Urbis was an exhibition and museum in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

, England, designed by Ian Simpson. The building opened in June 2002 as part of the redevelopment of

Exchange Square Exchange may refer to: Physics *Gas exchange is the movement of oxygen and carbon dioxide molecules from a region of higher concentration to a region of lower concentration. Places United States * Exchange, Indiana, an unincorporated community * ...

known as the Millennium Quarter. Urbis was commissioned as a 'Museum of the City' but visitor numbers were lower than expected and a switch was made in 2005-6 to presenting changing exhibitions on popular-culture alongside talks, gigs and special events. Urbis was closed in 2010, after the opportunity arose for Manchester to host the National Football Museum. In 2012, the building re-opened after a complete re-fit as the permanent

National Football Museum The National Football Museum is England's national museum of football. It is based in the Urbis building in Manchester city centre, and preserves, conserves and displays important collections of football memorabilia. The museum was originally b ...

Architecture and design

Urbis is a building in

Cathedral Gardens Cathedral Gardens is an open space in Manchester city centre, in North West England. It is bounded by Victoria railway station to the north, Chetham's School of Music to the west, the perimeter of Manchester Cathedral and the Corn Exchange on F ...

, designed by Simpson Haugh and Partners with consulting engineers Martin Stockley Associates. The building has six storeys and a distinctive sloping form. Visitors were intended to travel to the top floor, accessed by a lift, to admire the cityscape, then progress down a series of cascading mezzanine floors past exhibits about cities. The fully glazed facades consist of approximately 2,200 glass panes arranged in horizontal strips. The building has an adiabatic cooling system for use in summer and heat recovery system for use in winter increasing its energy efficiency.

History

Urbis, a museum and exhibition centre intended to showcase inner-city life, opened on 27 June 2002 as a symbol of regeneration after the

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. The project attracted £30 million funding from the

Millennium Commission The Millennium Commission, a United Kingdom public body, was set up to celebrate the turn of the millennium. It used funding raised through the UK National Lottery to assist communities in marking the close of the second millennium and celebra ...

and £1 million from Manchester City Council towards the running costs. The exhibition space covered five floors and hosted temporary exhibitions running for between three and five months. The museum's first director, Elizabeth Usher, resigned in March 2003 amid criticism that Urbis was not appealing and the exhibits were too abstract. First-year visitor figures fell 58,000 short of its 200,000 target and the

, who provided £20m of funds, threatened to reclaim its money if Manchester City Council had to close it. Visitors paying a £5 admission fee were unimpressed and few visitors returned, which the management saw as a key problem. By October 2003, visitor numbers were below 200 a day and there was criticism over a £2m annual subsidy from Manchester City Council, ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' architecture critic

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remarked that the exhibits were a "spectacular missed opportunity", although Urbis did garner some praise in other quarters. In an attempt to boost visitor figures, the admission fee was scrapped in December 2003. The plan worked: visitor figures trebled by January 2004 steadily increasing to fivefold by April 2004. Urbis' chief executive admitted in 2010 that the 'Museum of the City', which ran from 2002 to 2004, "just didn't work". In 2004, a radical decision was taken to rebrand Urbis as an exhibition centre for British popular culture with emphasis on Manchester and no longer called a museum in an attempt to give it a clear identity. With no admission fee, Urbis shook off its

white elephant A white elephant is a possession that its owner cannot dispose of, and whose cost, particularly that of maintenance, is out of proportion to its usefulness. In modern usage, it is a metaphor used to describe an object, construction project, sch ...

title as visitor numbers rose and over a quarter of visitors came from outside the city.

National Football Museum

Urbis closed in February 2010 for conversion to the

. Plans to relocate the National Football Museum from Preston in

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had emerged in 2009. Retrieved on 21 December 2009. The museum trustees cited long-term funding worries as the reason for relocating to Manchester where 400,000 visitors a year – four times the previous figure – are expected. Preston City Council, unhappy at the proposals, attempted to thwart the move. The University of Central Lancashire, Lancashire County Council and Preston City Council offered the museum £400,000 per year but were outbid by Manchester City Council's £2 million. Admission is free and a broad advertising campaign will aim to attract visitors to Urbis. In the first 9 months of opening, the museum had already attracted 350,000 visitors.

History of exhibitions and events

;2009 ''State of Art: New York'' from April to September showcased contemporary art in New York. ''Videogame Nation'' charted the rise of video games over four decades, how it became a multibillion-pound industry and the Wii and Nintendo DS. ''The Best of Manchester Awards 2009'' celebrated Mancunian culture in 2009. ''Home Grown: The Story of UK Hip Hop'', from October 2009 to February 2010, documented the hip-hop music scene. ''Manchester, Television & the City: Ghosts of Winter Hill'' explored the city's television industry, Granada Television,

BBC North BBC North (Group) is an operational business division of the BBC. It is also a brand that has been used by the BBC to mean: *The large ''BBC North'' region, centred on Manchester, that was active from the late 1920s until 1968 and was based u ...

and programmes created in Manchester. The exhibition coincided with the digital switchover in the region and television's move to MediaCityUK. ;2008 ''The Manchester Zinefest'' was about independent publishing and

zine A zine ( ; short for '' magazine'' or '' fanzine'') is a small-circulation self-published work of original or appropriated texts and images, usually reproduced via a copy machine. Zines are the product of either a single person or of a very s ...

s. ''How Manga Took Over The World'' explored how Manga, influenced 21st-century art culture. ''Reality Hack: Hidden Manchester'', atmospheric photographs of Manchester's abandoned recesses by Andrew Brooks and curated by Andy Brydon. ''Urban Gardening'' featured gardening in urban environments. ''

Emory Douglas Emory Douglas (born May 24, 1943) is an American graphic artist. He was a member of the Black Panther Party from 1967 until the Party disbanded in the 1980s. As a r''evolutionary artist'' and the ''Minister of Culture'' for the Black Panther Pa ...

retrospective'' exhibited the work an artist involved with the Black Panther organisation. ;2007 *

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25 The Exhibition: Fac 491 *D&AD Exhibition: The Best Design and Advertising in the World *Catapult 07 *Arrivals & Departures: New Art Perspectives of Hong Kong *PLAY: Experience the Adventure of Our Cities *City 'til I Die? *Best of Manchester * Bog Standard Gallery ;2006 Bas6 launch

*Under Surveillance *British Art Show 6 *Little Black Dress *D&AD: The Best Advertising Design in the World *Manchester 0161: This is what we're made of *The China Show *Make Me Shine ;2005 *Rock 'n' Roll Icons: the photography of Mick Rock *Punk: Sex, Seditionaries and the Sex Pistols *SuperCity ;2004 *Manchester 24 *ILL COMMUNICATION II *DTroit *The Sounds of Two Cities *Futuresonic04 *The Peter Saville Show ;2003 *Compost Cities *Ill Communication *Taxi! *Heliodays in the rainy city ;2002 *Architecture by Stealth

References

External links