Manchester city centre is always being redeveloped to meet the needs of the city.
Before the First World War, Manchester's pride in itself as the second city of the Empire and the capital of the global textile industry led to the development of some iconic buildings, notably the Town Hall itself, but including also John Rylands' Library, the Royal Exchange, Manchester Art Gallery, the Refuge Insurance building and the great cotton warehouses near Whitworth Street.
Many of these buildings are Grade 1 listed, and now that the economy has changed, they have been converted to other uses. The Royal Exchange theatre sits inside the Cotton Exchange, the Whitworth Street warehouses have become apartments and hotels. The regeneration of the city, especially since the IRA bomb in 1995 and with the Commonwealth Games in 2002 has led to landmark new buildings in the city centre, such as Urbis and the Beetham Tower .
Amongst those contributing to Building Manchester are:
- Arup
- Manchester Art Gallery
- Manchester Digital Development Agency
- CUBE
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