Southern Gateway Masterplan, Manchester
2002

Terry Farrell and Partners were appointed as masterplanners for the Southern Gateway area of Manchester in February 2002. This area is on the southern fringe of the city centre between Castlefield Basin and Oxford Road. The project was won in an open competition and comprises six stages.

TFP worked closely with Manchester City Council and were whole-heartedly supportive of the Council's objectives, specifically that the city is continuously being renewed, reinvented and reinterpreted in consultation with landowners and other stakeholders. Terry Farrell has commented, 'Manchester has a great track record for making things happen. It is – and has always been – truly a place of work, an ever-moving, changing metropolis. The industrial revolution began in Manchester and a new kind of city was invented around revolutionary new building types. The very energy of its industrial past is what makes Manchester unique. Today, Manchester is an expanding third-millennium star in the current era of urban renaissance. I am especially pleased to contribute to the urban framework underpinning the 'Knowledge Capital' project.'

The conceptual framework for Manchester's Southern Gateway region instates an innovative vision for the future of the principal entrance to the city core from the south. TFP aim to create a new public realm to serve the area, which will become a location for world-class knowledge economy businesses. The project offers an exciting opportunity to develop a vibrant, mixed-use zone, within the southern arc of the city centre, an area that houses a critical mass of higher education facilities and provides two key gateways into the city centre (southern and eastern). The axis from the airport to the city centre forms a spine through the southern gateway of the knowledge arc. There are obvious advantages associated with this location – the site is on the international axis of the city and is well-served by rail and tram routes. There is a graduate talent pool and thriving commercial core immediately adjacent. Road improvements and tree planting will transform Medlock Street into an urban boulevard and Albion Square forms a new civic heart at the focus of the main through routes.

TFP also developed proposals for Manchester's Macintosh Village, a significant regeneration scheme. Within the masterplan, TFP designed the Green Building, a mixed-use residential scheme, which is the recipient of a 2006 national Civic Trust Award. This unique urban district will be at the hub of the regenerated Southern Gateway and will reconnect the former industrial quarter to the commercial core of the city.

TFP's masterplan scheme has been welcomed by English Heritage and the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) and cited as an exemplar for both the quality of design and the contribution it will make to the area in urban design terms.