At Manchester Airport, local MP and Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne was there to officially launch a new development called Airport City.

They are going to develop land between the airport and Wythenshawe as a huge international business park designed at pulling in new businesses from around the world. It will take about 15 years to finish, £650,000,000 will be spent and it will be office and hotel space, restaurants and leisure facilities all designed to tempt more international business to the city. They plan to double the number of people travelling through the airport from 20,000,000 to 40,000,000.

Although today was the official launch, building work has already started and 60 businesses are interested in moving in. Once it’s up and running that can only grow. It’s hoped that it will provide 21,000 new jobs for the city. Some companies have already arrived here and set up in temporary offices in the city including some from mainland China which is seen a s a good thing and direct flights from Manchester to Beijing will start later this year.
The Chinese community in the city have been lobbying for this for a while now. They hope that the development will also attract flights in from other places as well, India, Brazil and the like. And Sheik Mansour is moving some of his European airline businesses to the city

The Co-Operative Society is a big player in Manchester running their ethical businesses from the city for over 100 years. Their insurance wing, which will never invest in any unethical company dealing with arms, tobacco etc, operates out of the CIS Tower, covered in its array of solar panels on Miller Street.

The retail wing operates out of a series of Victorian buildings across the city so they decided to build a new HQ for this wing across Miller Street from the CIS Tower. Run on the same ethical values as the insurance business, the new building will have as light a touch on the environment as possible while still looking stunning. It’s built on a piece of land called Angel Meadows which sounds lovely but was,in fact, one of the worst slums in Victorian Manchester. Building was held up while archaeologists excavated the site to see what they could uncover – a whole lot of human misery I believe. Once the new building is up and running the old buildings will be refurbished as the Co-Op has plans to turn this part of the city into a new business district.

There’s been a lot of progresss here since I last photographed the project. The service towers seem to have reached as high as they are going to go compared with the previous picture.

Here’s a picture of the metro station at Media City surrounded by the gardens with the studios as a back drop. I’ve included a couple of the new yellow trams that link Media City to the city centre and two of interior of a tram so people can see what it’s like inside. Looks quite roomy but in the rush hour it can be packed. i took the pictures of the trams at Cornbrook Station when they decided that the one I had got on to go to Media City was going somewhere else! We all had to get off and wait for the next one to turn up. Cornbrook Station is kind of in the middle of nowhere but it has been designed as one of the stations where all the different lines come together so you can change from one line to another with ease.

I've long since wondered what is going on with this building, and thanks to a good friend of mine, I now know. It's being demolished!

Manchester is a great example of beautiful architectural design, but this isn't one of them - it's one of the many buildings that popped up in the 60's when this design was considered "fashionable".

I've been passed it quite a few times over the years, and noticed how all the shops in it have been disappearing as time is going on. Whilst I am happy to see this building being replaced, unfortunately it seems to be encompassing the old Odeon Cinema just along Oxford Road which should be preserved and regenerated in to another cinema, perhaps the CornerHouse should consider obtaining it? Bit late I think for that now which is a shame.

The new building looks very nice and seems from the picture to be in keeping with the rest of St Peter's Square with the columns mirroring the library across the way.

What do you think of 60's buildings like this? Should they all be replaced with more "viewer friendly" architecture?

Thank you to Tom for the information and I hope you can visit his blog also.