Located in the St Ann's Conservation Area in Manchester 15-17 King Street, along with its neighbour – China Buildings on Police Street, have provided the opportunity for a substantial piece of urban regeneration. The upper floors of 15 - 17 were office conversions which stayed vacant due to poor quality fitting out and the cellular nature of the spaces.
Originally constructed as Manchester’s first furniture department store the building is Grade II listed and is, in fact, 2 buildings clad with the half timbered Tudor style fabric now visible. Stripped of accumulated low key interior and insensitive fit out from recent years the building now provides clean, contemporary, open plan office space. The common areas are re-designed and rationalised to provide attractive well serviced spaces to tenants which address the level changes between numbers 15 and 17 to unify the floor plates. Rooflights are introduced at roof level to bring the attic space into full use.
The building has benefited from a full external envelope refurbishment during which time the retail tenants remained trading.
Reid Architects provided a full architectural service to the client including interior design.
