Bruntwood plans Portland Tower facelift

DEVLOPER Bruntwood has submitted plans to give a facelift to its 22-storey Portland Tower building on Portland St.

The developer has submitted plans for a £1m upgrade to the building’s exterior, which involves planting more trees and improving ground floor landscaping, improving the “external envelope” and upgrading the entrance areas to the 20-storey tower. Some floorplates within the building will also be modified.

The upgrade has been designed by Bridge Architects, with DW Consulting appointed as structural engineers and Cundalls as M&E consultant. The landscaping will be done by Interior Plantscapes and RBA has been appointed as quantity surveyor.

Portland Tower is a modernist building constructed in 1962 for Scottish Windows, when it was known as St Andrew’s House. The exterior improvement is set to complete in September and is understood to be a precursor to a major internal upgrade of the building, which Bruntwood has owned for 18 years.

A spokesperson for the company said: “As part of our commitment to enhance the experience for our customers at Portland Tower, Bruntwood are looking to invest just over £1m to dramatically improve both the aesthetic look of the building and to utilise the best use of space at ground level, improving the experience for both our existing and our future customers to Portland Tower.”

A statement accompanying the planning application by director Peter Crowther describes the building as “an important asset to Bruntwood and Manchester”.

“It is our intention to complete an extensive mid-life refurbishment of the tower to ensure that it continues to attract quality customers into the building and the Portland St area.” he added.

“The works will place the building in a position to act as positive landmark within Manchester for the forthcoming decades.”