Steel hits the right note
FACT FILE
Hallé St Peter’s,
Manchester
Main Client:
Hallé Concerts Society
Architect:
Stephenson Studio
Main contractor:
H.H Smith & Sons
Structural engineer:
Booth King Partnership
Steelwork contractor:
BD Structures
Steel tonnage: 120t
12 NSC
March 19
Located in Ancoats, a Manchester
inner city district that was once the
beating heart of the area’s cotton
industry, the Hallé Orchestra’s
principal rehearsal and recording space is
undergoing a significant transformation.
A new three-level steel-framed extension,
to be known as The Oglesby Centre at Hallé
St Peter’s will provide a brand-new façade to
the existing facilities, which are housed in a
former church, and front onto the adjacent
open plaza of Cutting Room Square.
“The extension is conceived as a
classically proportioned modernist metaphor
of the existing grade II listed building,” says
Stephenson Studio Associate Project
Architect Stuart Hollings.
“It will provide additional rehearsal
facilities, practice rooms, café function space
and an exciting entrance atrium offering
direct views up towards the existing church
campanile tower.”
The current work is phase two of Hallé’s
overall vision, with the first phase being the
restoration of St Peter’s church which was
completed in 2013 (see box).
Main contractor H.H Smith & Sons
began on site for phase two in mid-2018 and
initially excavated the extension’s basement.
This lowest level is where the steelwork
starts, and it will house offices, a kitchen,
piano storage and other back of house
facilities.
The steel frame’s columns at ground
floor level terminate either at the perimeter
capping beam or extend into the basement
using a fairly regular grid pattern. The frame
is primarily stabilised by two lift cores, one
of which accommodates a piano elevator
to transport the large instrument between
the basement, the first-floor
rehearsal space and into
the existing building.
Along the façade that abuts the
existing building, the steel frame is also
sympathetically attached to the church at
certain points, giving the steel frame some
more stability along with perimeter vertical
bracing.
The ground floor accommodates the
entrance and café areas and the required
long span column-free spaces have been
created by using a series of 12m-long cellular
beams. These pre-cambered members each
weigh 1.5t, have a depth of 750mm and
incorporate 350mm-diameter holes.
The first floor (third-storey), has an 8m
floor-to-ceiling height, much higher than the
other floors as it accommodates the main
rehearsal room, along with some smaller
practice spaces. A large front elevation
vertical truss, measuring 12m-wide by
7m-deep, creates the open-plan area for
the rehearsal room while also allowing a
column-free zone below for a large glazed
frontage.
The truss was fabricated from 533UB top
and bottom booms and 250mm × 150mm
RHS internals. It was also designed to be
transported and installed piece small, which
was an important consideration, not just for
this truss, but the entire steel package, due to
the confined site conditions.
“There was only one location where our
mobile crane could be sited to service the
whole of the steel erection and this was quite
close to the structure. Meticulous planning
of deliveries and where erection could be
completed was needed to ensure no area
was left inaccessible,” explains BD Structures
Director Chris Heys.
Being able to deliver steel
to site in small
Music
Manchester’s Hallé Orchestra is enlarging its St Peter’s rehearsal
and recording facility with the construction of a steel-framed
extension that will include acoustically-isolated practice spaces.
The new extension will
provide Ancoats with a
landmark building
/Braced_frames
/Steel-supported_glazed_facades_and_roofs#Atrium_Roofs_and_Sky_lights
/Concept_design#Floor_grids
/Facades_and_interfaces
/Concept_design#Structural_options_for_stability
/Steel_construction_products#Cellular_beams
/Steel_construction_products#Cellular_beams
/Fabrication
/Fabrication#Handling_and_transportation
/Construction#Steel_erection