Digital Reporter Ben Williams reports back on a recent staff visit to Number One First Street to check out the HOME site.
There’s always been something exciting about cranes popping up on Manchester’s skyline. It’s comforting to see ongoing investment in the city centre and a pleasure to watch our evolution as a modern city. Four such cranes now loom over the construction site on First Street and beneath them HOME begins to take shape.
Last week we joined staff from Cornerhouse and the Library Theatre Company on the fifth floor of Number One First Street to get a bird’s eye view of the building site. With us were Mace‘s Project Manager Paul Roberts and Wates Construction Project Manager Raymond Jakes. They talked us through the site, compared our view to the plans and explained how the construction is coming together.
From our fifth floor vantage point you could already see the outline of HOME is beginning to take shape. Part of an outside wall has been erected near the railway and quite unmistakably the triangular construction is evocative of Cornerhouse’s iconic shape, though more rounded and on a bigger scale.
As Paul and Raymond held the plans against the window Cornerhouse and LTC staff were audibly plotting out the location of the restaurant, the shape of the theatre and measuring out their offices using construction workers as a bespoke unit of measurement.
Before they can get in there and enjoy their new offices and kitchens there’s still around 18 months of construction to go and it’s a project with its own unique challenges. Joining HOME on First Street will be several retail units, a multi-storey car park, a hotel and student accommodation.
As Raymond and Paul explained, it is quite a squeeze for several simultaneous constructions to operate in such a tight space. The four tower cranes are carefully computer controlled to ensure each operates within its own space and that none go within three metres of the railway line running near to the site. Challenges aside, the construction is all going to plan and by Christmas the skeleton of the building should be at roof level and give passers by an idea of exactly how HOME will look.
What you won’t see then is the stainless steel cladding in which the building will be wrapped. This is designed to look a different colour from alternative vantage points and change dependent on a light and weather.
If you were to gauge the mood of the staff on the tour it would definitely be one of excitement. We heard conversations going on about outside screenings, food and drink in the courtyard and another about the world-class media facilities. Everyone is looking forward and it’s becoming easier for us see this construction site as a future focal point for culture in Manchester.
