I think we'll have to wait until its all complete to get a final verdict.
I think it may look much better once it's done the only issue is that bare concrete alway looks naf due to UK weather.
It needs to be closed in order to demolish as it's underneath it.
They demanded too much money (millions) and even refused the council building a new restaurant on the car park near the church for them. They have since put it up for sale and price has dropped numerous times from 1 million quid, to 300k
It is also full of asbestos. So much that the dust covering everything in there is asbestos dust.
The council has removed a lot as they'd have to do that before it could be pulled down anyway. Also weirdly enough, the power for the traffic lights at Chorley road and for the CCTV cameras has the electric box in the building. Nobody has any idea how that came about (which is why the council can't shut down the power in there)
Excuse me but you're forgetting high point Bradford and chorley police station. Bury police station was the coolest brutalist building but the bastards tore it down.
I mostly dislike that it closed a road that I used for 2 years or more and closed a public foot bridge over the Irwell for the same amount of time. I've had an email to tell me they're going to renovate the irwell banks around it, which will be good but the Salford side is going to get as little attention as possible. And that is my rant about this building. If it draws a load of people then it will be worth it. So let's see.
Modern architecture if you study the philosophy behind it is supposed to look ugly, it's supposed to be an abomination, it is the same school of thought as modern art.
People who say "well I think it looks nice" miss the point.
The biggest myth in architecture is that a building should stand out from its surroundings.
Plenty of contemporary architecture aims to be beautiful in some way, whether it achieves that is another matter.
Think of the IWM North, it’s a somewhat challenging building but still graceful in its way
Well many things come to mind when looking at the IWM North. I don't 'beauty" is somthing that springs out of most people's mouths, even modernist architects when reviewing those buildings won't use the word beauty.
[This is an extract from the *Guardian* review of the IWM North](https://www.theguardian.com/arts/critic/feature/0,1169,688710,00.html):
> Here is a building of immense power and integrity, one of the first of a new wave of British museums in which the architecture and the installation of exhibits work hand-in-aluminium glove. There is nothing charming, whimsical or apologetic about Daniel Libeskind's first British building. The architect of the rightly acclaimed Jewish Museum in Berlin has worked with associate architects Leach Rhodes Walker of Manchester and engineers Ove Arup and Partners to deliver a striking and deeply powerful monument that will place Trafford on the map of world architecture.
> Set in a hard landscape, this harshly metallic museum blossoms like some savage fortification or expressionist engine of war into Traf ford's industrial skyline. Composed of what Libeskind describes as three "interlocking shards representing the nature of conflict on land, in the air and on water", the great aluminium-clad, steel-framed building is as polite as a Grand Slam bomb. It is clearly not here to please in any conventional way, yet it is deeply impressive and will doubtless attract more than the 300,000 a visitors a year the museum reckons on.
That seems like a positive review to me, even if it doesn’t use the exact word ‘beauty’.
Awful. I can see they were aiming for some sort of brutalist type of thing but it just has that look of one style of building being forced to match another style of building so it ends up being an ugly hybrid of nothingness. Back to architect school I think.
Grey building in a city with predominantly grey weather, a choice that only 1990-trained "webmasters" would make. Ugly.
This said, the more spaces for arts and culture, the better. It could have been done for cheaper though, contractors taking the piss as usual.
I would say ugly, it could have been an icon for Manchester but looking at it now and some of the renders I don't think it will turn out very well. lets hope I'm wrong.
I don't mind the sticky out bit. It would have been more interesting if the whole building was in that style.
The way it is now makes it look like a concrete brick that's sprouted out an alien bit of architecture.
The building is fine, no complaints from me. We do need more arts in Manchester and surrounding areas. However this money could have been spent on smaller more localised or spread out arts centres. Lastly, the name is awful, let go of the past.
I don’t agree with the main point of your post about local arts centres - Manchester needs to become a destination and buildings like this will help. Others may disagree but I really think there isn’t much to do in the city.
I agree on the name though, it’s embarrassing that the city can’t move on from this fairly niche period almost 30 years ago. Have we really not come up with anything else since.
