jigsaw.”

The project offered Simpson – like many architects, a genuine advocate of high-rise living – another lifetime opportunity: the chance to live in a penthouse overlooking his native Manchester. When he moves in next year, he’ll find his new home has a winter garden too, complete with an oak tree and an olive grove which Simpson explains is the result of a “perverse desire to have a garden in the sky”.

The other 24 floors of residential accommodation are not quite so well appointed. They are not stingy on space, indeed they have generous south facing balconies, but it’s worth noting, as Simpson does, that the Hilton was built at a relatively low cost. “It’s not that much in excess of the low-rise red brick and zinc cladding lumps scattered around us,” he confesses.

The secret of a successful tall building, according to Simpson, lies in creating a vibrant environment at street level. The Hilton’s street elevation is active with restaurants, bars and foyers, each characterised by transparency, light, and openness. “It’s an invitation really, an extension of the public realm,” he explains.

“And It’s important that the building actually meets the ground, rather than being perched on a podium structure. At the Hilton, we’ve also created a ‘sky bar’ on the 23rd floor, half way up the building. It’s really engaged the public.”

He continues: “Proportional elegance is essential too. Manchester Hilton, which has a 7:1 ratio, is as slender as it could be, structurally, and still stand up.” Simpson says that reinforcing the verticality with surface elements – in the Hilton’s case, a fritting pattern with vertical striations – not only adds a skyward thrust, it helps obscure interior furniture (see photo, left). Elsewhere, on the east and west facades, vertically-placed fins catch the sunlight, providing a degree of animation. “It should have simplicity and clarity regarding materiality and its envelope,” he adds.

“I enjoy working with commercial developers and big contractors. It’s a challenge,” ventures Simpson, seemingly at odds with many in his profession. However, he offers a warning to both his architectural peers and the wider industry before signing off. “Developers and contractors are responsible for most of what’s built in our cities today. Unless architects get in there and push them to do something more worthwhile, we’ll be forced to live with the results.” 

What the architect advises:

• Make sure the site is skyscraper-suitable.
• Create an active ground floor open to the public.
• Strive for proportional elegance.
• Apply contextual landscaping at the base – if space permits.
• Work to budget so you don’t compromise on aesthetics when it’s too late.
• Research and learn from well-designed skyscrapers.
• Don’t rely on computer visualisations.