Purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) provider iQ Student Accommodation has been granted planning permission by Manchester City Council for its proposed Echo Street scheme.
The Echo Street PBSA scheme will deliver 1,224 rooms – a mix of studios and ensuite student clusters, with common areas on the ground floor, including two separate courtyards. Amenities include a variety of creative and collaborative settings that help to build a supportive sense of home and a connection to the wider city.
“Echo Street is an important contribution to the PBSA ecosystem of Manchester, which significantly contributes to the wider urban fabric. An important marker visible from Piccadilly Station, the scheme links the historic mercantile foundations of the city with its present, as a dynamic knowledge and innovation-led destination. The design creates a confident silhouette on Manchester’s ever-evolving skyline while being rooted in the materiality of the Whitworth Street conservation area.”
Rupert Goddard, Partner, Sheppard Robson
The 38,350 sqm Echo Street project – located on the edge of the Whitworth Street conservation area, next to the gateway of Piccadilly and the North Campus of the University of Manchester – is characterised by a series of slim vertical blocks.
These are stepped to respect and mediate between the smaller scale buildings around Vimto Park to the west of the site, and the more urban context to the east and south.
The three main blocks are made up of red brick, with metalwork in anodised bronze aluminium which echoes the simple, symmetrical arrangements of the conservation area.
Generous window openings are arranged in a slender three-storey module, with intermediate panels in a decorative perforated pattern, reflecting the area’s specific mercantile character.