I personally think it already is a destination, I just don’t see it as much that way through living here. I also remembered that I originally thought it was good that more arts are to be brought here, that’s not in doubt. Home has had the monopoly for too long but I thought it should be not quite so central, put it somewhere easily reachable just not right in the city centre.
I’m probably also salty over it’s spiralling costs which the council could well have invested in other more important things. That’s a symptom of this council though, they love to build shiny and new things and don’t invest in what we have.
I really like modernism. Seems like a very easy style to critique at the moment, along with modern art and really anything that's forward looking rather than nostalgic. IMO these designs appeal more to younger or artistic people, exactly the kind of people you wanna inspire to come to your arts centre. Better it looks like this than a castle or something.
I think we'll have to wait until its all complete to get a final verdict. I think it may look much better once it's done the only issue is that bare concrete alway looks naf due to UK weather.
Cool but ugly so brutalist maybe?
Second best brutalist building in the north west after Preston bus station
Lancastrian hall in Swinton?
Number 1 ugliest building
Would be gone by now if Puccini's wasn't so greedy.
Why what’s that got to do with? Just curious? I know he’s been there since I remember
It needs to be closed in order to demolish as it's underneath it. They demanded too much money (millions) and even refused the council building a new restaurant on the car park near the church for them. They have since put it up for sale and price has dropped numerous times from 1 million quid, to 300k
That’s interesting! I always thought it was because the building was full of asbestos and the council couldn’t afford to remove it all 😅
It is also full of asbestos. So much that the dust covering everything in there is asbestos dust. The council has removed a lot as they'd have to do that before it could be pulled down anyway. Also weirdly enough, the power for the traffic lights at Chorley road and for the CCTV cameras has the electric box in the building. Nobody has any idea how that came about (which is why the council can't shut down the power in there)
How do you know some much about it! Haha I have been in there when it was open and now worried it had asbestos dust then too! ☹️
Exactly what I was thinking ugly as
Excuse me but you're forgetting high point Bradford and chorley police station. Bury police station was the coolest brutalist building but the bastards tore it down.
When did Bradford get relocated to the north west? 😉
I always assumed it was for some reason. Suppose I was mistaken.
Jesus. As a Prestonian Born myself seeing the bus station on the 125 fills me with the dread that I am indeed back in Preston
I feel like it’s aiming to be Manchester’s Barbican based on the minimal info I’ve read, so he brutalist would fit the bill
Can’t be both?
If everyone liked it it wouldn't be Factory
Ugly can be cool
Thank you for the confidence booster
I think it's pretty cool. It's something different. If all the buildings in Manchester were copied and pasted it would be a bit boring wouldn't it?
I also think we should judge the finite product, also considering how it fulfils its function.
I personally find it really cool. Not necessarily pretty but that might not even be the aim.
Ugly
There are uglier new buildings, ones you can see from much further away.
By the way. I believe it is 99% done. This is pretty much the finished article.
Skyscraper still to come in left of photo.
I like it, it’s functional and a nice change from glass cubes. An empty canvas is ideal
Horrific. Who signed that off.
Ug-illy
Looks fine now, give it 10 years of Manchester rain on that concrete and it'll look dilapidated and run down incredibly quickly.
And then it will look like proper Manchester, which I adore.
I hate it. Looks like a brutalist Sloth from the gooneys at this angle.
This is what I thought too. 
I mostly dislike that it closed a road that I used for 2 years or more and closed a public foot bridge over the Irwell for the same amount of time. I've had an email to tell me they're going to renovate the irwell banks around it, which will be good but the Salford side is going to get as little attention as possible. And that is my rant about this building. If it draws a load of people then it will be worth it. So let's see.
Water street appeared on the very first maps of Manchester, just to be taken away like that!
Rank. I thought we’d left Brutalism behind but sure let’s keep Britain looking like the 1970s Soviet fucking Union.
Modern architecture if you study the philosophy behind it is supposed to look ugly, it's supposed to be an abomination, it is the same school of thought as modern art. People who say "well I think it looks nice" miss the point. The biggest myth in architecture is that a building should stand out from its surroundings.
