Hotel Indigo.

Hotel Indigo sits at the gateway to the Northern Quarter, just a short distance from Manchester City Centre. Originally built between 1865 and 1875, this Grade II-listed building and its surrounding neighbourhood have greatly evolved throughout the years.

The regeneration of the building has stayed true to the past in many ways, from traditional iron railings to exposed brick walls. It boasts 187 rooms, all of which capture the city’s Victorian and Industrial past.

At the start of this project, Structures Group were commissioned to carry out the restoration work to what would become the main annex building to the new tower.

Within the original work package, there was a relatively small amount of structural alteration work, the bulk of the subcontract was cosmetic type restoration consisting in the main of heritage pointing, several types of ‘sympathetic’ cleaning, stone restoration, brick repairs and lintel replacement. There was a number of structural openings with large structural steel members required within the works, though in comparison to the cosmetic type repairs, these were not initially a significant part of the package.

Hardly had the subcontract work started when the design team realised that every one of the existing traditional timber joist and floorboards would need to be removed section by section and floor by floor. Following a fast turnaround of design requirements, the total removal of the floors and their replacement with a new reinforced concrete system was added to the Structures Group package. This new concrete deck was to be supported on a new retro fixed lattice type structural steel system with a permanent steel formwork atop the structural steels.

This redesign on the floor requirements totally changed the emphasis of the work package from mainly cosmetic repairs into what was substantially a structural alteration contract.

We are pleased to report that the ensuing works became a fine example of ‘contracting’ cooperation which involved the design team, the main contractor and Structures Group in completing a far more complicated job than what was originally envisaged.