New scheme has cut floorspace by almost half compared to original plans
Hawkins Brown has submitted a planning application for its downsized Manchester Metropolitan University library scheme.
The firm’s pared-back proposals for the All Saints Library come two years after a larger and more complex version of the scheme was sent in to planners at Manchester city council.
The original £90m scheme 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 (MMU) halted the plans earlier this year after admitting that the scheme had become unviable.
The revised proposals have cut four storeys off the scheme and reduce its floorpsace by almost half. MMU has previously said the original design had been developed ”prior to significant cost escalations within the construction sector”.
Specialist library architect Schmidt Hammer Larsen, which had collaborated with Hawkins Brown on the original scheme, is also understood to be no longer working on the project.
The scheme 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, fire engineer.
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