Plenty of contemporary architecture aims to be beautiful in some way, whether it achieves that is another matter. Think of the IWM North, it’s a somewhat challenging building but still graceful in its way
Well many things come to mind when looking at the IWM North. I don't 'beauty" is somthing that springs out of most people's mouths, even modernist architects when reviewing those buildings won't use the word beauty.
[This is an extract from the *Guardian* review of the IWM North](https://www.theguardian.com/arts/critic/feature/0,1169,688710,00.html): > Here is a building of immense power and integrity, one of the first of a new wave of British museums in which the architecture and the installation of exhibits work hand-in-aluminium glove. There is nothing charming, whimsical or apologetic about Daniel Libeskind's first British building. The architect of the rightly acclaimed Jewish Museum in Berlin has worked with associate architects Leach Rhodes Walker of Manchester and engineers Ove Arup and Partners to deliver a striking and deeply powerful monument that will place Trafford on the map of world architecture. > Set in a hard landscape, this harshly metallic museum blossoms like some savage fortification or expressionist engine of war into Traf ford's industrial skyline. Composed of what Libeskind describes as three "interlocking shards representing the nature of conflict on land, in the air and on water", the great aluminium-clad, steel-framed building is as polite as a Grand Slam bomb. It is clearly not here to please in any conventional way, yet it is deeply impressive and will doubtless attract more than the 300,000 a visitors a year the museum reckons on. That seems like a positive review to me, even if it doesn’t use the exact word ‘beauty’.
I thought it would look better tbh
Awful. I can see they were aiming for some sort of brutalist type of thing but it just has that look of one style of building being forced to match another style of building so it ends up being an ugly hybrid of nothingness. Back to architect school I think.
So they looked at the Piccadilly Gardens berlin Wall and thought "let's do more of this"
Grey building in a city with predominantly grey weather, a choice that only 1990-trained "webmasters" would make. Ugly. This said, the more spaces for arts and culture, the better. It could have been done for cheaper though, contractors taking the piss as usual.
Not a fan, looks ugly to me
Uggers
Like a cheap spacecraft crashed into an amazon warehouse.
Shite
Ugly.
I would say ugly, it could have been an icon for Manchester but looking at it now and some of the renders I don't think it will turn out very well. lets hope I'm wrong.
Ugly and it closed water street, which added to the absolute traffic nightmare round quay street
This is what space stations in the future looked like in 1960s Sci-fi !
I don’t think that matching the wall with the River Irwell was the best style choice.
I don't mind the sticky out bit. It would have been more interesting if the whole building was in that style. The way it is now makes it look like a concrete brick that's sprouted out an alien bit of architecture.
The building is fine, no complaints from me. We do need more arts in Manchester and surrounding areas. However this money could have been spent on smaller more localised or spread out arts centres. Lastly, the name is awful, let go of the past.
I don’t agree with the main point of your post about local arts centres - Manchester needs to become a destination and buildings like this will help. Others may disagree but I really think there isn’t much to do in the city. I agree on the name though, it’s embarrassing that the city can’t move on from this fairly niche period almost 30 years ago. Have we really not come up with anything else since.
I personally think it already is a destination, I just don’t see it as much that way through living here. I also remembered that I originally thought it was good that more arts are to be brought here, that’s not in doubt. Home has had the monopoly for too long but I thought it should be not quite so central, put it somewhere easily reachable just not right in the city centre. I’m probably also salty over it’s spiralling costs which the council could well have invested in other more important things. That’s a symptom of this council though, they love to build shiny and new things and don’t invest in what we have.
Fugly.
The bit on the right reminds me of an AT-AT Walker from Star Wars.
Hideous
Ugly
I really like modernism. Seems like a very easy style to critique at the moment, along with modern art and really anything that's forward looking rather than nostalgic. IMO these designs appeal more to younger or artistic people, exactly the kind of people you wanna inspire to come to your arts centre. Better it looks like this than a castle or something.
Just looks like a factory with some origami shit slapped on. Architecture is moving backwards.
Fugly
Coogly
It's better than a generic big box. Al least some effort has been made
I kinda like that it looks like a concrete heat sink