1 The Avenue is a building in
Spinningfields,
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 ...
. It is situated on
Deansgate
Deansgate is a main road (part of the A56) through Manchester City Centre, England. It runs roughly north–south in a near straight route through the western part of the city centre and is the longest road in the city centre at over one mile ...
adjacent to the grade-I listed
John Rylands Library
The John Rylands Research Institute and Library is a Victorian era, late-Victorian Gothic Revival architecture, neo-Gothic building on Deansgate in Manchester, England. It is part of the University of Manchester. The library, which opened to t ...
.
Architecture
The building consists of two mirror-image
parallelogram
In Euclidean geometry, a parallelogram is a simple (non- self-intersecting) quadrilateral with two pairs of parallel sides. The opposite or facing sides of a parallelogram are of equal length and the opposite angles of a parallelogram are of eq ...
s, stacked one on top of the other, resulting in a three-storey
cantilever
A cantilever is a rigid structural element that extends horizontally and is supported at only one end. Typically it extends from a flat vertical surface such as a wall, to which it must be firmly attached. Like other structural elements, a cant ...
on the east end of the building. The cantilever is supported by an inclined steel ‘diagrid’ structure.
A
diagrid
A diagrid (a portmanteau of diagonal grid) is a framework of diagonally intersecting metal, concrete, or wooden beams that is used in the construction of buildings and roofs. It requires less structural steel than a conventional steel f ...
is similar in shape to a triangle and other building have used a diagrid structure, such as
30 St Mary Axe
30 St Mary Axe (previously known as the Swiss Re Building and informally known as the Gherkin) is a commercial skyscraper in London's primary financial district, the City of London. It was completed in December 2003 and opened in April 2004. ...
in London.
Reaction to the glass clad building has been mixed due its proximity to the Grade I listed Rylands Library which, along with the Town Hall is considered the finest piece of architecture in Manchester and one of the finest interpretations of
Gothic revival
Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...
in the world.
References
External links
1 The Avenueat Spinningfields
{{coord, 53.48008, N, 2.24935, W, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title
Buildings and structures in Manchester
Office buildings in Manchester