The Renaissance site is located in a key strategic position in Manchester City Centre, fronting onto Deansgate, Blackfriars Street, and Victoria Bridge Street, and the River Irwell.

The site forms part of the wider Renaissance Hotel complex which has been a longstanding strategic regeneration priority for Manchester City Council (MCC) and is the last remaining undeveloped site within the 1999 City Centre Masterplan.

The proposed masterplan has taken a sustainable approach to development by retaining the existing hotel and structural frame to Premier House, with the extensive refurbishment of both buildings. The comprehensive redevelopment of the site will be developed in three separate phases:

1- Undertake the high quality redevelopment of the existing hotel building to reposition this as a market leading up-scale destination hotel.

2-  Redevelopment of Premier House (following part demolition) into a revitalised  high quality commercial workspace.

3- The northern area of Premier House and the existing below ground car park will be demolished to create a plot for a new landmark residential building. The building seeks to transform this area with an exemplar scheme which reanimates Deansgate with active frontages and riverside amenity space. A new leisure destination will be created alongside the River Irwell, including a new food and beverage (F+B) space.

The residential building will provide 300 units and will be supported by high quality amenity space, including new riverside public realm with a new leisure/ food and beverage offer, as well as communal and private roof terraces for new residents.

The vision for the Renaissance Site is to transform this vehicular dominated site into a high quality, active streetscape with a series of dwell spaces, and improved pedestrians & cycling connectivity.

The redevelopment of Premier House will contribute to the reduction of the embodied carbon by partial demolition and retention of the existing structure. The intent of the proposal is to modernise and revamp the building internally and externally into a high-quality Grade A commercial space with a rooftop garden for the building occupiers.

The residential building’s scale is concentrated to the north to act as a gateway arrival point at Deansgate. Its also in response to the building’s orientation as each of the double storey set backs, create large south facing terraces to the apartments.

The residential building is arranged in a clear classical order, with a bottom, middle and top.

The base is articulated through large civic scale columns which ground the building, with inset glazing to create active frontages along Deansgate.

The façade design has been directly informed and influenced by the buildings historic context and is articulated as a series of shingled precast panels, with reference to the Collyhurst sandstone which was used to construct the Grade I listed Manchester Cathedral.