Aytoun Street Holiday Inn, Manchester

This new 306 Bedroom 3-Star hotel, complete with restaurant and conference facilities is due to open in 2015 and stands adjacent to Piccadilly Station in Manchester City Centre.

The ground floor frontage will be animated with the entrance, foyer, bar and breakfast restaurant all overlooking the new public terrace.  The second bistro restaurant will extend along the full length of the Aytoun Street frontage.  The bistro will also have its own entrance off Aytoun Street to encourage footfall.

The canal provides historical continuity through Manchester, but the difference in levels between the street and canal reinforces their disconnection. This proposal creates a new and strong connection to the canal from road level entrance with new open terraces to encourage pedestrians and the reconnection of the building and street to its surroundings.

The elevations adopt a simple treatment using classical and restrained proportions. The design expresses deep relief to the ground and upper floor colonnades, providing controlled and modest articulation with rhythmic expression of the structure and positioning of windows across the elevations. The vertical windows will have protruding cassette surrounds that will punctuate the solid form of the building.

Two main building blocks house the bedrooms. These elements grow out of the ground floor which extends across between the two streets not only to create the public spaces, but also to make room for servicing, storage and back-of-house uses.  Hotel guests and visitors will use Aytoun Street and will enter the building via the new public terrace beside the canal.