Piccadilly Gardens to me are: a meeting place, the centre of town, a base from which to explore in all directions.
On a sunny day, a chilled out place to lay on the grass and watch the world go by. Kids love the fountains, they're great. Have them on 24/7 (well maybe just on weekends, midweek it's pretty quiet after 2am) and lit up too.
At night, an easy, central place to meet up. The memorial tree is a good landmark. Light it up!
I take visitors from abroad on tours of Manchester and we generally start in Piccadilly Gardens. Compared to other cities it seems a little shabby. My visitors comment on the rubbish in the streets and lack of greenery in the 'gardens'.
As a first view of Manchester it doesn't really represent the richness of our city.
St Anne's Square and the Town Hall square have the kind of class that Piccadilly lacks.
Kiev city square is immaculate
http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j1...undiy/kiev.jpg
Rome too
http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/6572/rome1lq9.jpg
It was suggested on another forum, in an interesting thread (
Piccadilly Gardens - SkyscraperCity) that the 'Berlin Wall' should come down, the bus station be moved and the whole area opened up as a proper city square. I couldn't agree more.
Sod decorating the monstrosity, get rid of it altogether.