The Triangle Shopping Centre
Exchange Square Manchester
Benoy

Benoy takes a historic corn exchange building damaged by a terrorist bomb and turns it into a 21st-century shopping center.

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By Clifford A. Pearson

On June 15, 1996, a bomb set by the Irish Republican Army ripped through the center of Manchester, England, injuring more than 200 people and causing extensive damage. During the following 9 years, the government and private developers rebuilt the area, using a master plan designed by EDAW. One of the final pieces in this urban jigsaw puzzle was the renovation of the 1903 Corn Exchange Building, which had incurred only superficial damage from the bomb but had become a retailing anachronism. Originally a market-style trading hall, the corn exchange had evolved into an emporium of natural and “alternative” foods and “New Age” products by the 1980s.

The property’s owner, Milligan RRI, hired the large U.K. and Hong Kong–based design firm Benoy to convert the corn exchange into a modern shopping center, accommodating a new mix of tenants and a contemporary design for all the public spaces and graphics. The owner also wanted the complex, which it renamed the Triangle Shopping Centre, to better connect with its urban context, specifically Exchange Square to the south and Victoria Station to the north.

Because the Corn Exchange Building was landmarked, Benoy could make only minor changes to its exterior. The designers added new signage, including vertical banners and a large LED display screen, which would be programmed by the BBC to present cultural and sporting events. The architects inserted a modern, two-story-high entrance where a store had been, and converted the old, stepped entryway into the main access point for offices that sit above the three floors of shopping space. Then they added another new entrance on the north, creating a strong circulation route from Victoria Station through the mall and out to Exchange Square. To emphasize this axis and alert people that something new was going on inside the old building, the architects worked with artist Mel Chantrey to create sculptures at the new entrances that use the same materials—steel and perforated metal—as those in the revamped shopping center.

Inside the building, Benoy reworked the floor plates and circulation to create a tri-level shopping center with 150,000 square feet that takes full advantage of the old building’s glazed vaulting. As a “jewel in the crown,” the architects designed a podlike “sky bar” that rests on three legs and has the look of a lunar landing vehicle. In fact, the sky bar did land from elsewhere, having been built in a factory, then reassembled over an eight-week period inside the mall at night when the shops were closed.

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Formal name of project:
The Triangle Shopping Centre

Location:
Exchange Square Manchester

Gross square footage:
Existing building footprint unchanged

Total construction cost: Entrance works and refurbishment £4,000,000 – Sky Bar £920,000

Owner:
Shopping Centre Owners at the time of the project – Milligan RRI.

Architect:
Benoy
Handley House, Northgate, Newark, Nottinghamshire, NG24 1EH UK.
(T) 0044 (0)1636 672356
(F) 0044 (0)1636 707513
www.benoy.co.uk/

Team photo/credit where applicable

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