The facts
Client: Allied London Properties
Location: Manchester
Services: Civil, Structural and Geotechnical
Engineering; Monitoring/Due Diligence
Sector: Commerical
Contract Type: Design and Build
Project Value: £1bn
Start/Completion: 2002 – ongoing
The Video
The project
“London has Canary Wharf and Paris has La Defence,
Manchester has its own modern financial centre in the form of
Spinningfields” (Financial Times 2007)
The ongoing £1bn Spinningfields development in Manchester City
Centre is creating a new, high quality commercial and mixed use
European business destination. Allied London Properties, working in
partnership with Manchester City Council, is leading the 22 acre
scheme which extends from bustling Deansgate, one of the city’s
main thoroughfares, to the waterfront of the River Irwell.
Capita Symonds has sent the past 10 years providing ongoing
civil and structural engineering design services on various parts
of the project which comprises:
- 20 new signature buildings - each one the result of a
competition between leading international architects;
- 4.6 million sqft of high quality commercial, civic,
residential, retail and open space;
- Six acres of public realm;
- Five new public squares;
- 2.37 million sqft of office space (25,000 workers will
eventually occupy the site);
- 400,000 sqft of complementary high-end retail and leisure
areas;
- 391 luxury apartments in the Left Bank complex;
- A 24 floor complex featuring a four star hotel and luxury
apartments.
Capita Symonds has worked on the following projects to
date:
No.1 Hardman Boulevard (completed May 2004)
The
10-storey, £58m Regional Headquarters for The Royal Bank of
Scotland provides a 350,000 sqft administration centre for the
Bank.
Capita Symonds provided structural design services - developing
designs that could be realised within the tight programme,
providing a best-cost structural solution that didn’t impact
negatively on other package costs such as cladding. This was
achieved by successfully integrating a high level of building
services within the structure.
The building is steel framed, with reinforced concrete shear
walls providing the vertical strong points. The floor slabs are
typically in-situ concrete on composite metal decking, supported by
cellular steel beams. This system allowed fast-track erection of
the main structural elements while providing an economic and
adaptable floor plate.
Awards:
- BCO North Region - Best Commercial Building Award 2005.
1 Spinningfields Square (completed June 2004)
The £34m 1 Spinningfields Square provides a 130,000
sqft Regional Executive Headquarters for The Royal Bank of
Scotland. Architecturally the building is broken into three
distinct elements – with the office area split into two parts
either side of a central atrium space. Below ground three levels of
underground car parking space have been squeezed into an existing
9m deep basement.
All aspects of Capita Symonds’ structural design were focused on
producing high quality office accommodation that could be realised
within the tight programme with a best-cost structural
solution.
In order to maximise the floor to ceiling heights achievable
within the given storey heights (governed by planning constraints)
an integrated service/ structure solution was adopted. This made
use of cellular floor beams to successfully accommodate the high
level of building services within their depth. The beams were
designed to act compositely with the floor slabs to take advantage
of the weight and depth benefits this brings. This approach allowed
the overall integrated services and structure zone to be limited in
depth to 800mm (including the slabs) whilst still providing a
highly efficient structure.
NCP Multi-Storey Car Park (completed July 2006)
Capita Symonds provided structural engineering services on
the £10m building which provides parking for nearly 700 cars.
To maximise provision of car parking spaces, the building was
designed around the ‘Vertical Circulation Model’ layout, resulting
in all the floor slabs being constructed to gradients. This method
of construction minimises the length of the main ramps, and
minimises the lost space. But it does present an engineering
challenge in terms of the structural frame (as the floor slab is
constantly varying in level, all steel beams have to be installed
at different levels and positioned along the slopes).
No.2 Hardman Street (completed April 2006)
Capita Symonds provided structural engineering services on
this £32m multi-storey office building which provides nearly
150,000 sqft of office space over eight floors.
An in-situ concrete frame was adopted for the building with
post-tensioned flat slab floors to deliver the minimum overall
construction depth to satisfy planning requirements. It also
maximised the number of floors within the height constraints
resulting from the adjacent listed court building.
