Approval comes a year after council approved a larger version of the scheme later deemed unviable
Manchester city council has approved Hawkins Brown’s downsized plans for a library at Manchester Metropolitan University.
Councillors voted to approve the scheme last Friday, six months after the university submitted a planning application which scaled back an earlier version of the scheme.
The original £90m plan to replace the university’s All Saints Library, approved in February last year, was a 13-storey building with a distinctive zig-zag design punctuated with small circular windows.
But the university halted the plans last year after admitting that the scheme had become unviable.
The revised proposals have cut four storeys off the scheme and reduce its floorspace by almost half. The university has previously said the original design had been developed “prior to significant cost escalations within the construction sector”.
Andrew Fallon, chief property officer at Manchester Metropolitan University, said: “The approval of plans for our new library marks a significant milestone. The library will be a landmark development, reflecting our commitment to outstanding education, world-class research, and a more connected, vibrant campus experience for all.
“It marks the beginning of an inspiring new chapter in realising our University’s ambition and the future of our estates masterplan - bringing our vision to life in ways that will shape generations to come.”
The new library will replace the existing All Saints building with a purpose-built, digitally enabled facility designed to support study, research, and collaboration.
A portion of the existing All Saints building will be retained and refurbished under the plans, which the university said will feature light-filled interiors, flexible study areas, new green spaces, improved pedestrian routes and welcoming social areas.
Turner & Townsend is acting as project manager and cost consultant. The project team has retained planning consultant Deloitte, landscape architect Planit and Buro Happold on multiple roles including structural and civil engineer, facade engineer, MEP engineer and fire engineer.
Specialist library architect Schmidt Hammer Larsen, which had collaborated with Hawkins Brown on the original scheme, is understood to be no longer working on the project.
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