Fresh application follows work carried out by LDA in 2024
Landscape practice Planit has submitted a full planning application for the long-awaited rethink of Manchester’s Piccadilly Gardens.
The practice was appointed by Manchester city council to lead the design of the city-centre space in March this year, two years after the council carried out a first phase of works designed by LDA.
The latest, more ambitious, set of proposals are aiming to address long-standing anti-social behaviour issues in the square by reinventing it as a family-friendly public space.
Tadao Ando’s crescent-shaped pavilion, the Japanese architect’s only UK project, has already been severed in half to create a wide pedestrian route through the square to the bus station on its southern half.
The next phase will see the square’s unreliable fountains, designed by EDAW in 2002, removed and the entire square redesigned as a large oval-shaped green which would be bisected by a path leading to the new route through Ando’s pavilion.
Images in planning documents show the square filled with more greenery and trees compared to its present state, including colourful planted flowerbeds and seating, alongside a new playground proposed for its south-east corner.
Manchester city council said the overhaul would “put the ‘gardens’ back into Piccadilly Gardens” and provide a better use of the space, including through the removal of “unsightly” concrete walls installed during the 2002 renovation.
A new flexible pavilion structure, which will be submitted as a separate application, is also being proposed for the western side of the square to host regular public events.
Interim council leader Garry Bridges said: “Residents have told us loud and clear what they want from Piccadilly Gardens. They want the area to look better and feel safer and that’s exactly what we’re going to deliver.”
He added: “This application will see a much-improved space: Putting the Gardens back in Piccadilly Gardens, providing a better children’s play area and supporting a more inviting place all round.”
Galliford Try has already been appointed as main contractor on the scheme with the rest of the project team including structural engineer Civic. The application is expected to be presented to the council’s planning committee for a decision this autumn.
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