image of the proposed design, announced in May 2009.
Background The Co-operative Group announced plans to move from its headquarters on Miller Street and
Corporation Street to a new site in the
Greater Manchester area in 2008. From 2008 to 2011, the group grew strongly according to CEO
Peter Marks, membership doubled to six million and revenue and profits also doubled. Takeovers of
Somerfield and the
Britannia Building Society fuelled impetus for new head offices to accommodate the growth. In December 2008, the group announced it would remain in
Manchester city centre and would regenerate land opposite its Miller Street base. The new building is close to
Angel Meadow, the site of a 19th-century slum once described by
Friedrich Engels as "hell on earth". Archaeologists conducted a survey in 2010, which continued into 2012. The
CIS Tower and
the Co-operative Bank's Balloon Street headquarters were unaffected by the development. the Dantzic,
Hanover,
Redfern and Federation Buildings were subsequently vacated and renovated for
let. In 2011, the Co-operative announced the
NOMA (North of Manchester city centre) project, to regenerate a site with office, retail, residential and hotel space to encourage visitors from the city centre.
Manchester City Council contributed £20m to the project as an incentive for redevelopment. In December 2011, the Co-operative announced its new headquarters would be known as One Angel Square. The first task was installing the 539
pile foundations - each at an average depth of . Work soon began on assembling the 3,300 tonnes of
steel and 1,948
coffered concrete floor slabs which make up the structure of the building. Specialist services were supplied by
Buro Happold for
structural and
fire engineering More than 4,000 workers from over 90 companies were involved in the building's construction, making it the largest building site outside South East England. The building was
topped out in November 2011 and work began assembling the bronze-coloured diagonal panels of the exterior façade. The panels were installed using roped access techniques. An estimated £17m of building materials out of the total £100m cost was locally sourced, reducing
embodied energy and minimising environmental impact.
Mecanoo and Manchester-based
Royal Haskoning designed the
landscape in front of the building. however opening was postponed to 2013 due to delays in the fitting out process. The leaseback sale attracted nine bids from six continents. In February 2013, the Group sold the building for £142 million to
DWS and Gingko Tree Investments, an investment arm backed by the Chinese sovereign wealth fund. ==Architecture==