Manchester’s messiah

It was 11.20am on Saturday, June 15, 1996, when a 1500kg bomb ripped through Manchester, injuring hundreds and devastating a city. Howard Bernstein was at a family wedding when he heard. It was a day that would change Manchester forever and Bernstein was set to play a crucial part in rebuilding a city in ruins.

The timing could not have been worse. “That was a bad time for the city in all sorts of ways,” Bernstein says. “Not just because of the incredible impact it had in taking out a significant amount of Manchester’s floor space. But also because we were trying get our act together in coping with the competition which the Trafford Centre - a huge retail centre- was going to pose when it opened two or three months later.”

But the bomb did bring big opportunities.

“I always thought what it gave us was no different to what happened in Barcelona for the 1992 Olympics. It gave us the opportunity to transform and accelerate a programme of change in a five-year period that otherwise would have taken 10 to 15 years,” he adds.

The scale of damage was enormous, spanning almost three quarters of a kilometre and affecting 49,000 sq m of shops and 57,000 sq m of offices.

Bernstein led the taskforce that was charged with coming up with a plan that would allow the city to recover. Two weeks later the city was functioning at just over half capacity.

For Bernstein, knighted in 2003, this period represented three distinctive phases. “Phase one was ‘Christ, what’s going on?’ Phase two was ‘how do we organise and re-function?’ and three, ‘how do we recover and renew?’. We got to that process in three years, which was quite remarkable.”

‘The london of the north’

A deadline of Christmas 1999 was set to reopen significant parts of the city. Within that time a complicated programme had to be delivered which saw the rebuilding of the Arndale centre, Royal Exchange, a new Millennium Quarter, and the provision of an integrated transport system among many other projects.

Within that time the taskforce secured £83m of public sector funding and £500m of private sector investment. Contractors were made to work within the taskforce’s framework. In 1998, Bernstein was appointed the council’s chief executive.

Since then Manchester has hosted the Commonwealth Games and the transformation continues with more than a £1bn of private investment. It has become the London of the north and a powerful player.

There will be a new Hilton Hotel, a £100 million civil justice centre and the Spinningfields Masterplan – a multi-million pound development spanning nine hectares which will include a five star hotel, 400 residential apartments, 49,361 sq m of civic and educational buildings and 30, 500 sq m of retail, restaurant and bars.

The process has not always been smooth. strong objections by landowners have caused at least an 18-month delay to the Transport Interchange at Shudehill. It will now open in the Autumn. Others have been critical of spending - it cost £30m to build the Urbis cultural centre.

Bernstein is defiant: “Look at the city around us. We have extended for the first time the economic boundaries of the northern part of the city centre – the first time over 100 years. We are now securing redevelopment of sites which have not been redeveloped for over 100 years. In developing that overall mix of facilities, retail, cultural, commercial, residential, you’ve got to have people generating uses.”

We have worked with some bad contractors, firms who think underpricing is a tactical approach

Howard Bernstein

He says the key to success has been strong leadership about the type of city the council wanted to create and facilitating a wide range of partnerships to oversee the implementation of that vision. “Thirdly, we learned how to intelligently intervene in the marketplace to move things along. We understood the importance of logistical phasing, change and growth. We understood what it meant to be a good client and we understood what the market needs and what the market wants,” he says.

Good client, bad client?

On 4 April, Bernstein delivered the prestigious CIC’s Fourth Happold Medal Lecture on the regeneration of Manchester. The lecture is in memory of the CIC’s first chairman, Professor Sir Edmund Happold.

A key focus was being a good client, something it has taken him 10 years to learn. He is well aware of bad ones: “A bad client, is one that is not clear about what outcomes they want to deliver, not clear about how different parts or different stakeholders whose contribution to the success of the initiative needs to be consulted and integrated into the process. And people who do not put quality at the forefront.

“In my experience, high quality design does not necessarily mean highest cost. What turns out to be a pretty crappy building can actually turn out to be high cost, because you are not only looking at the construction cost, but also life time facilities and management maintenance costs. I think I have learned the hard way over the 10 years or so of what constitutes a good client.”

It must have paid off. Last year RIBA named the City Council client of the year.

Bernstein has tremendous energy, he cites his hobbies as work and football. When asked by a reporter what was the last novel he read, he replied The Sustainable Communities Plan.

He is likeable, with an infectious, dirty laugh. He’s been branded inflexible, which he takes to mean he will not accept mediocrity for his city, whether in transport, design or construction.

Two contractors who rose far above mediocrity were Bovis and Laing O’Rourke, who worked on a number of often problematic projects. So what makes a good contractor? “It’s the honesty, the mutual respect and the fact that we understand each other’s needs and obligations,” says Bernstein. “At no point did Laing O’Rourke come to us and say, ‘We’re not sure we’re going to be able to finish this stadium in time for the Commonwealth Games’”. He bursts out laughing: “They took on that burden of obligation as much as we did.

“We have worked with some bloody bad contractors, who think underpricing a contract is a tactical approach. There is no need for such an approach with a client such as Manchester who understands and manages risk.”

Contractors also have an important part to play in regeneration. He says: “We are increasingly seeing not just hairy-armed construction managers, but seeing people who understand that you’ve got to connect with the wider agenda. If those companies are going to be successful, their outskills base has to become somewhat more generic and more in tune with local needs and opportunities.

“The good old-fashioned constructor who just sat there and waited for building contracts is no longer appropriate in the modern world. I think that’s a good thing. It has already livened up the industry. Those who adapt better are going to be the ones that succeed.”