A FUTURISTIC ALL-GLASS STRUCTURE has appeared on Corporation Street. We are standing next to the Co-op bank, looking along Corporation Sreet towards Exchange Square. Next to a grimy but characterful Victorian building, a wall of blue-green glass rises up like a cliff face from street level. The roof of this bizarre but strangely beautiful building is at an angle, like a ski-slope. At the very top of the building a large needle pokes horizontally into the sky.
This is Manchester's amazing and ground-breaking Urbis Centre, museum of the Modern City, sponsored by Manchester City Council and designed by Ian Simpson Architects.
EWM asks: What is the significance of the needle? Why is the roof at such a daring angle? Were the architects and the City of Manchester right to place a building from a science fiction film in the midst of Manchester's oldest quarter?

THE URBIS CENTRE is seen here in January 2002 just a few months from completion. The Urbis Centre stands on the site of the Lancaster Arcade, demolished in the early 60's. In the distance we can see the Arndale Tower, and further away to its left, Piccadilly Plaza Sunley Building.
The Urbis Centre is surrounded by mostly traditional-style buildings: The Corn Exchange (Triangle), The Printworks, Chethams School, Victoria Station and others.
EWM asks: Is this a bold juxtaposition of old and new, symbolic of Manchester's dynamism and capacity for self-renewal, or is it a crass piece of municipal mis-planning, a new Millennium Dome in the making?

WE ARE STANDING IN FRONT OF MANCHESTER CATHEDRAL on Victoria Street, looking towards Deansgate. Once a busy junction of five streets overlooked by the statue of Cromwell, this point in the city centre was transformed by 60's and 70's redevelopment, and once again today by the rebuilding of the city centre.
On the left we can see the framework of the new Shambles West retail development, and behind it, the nearly completed tower of No 1 Deansgate. These new buildings are on the site of the old Shambles West development, developed in the 1970's and partially demolished after the bomb. To the right of Deansgate, the 1970's buildings remain, including the Ramada Renaissance Hotel, upper right.
EWM says: Let's not forget Manchester's magnificent Victoria Buildings, lost during WW2, used to stand where the steel framework and No1 Deansgate tower are now. On the right, at the bottom of Deansgate was an ornate hotel building demolished in the 1960's. In the distance, half way down Deansgate we can just make out the distinctive art deco tower of Northcliffe House, which is to be demolished in 2002 as part of the Spinningfields development.