FACT FILE
Landmark in St Peter’s
Square, Manchester
Main client: Barings
Development
manager:
Castlebrook Investments
Architect:
Squire & Partners
Main contractor:
Bowmer + Kirkland
Structural engineer:
Curtins
Steelwork contractor:
Billington Structures
Steel tonnage: 1,800t
Creating a landmark
Model showing the
rear elevation and core
12 NSC
February 19
Strong levels of demand are being
experienced in the Manchester
office market at present and, in
order to satisfy this requirement, a
number of new build commercial schemes
are currently starting in the city centre.
One of only two wholly new
developments due to complete in the city
centre in 2019, the Landmark in St Peter’s
Square is a 14-storey steel-framed building
that will offer 16,700m2 of BREEAM
‘Excellent’ office space and 50 car parking
spaces in two levels of basement.
The steel frame offers clear spans and
maximum flexibility for the floorplates, with
an offset core situated along one elevation.
“The office floors have typically been
designed to be column-free and only
one column exists within the floorplate.
Typically, secondary beams at 3m centres
span approximately 17.6m from perimeter
columns to the core, except at the south west
and north east ends of the building where
the secondary beams span onto a primary
beam in lieu of the core,” says Curtins
Structural Engineer Carl Bebbington.
Stephen Barrett, Squire & Partners
Project Architect adds:
“From a spatial point of view a steel
frame was chosen at the initial stages as this
would allow for these larger spans, which
provide an open-plan office space without
any interruption.
“The benefits of steel also allow for a
quicker programme in terms of installation
and coordination of services, where steel
beams can be penetrated offsite to allow
sufficient openings for the distribution of
services within the ceiling void.”
The structure’s one internal column is
located close to the southern face of the
core. Here the span from the core to the rear
elevation is nearly 19m so, in order to keep
the beam depth consistent with the rest of
the building, a column was added.
If the design team had opted for a
clear span in this area the beam required
would have been very big, up to 1,200mm
deep, and so the additional column was
considered to be the most cost-effective
solution.
The overall structure has a number of
constraints which drove some interesting
technical details, and one of these is the
connection between the single internal
column and the reinforced concrete
basement support column beneath, through
which around 20MN of force needed to be
transferred.
Mr Bebbington explains: “To transfer
Commercial
Using a steel frame solution has helped form
the flexible long-span floorplates required for a
Manchester city centre commercial development.
The project fits into a
confined city centre site
Fabricated plate girder
for the building’s roof
/Multi-storey_office_buildings
/Braced_frames
/BREEAM
/Multi-storey_office_buildings#Flexibility_and_adaptability
/Concept_design#Concrete_or_steel_cores
/The_case_for_steel
/Design