​Manchester approves four towers including UK’s tallest outside London

Manchester city council has approved another tranche of high-rise schemes including a 246m residential tower designed by Simpson Haugh which will be the UK’s tallest outside London.

The £350m Viadux 2 scheme, designed for developer Salboy, consists of a 76-storey tower containing 452 apartments and a 160-bed hotel operated by Nobu, a brand part-owned by Robert De Niro. When complete it will be the UK’s fourth tallest building after The Shard, the yet-to-built 1 Undershaft and 22 Bishopsgate.

The scheme also includes an adjacent 23-storey tower containing 133 affordable homes.

The two blocks are the latest additions to a cluster of towers in the southern side of Manchester city centre which include the first phase of the Viadux development, a 40-storey building also designed by Simpson Haugh.

This was completed last year by Salboy’s construction partner Domis, which is also set to build both towers in the second phase. 

The project team for the scheme includes Renaissance as structural engineer, Artal as project manager, WSP as facade engineer, SLR on transport, Ridge on building services, Deloitte on planning, GIA on daylight and Planit as landscape architect.

The council’s approval for Viadux 2, made by seven votes to three at a planning committee yesterday afternoon, comes a month after the taller tower was reworked following the deal with Nobu, which will operate the entire building.

The committee also signed off a 44-storey tower designed by Sheppard Robson at a site just south of Viadux, adding further to the area’s tall building cluster.

The 2-4 Whitworth Street scheme for developer Glenbrook, approved by nine votes to one, will include 364 build-to-rent homes and 7,800 sq ft of commercial space.

It features a podium faced with a ring of three-storey terracotta-coloured arches, framing the building’s street-level retail space, and surrounded by around 700 sq m of public realm.

The project team includes Deloitte on planning, Quartz Project Services on costs, AKTII as structural engineer, Futurserv as M&E engineer, OFR Fire Consultants on fire and landscape architect Layer Studio

The plans replace a now-lapsed consent on the site for a seven-storey Travelodge designed by Glenn Howells for Aberdeen Asset Management which was approved in December 2020 but never implemented.

The fourth tower approved yesterday, also located in the cluster, is a 33-storey scheme on First Street designed by Tim Groom Architects for student accommodation developer Vita, which will contain 841 student beds.

Deloitte is again on the project team as planning consultant, with ROC Consulting acting as structural and civil engineer, Abacus as QS, Futerserv as M&E engineer and TPM Landscape as landscape architect.

The south Manchester cluster currently includes a total of 12 completed towers and 19 which have been approved.