Beetham Tower, Manchester
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Categories: All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with unsourced statements since February 2008 | Hilton hotels | Buildings and structures in Manchester | Skyscrapers in England | Skyscrapers between 150 and 199 meters | Apartments
|
For other buildings with the name "Beetham Tower", see Beetham Tower.
Beetham Tower Manchester, also known as Hilton Manchester, is a mixed-use skyscraper in Manchester, England. Built in 2006, it is named after the developers, Beetham Organization, was designed by Ian Simpson and was built by West Midlands-based firm Carillion.[3] It is the tallest building in Manchester by a significant margin. It consists of a Hilton Hotel up to level 23 and apartments from level 24 upwards.[2] There are also 2 basement levels which contain car parking for the residents of the apartments. The tower lies on Deansgate and has two postal addresses, with the apartments falling under 301 Deansgate and the hotel under 303 Deansgate. Widely referred to as Beetham Tower, it is also known colloquially as the Hilton Tower thanks to the corporate logos placed on the 24th storey plant floor on each side of the building.[citation needed]
DescriptionLocated along Deansgate at the junction with Great Bridgewater Street and Liverpool Road, it has 48 floors and is 168.87 metres (554 ft) in height, making it the tallest building in the UK outside of London and the UK's 7th tallest building. It is the tallest building in Manchester, having overtaken the CIS Tower. In comparison, the UK's tallest building, One Canada Square, is 235 metres (771 ft) tall.[2] The tower contains a five-star 285 bedroom Hilton Hotel[3] for the first 22 floors. The 23rd floor is deeper than those below by 4m, and has two glass windows in the floor, offering views down to the ground from the skybar Cloud 23.[4] The floor also has a bar and lounge, both operated by Hilton.[citation needed] From the 24th to 48th floors, the tower is occupied by residential apartments.[citation needed] As part of the project, a 12-storey office block is due to be constructed adjacent to the tower,[3] with 6,506 square metres of floor space.[5] The hotel also has a 4-storey annex, containing a swimming pool, ballroom, conference rooms and coffee shop.[4] The architect, Ian Simpson, bought and resides in the top floor penthouse, which is the highest living space in Britain. It cost him £3 million.[4] It features a semi internal garden containing 21 four-metre high olive, lemon and oak trees shipped from Italy and craned into the building before the roof was built. The penthouse covers the top two stories of the building.[citation needed] The tower offers views of the set of Coronation Street and on a clear day, it is also possible to see Liverpool, the mountains of Snowdonia, Blackpool Tower,[2] much of the Cheshire Plain and the Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank Observatory.[citation needed] ConstructionThe site was originally occupied by an obsolete section of railway viaduct.[5] Planning permission for the development was given in October 2003, at which point 206 of the 219 apartments had already been sold, as well as 4 of the 16 penthouses.[6] The viaduct was demolished in March 2004, and the twin cores of the building were above ground level at the end of August 2004. One of the two cores reached a height of 125 m at the end of July 2005, at which point the building became the tallest UK skyscraper outside of London.[5] The tower had its official "topping-out" ceremony on 26 April 2006. Due to local wind conditions, the building's height had to be reduced by just over 2 metres from its originally planned height of 171 m (561 ft).[2] The hotel opened and received its first guests on 9 October, 2006 with the first apartment residents moving in during 2007.[citation needed] In total, the building cost £150 million to construct.[3]
IssuesDuring the installation of the glass and steel 'blade' on the roof, a strange noise problem emerged. People reported that the building "whistles" (more like an intermittent hum) in windy weather. The sound is close to standard musical C (approximately 262 Hertz); some say it is like a "UFO landing" in sci-fi films. [7] The noise also affected the production of local soap opera, Coronation Street with producers having to create extra background noise as the tower is close to the show's set. Despite apparently rectifying the problem, the humming sound can still be heard on occasion in the area, depending on wind direction.[citation needed] Additionally, many residents of districts close to the city centre, including the Hulme area of Manchester, report a significant loss of television reception following construction of the tower.[8] Effects have been reported as far away as Whalley Range.[citation needed] See alsoImage:ManchesterBuildingsHeightBeetham.JPG
Height of Beetham Tower Manchester, compared to the height of other existing and approved tall buildings in Manchester.
References
External links Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