No.3 Hardman Street (completed October 2008)
Capita Symonds provided structural engineering services on
this 350,000 sqft, £89m, 13-storey, landmark office building - one
of largest ever built in the city. Construction began in October
2006 and was completed in October 2008 - an incredibly tight build
programme for a project of this scale, especially as the
construction was phased around the demolition of the existing
building on the site.
The façade is fitted with opaque and transparent panels which
are distributed to respond to the site orientation. This optimises
the views across the city, as well as creating a passive solar
shading system, increasing daylight into the building and reducing
heat loss - helping the building to meet the new Part L
requirements for the conservation of fuel and power.
Structurally, the includes an 18m column free floor plate and a
three storey high cantilevered plant screen structure that had to
be designed to highly onerous deflection criteria of the glazed
curtain walling system.
The largest challenge however was the retention of a primary
electricity substation within the basement – which had to remain
operational throughout. To resolve this, a 15 metre span cantilever
truss arrangement was required to support the ten storeys built
over the sub station.
No.1 The Avenue (completed December 2008)
No.1 The
Avenue features nearly 40,000 sqft of office and retail space and
is home to Armani’s flagship store – undoubtedly the development’s
standout project.
Capita Symonds provided structural engineering services on the
building, which features the largest office cantilever in the UK
and was developed on a highly confined site.
The building form is of two parallelograms oppositely handed and
positioned over each other, forming a roof terrace to the west and
a 23m cantilever to the east. A three storey high elevational truss
was incorporated to resolve the cantilever and the truss was
replicated in all elevations to provide the lateral stability of
the upper block of the structure, with loads transferred via the
floor diaphragms.
Awards:
- Winner: IStructE North West Regional Structural Awards – Best
Medium Project Award 2009.
- Winner: Manchester City Council Building Control Awards
–Technical Innovation Award 2009.
- Winner: Manchester City Council Building Control Awards – Built
in Quality Award 2009.
- Winner: Manchester City Council Building Control Awards –
Sustainable Construction Award 2009.
- Nominated: LABC Northwest Building Awards - Technical
Innovation Award 2009.
- Nominated: LABC Northwest Building Awards - Built in Quality
Award 2009.
- Nominated: LABC Northwest Building Awards - Sustainable
Construction Award 2009.
- Highly Commended: ICE Northwest Region Awards - Merit
Award.
- Commendation: BCSA Structural Steel Design Awards– Buildings
over Two Storeys Award.
Public Realm (ongoing)
Capita
Symonds is providing civil and structural engineering services for
various areas of public realm and the interconnecting highways.
These include Water Street and Gartside Street re-alignments; and
specifications, design and monitoring construction pavements which
provide a high quality continuous walkway (Spinningfields Palette)
from Deansgate through Spinningfields to Irwell Square, adjacent to
the River Irwell. Accommodation works for the iconic 3 Hardman
Street have also been completed as part of this package including
several public sewer and services diversions.
In addition to the numerous major design projects Capita
Symonds has also been responsible for monitoring two buildings
designed by Foster and Arup.
No.3 Hardman Square (completed April 2007)
Capita Symonds provided civil and structural engineering
monitoring services on the Foster and Partners-designed, £42m No. 3
Hardman Square, which comprises 180,000sqft of office space over
eight storeys and features a rounded triangular floor plan.
The project is the focal point of the Spinningfields masterplan,
sitting next to the public plaza which provides the site’s main
pedestrian thoroughfare.
No.4 Hardman Square (completed April 2007)
Capita Symonds provided structural engineering
monitoring services on the project which has a rounded rectangular
plan and five floors of office space totalling 51,000 sqft. It
partly oversails the Prisoner Loading Bay for the adjacent Crown
Courts building while new plant is located on the existing roof
deck of the Prisoner Loading Bay which ties into the new building
at first floor level.
As with No.3 Hardman Square, the structural form for both
buildings comprises a steel frame with in-situ concrete floor
plates. Lateral stability is achieved via internal concrete cores
and all foundations are piled, with a contiguous piled retaining
wall forming the extended basement below No.3.
Awards:
- Winner: BCO North Region - Best Commercial Building Award
2007.
- Winner: BCO Awards – Best North West Regional Project Award
2009.