Is this Manchester's maddest new building?

I saw it the other day and I'm going to say - yes, yes it is!

By Ben Brown | 5 January 2021

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The brand-new Circle Square development over on the old BBC site on Oxford Road has seen a rather impressive number of buildings pop-up over the last year or so, all situated around a new public space, the ‘Symphony Park’.

In amongst all of the plans at the new development was a new hotel and large multi-storey car park, however, I don’t think people expected them to be slotted together like this when they heard about them.

Construction on the new 158-bedroom Premier Inn hotel was completed late last year, and it’s set to open up in February 2021. The thing is – it’s been plonked on top of the huge 1,018-space multi-storey car park like someone playing Tetris. Badly.

It’s certainly eye-catching, and is sure to divide opinion throughout the city and beyond. Of course, this isn’t the first building to do this in Manchester, and it certainly won’t be the last.

One of the most impressive features of new building though comes through it’s BREEAM ‘Very Good’ status, which means that it’s one of the city’s greenest and most advanced in terms of energy saving and carbon reduction.

Does that excuse the way it looks though?! Or the fact that it’s mostly a massive car park? I’ll let you decide that for yourselves – I’m sure some of you will love it, and some of you will hate it. I’m keeping stumm on this one.