Manchester’s Renold Building has been listed by Historic England after a long running campaign by the Modernist Society and Twentieth Century Society
The building on the former UMIST campus in Manchester, has been listed at Grade II.
A block for lecture theatres, originally designed in 1958 for the Manchester College of Technology by W A Gibbon, a partner in the firm of Cruickshank & Seward, with his assistant Gordon Hodkinson, and built in 1960-1962.
The structural engineer was S S Heighway of Ove Arup & Partners and the acoustic consultant was Hope Bagenal. The building contains a large abstract mural, also designed in 1958, by Victor Pasmore, executed in 1968.
The listing says Historic England, comes as the first purpose-built lecture block in an English institution of higher education, which proved particularly influential on buildings at post-war technical universities, such as Brunel University and Leeds;
Its slab-and-podium design, one of the earliest examples in England and a pioneering use in an educational setting and
its innovative and efficient planning, with nine lecture theatres stacked vertically to save space, enabling large numbers of students to reduce time moving between separate buildings and to be taught in better-equipped theatres;
Its strikingly Modernist and sculptural design notably the zig-zag profile of the east wall, transparent stair tower, and bold concave curve to the rooftop plant.
for the contrast between white concrete and Portland stone and brick and terracotta, as found in Manchester’s 19th century buildings;
Much of the interior layout remains, most notably the lecture theatres, as well as many fixtures and fittings;
Cruickshank and Seward were an important local practice and W A Gibbon’s Renold Building, designed in consultation with the university’s principal, Dr Bowden, was the College of Technology’s statement building, epitomising the distinctive technical character of the campus;
The survival of a large abstract interior mural, a rare and important work in this medium by Victor Pasmore, a leading British artist of the postwar period.
