Marksix
November 14th, 2006, 07:09 AM
Manchester's new tower is now complete. It's the tallest residential in the UK, although the lower half is a hotel.
It's not to my taste; I think it looks too monolithic for its' environment and the dark green glazing reflects the greyness of Manchester back at you. As anyone who knows Manchester, most of the time the upper floors will be in cloud (in Manchester the trams have lifebelts under the seats) but it is a landmark in the evolution of the UK's tall buildings.
I'm full of admiration both for the people who built this and the developers and their bankers who had the balls to have a go.
The Hilton hotel has a "skybar" with a transparent floor half way up the building.....makes me nauseous just looking at the picture! Many (drunk) people think it's funny to jump up and down on it to test its integrity.....I say leave it alone!!!
The impact on the market will be very interesting. Most of the apartments sold to date were bought "off plan" by speculators or people buying to let. This will be the true test of the success of this building and the early signs don't look that good. Launched into a softening market there is now a glut of these apartments in central Manchester all hitting the market at the same time. I think it will take 10 - 15 years for this building to "bed in".
It seems most of these aprtments below floor 41 have no air-con - a sign of the generally lower quality of the UK's residential towers compared to elsewhere.
rental
2 bedroom ~£1500 - £2000 per month
buy
2 bedroom 40th - 45th floor 956 sq ft ~ £400,000 - £700,000
1 single bedroom 400sq ft £180,000
penthouses - £3 million plus (check out the pic of someones tree being hoisted up there)
It's not to my taste; I think it looks too monolithic for its' environment and the dark green glazing reflects the greyness of Manchester back at you. As anyone who knows Manchester, most of the time the upper floors will be in cloud (in Manchester the trams have lifebelts under the seats) but it is a landmark in the evolution of the UK's tall buildings.
I'm full of admiration both for the people who built this and the developers and their bankers who had the balls to have a go.
The Hilton hotel has a "skybar" with a transparent floor half way up the building.....makes me nauseous just looking at the picture! Many (drunk) people think it's funny to jump up and down on it to test its integrity.....I say leave it alone!!!
The impact on the market will be very interesting. Most of the apartments sold to date were bought "off plan" by speculators or people buying to let. This will be the true test of the success of this building and the early signs don't look that good. Launched into a softening market there is now a glut of these apartments in central Manchester all hitting the market at the same time. I think it will take 10 - 15 years for this building to "bed in".
It seems most of these aprtments below floor 41 have no air-con - a sign of the generally lower quality of the UK's residential towers compared to elsewhere.
rental
2 bedroom ~£1500 - £2000 per month
buy
2 bedroom 40th - 45th floor 956 sq ft ~ £400,000 - £700,000
1 single bedroom 400sq ft £180,000
penthouses - £3 million plus (check out the pic of someones tree being hoisted up there)