City Tower, Manchester

City Tower
City Tower
Former names	Sunley House
General information
Status	Completed
Type	Office, Communication, Retail
Architectural style	Modernist
Location	Manchester, England
Coordinates	53°28′49″N 2°14′18″W / 53.48028°N 2.23833°W
Completed	1965; 59 years ago
Owner	Schroders
Height
Antenna spire	123 m (404 ft)
Roof	107 m (351 ft)
Top floor	28
Technical details
Floor count	30
Floor area	20,905 m2 (225,020 sq ft)
Lifts/elevators	8
Design and construction
Architect(s)	Covell, Matthews & Partners
Developer	Bernard Sunley & Sons

City Tower (formerly Sunley House) is a 30-storey office skyscraper situated in the Piccadilly Gardens area of Manchester city centre in England. As of 2024, it is the second-tallest office building in Manchester after the CIS Tower (118 m (387 ft)), the third-tallest outside London after CIS Tower and 103 Colmore Row in Birmingham (108 m (354 ft)), and the joint 21st-tallest building in Greater Manchester with Embankment Exchange, with a roof height of 107 m (351 ft).^[1]

History

City Tower was completed in 1965, one of three buildings forming the Piccadilly Plaza complex which was designed by Covell, Matthews & Partners and developed by Bernard Sunley & Sons between 1959 and 1965.^[2]

The Piccadilly Plaza was remodelled by Leslie Jones Architects in 2001–02. City Tower stands at right angles to Piccadilly and the north-facing wall is covered with designs based on circuit boards. During the remodelling of the building to the west of City Tower, Eagle Star House was replaced by a building whose roofs are a pale echo of the swooping roofs of the original.^[2]

The Tower has retail and leisure units on the ground floor and is Manchester's main radio transmitting station, which is located on the roof. The developer Bruntwood sold City Tower to the asset management company Schroders for £132 million in 2014, but kept their headquarters in the building.^[3]

Description

The Tower has entrances on York Street (renamed New York Street in 2008) and Piccadilly Gardens (formerly Parker Street). A refurbishment programme was drawn up in the late 1990s, but this was never realised until Bruntwood purchased Piccadilly Plaza for £65 million in 2004. A new central ground floor entrance was subsequently installed. The next phase involved repainting and fitting an atrium to the sides of the Tower. An advertising screen was erected showing video clips to passers-by in the Gardens.

The Tower is one of Manchester's main broadcast transmission sites, hosting the antennae of local radio stations Radio X, XS Manchester and Capital on FM and digital radio multiplexes Digital One, BBC and CE Manchester.

The penthouse on floor 28 differs from the other floors as it originally had a walkway around the perimeter. When Bruntwood acquired City Tower, they removed the walkway and installed wider windows. The redesign included an overhang with floor to ceiling windows.

Although City Tower is not the tallest building in the city, the 28th floor is the highest commercial office space in Manchester. This floor is now split in two halves, with one half, the Skylounge, open-access for City Tower residents.

Gallery

View of part of the Piccadilly Plaza, including City Tower

References

^ "City Tower". Skyscraper Center. Retrieved 28 February 2023.
^ ^a ^b Hartwell, Clare; Hyde, Matthew; Pevsner, Nikolaus (2004), Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East, (The Buildings of England), Yale University Press, ISBN 0-300-10583-5; p. 326
^ "City Tower sale announcement". 7 May 2014. Retrieved 24 September 2014.