MY, HOW YOU’VE GROWN!
MANCHESTER’S highest skyscraper is now officially as tall as it’s going to get – and time-lapse footage shows how it has sprung up over the last couple of years.
Towering over every other building outside London, the 200m South Tower at Deansgate Square has been ceremonially ‘topped out’ by council leader Sir Richard Leese, who laid the last spadeful of concrete on its final 64th floor.
The residential block is one of four under construction over the road from Deansgate Locks and stands head and shoulders above the nearby Beetham Tower’s 47 storeys. When finished, the development will include more than 1,500 apartments, a swimming pool, spa, gym, sports hall, indoor tennis court and roof-top terrace. At ground level there will be a new public square with food and shopping units. Daren Whitaker, managing director of Renaker, hailed a ‘ground-breaking development’ that would ‘bring new levels of sophistication and unrivalled residents’ facilities to the city centre.
Deansgate Square’s four glass blocks were designed by Simpson Haugh, the architects behind the Beetham Tower – previously Manchester’s tallest building.
But that has now been surpassed by the South Tower, which is taller than anything outside of the capital and the fifth highest building in the country, after the Shard on the banks of the Thames, One Canada Square in Canary Wharf, Heron Tower and the Leadenhall Building, both of which stand in the City of London.
It is due to be complete for occupation by March 2020, with its neighbouring West tower scheduled for April next year and the other two blocks expected to be ready by 2021.