Bam’s No.1 Spinningfields is the latest high-end office development in the centre of Manchester. The contractor is welcoming visitors to the site for Open Doors Week 2016 to show off what will be one of the most impressive buildings in the city centre, as well as the tallest office constructed in Manchester since the 1960s.
Situated on the site of the former Quay House in Spinningfields, the city’s business district, No 1 Spinningfields is being developed by client Allied London.
The 24-storey building will deliver more than 260,000 sq ft of space, including a rooftop restaurant, plus public and retail space on the ground floor.
Walking around the site, Construction News is shown the building’s complex cantilevered structure, which juts out of the main facade on both the third and seventh floors.
Construction director Tony Grindrod provides his insight on the site, emphasising how the speed of the build has been one of the most challenging aspects of the scheme.
“Within three-and-a-half weeks, we want to get all the structural steel erected, and a week after that we want the floor slabs in up to level seven, then we can start installing the curtain walling,” he explains.
Visitors also learn how the contractor tackled a mammoth concrete pour on the development.
In October last year, Bam poured more than 860 cu m of concrete in one session, with 150 wagons arriving at the site and concrete being poured successively to form the base of the building’s first core. This was the largest concrete pour that Bam has ever done.
The £73m project is designed to achieve a BREAAM Excellent rating and will involve as many as 600 workers at its peak.
The Open Doors visitors are given an excellent view of the site’s concrete cores and structural steelwork from the viewing platform on top of the site offices, showing the scale of the challenge facing Bam to deliver what will be one of Manchester’s flagship commercial schemes.