‘i don’t like living in glass,’ admits ex-Red
AS he unveiled plans for a new glass residential skyscraper in the city centre, Gary Neville admitted he has never liked living in glass buildings,
The former United ace is announcing plans to replace two previously-planned bronze-clad towers with one single glazed block at the far end of Jackson’s Row, off Deansgate.
“I don’t like living in glass buildings in a city,” he said, adding that they are ‘too hot’ in the summer, ‘too cold’ in the winter and not particularly environmentally friendly.
“I did not want a glass building on this site. However, I think the original proposal was too solid.”
Neville has previously lived in the glass-and-steel No 1 Deansgate development, one of the first luxury glass apartment blocks built in the regeneration that followed the 1996 IRA bomb.
He was speaking ahead of his new St Michael’s development plans, a complete overhaul of the originals, going on display to the public at Central Library.
His new architect Stephen Hodder had ‘started with a clean sheet of paper’ after heritage body Historic England slammed the originals earlier this year – particularly the two large tower blocks with metallic cladding.
Asked whether he personally preferred the new designs to the old ones, he said: “I wouldn’t sit here and say that.
“I can see why it’s a scheme that creates more balance. I wanted to reach for the skies on the first scheme and basically polarised opinion.”