Neil Tague
Insider Property Correspondent
Tague on Tour: They came from the north
Architects' firm BDP is celebrating 50 years with an exhibition and a new book. Neil Tague looks at the work of an influential outfit born right here in the North West.
If you're in Manchester with an hour to spare at any point before 5 November, I strongly recommend you get yourself to CUBE on Portland Street for the exhibition celebrating 50 years of work by architects' practice BDP, formerly Building Design Partnership, born in Preston and now one of the world's largest practices.
The very name Building Design Partnership is wrought with meaning. It was named that way because socialist founder George Grenfell Baines believed in the talent of all his people over the promotion of a personal name. The firm was a mould-breaker in the way it married other disciplines with architecture, something that’s still at the heart of most of its better projects.
This story should be a source of some pride to anyone who cares about buildings in this part of the world. As well as the exhibition’s images and models, there’s a new book, 61-11 BDP: Continuous Collective, edited by Hugh Pearman and featuring the never-dull Owen Hatherley.
So what's the story? The early years are speckled with some genuinely iconic projects – Preston Bus Station, the Halifax Building Society headquarters, ICI in Wilton. I love the bus station and have never understood the insistence that it needs to go to make an unlikely retail project happen. If Preston Bus Station were in Germany, it would be lauded. But if it were in Germany it would have been servicing a decent public transport system and might not be thought anachronistic.
My favourite image here is the Halifax HQ, completed in 1974. It's a beautiful panoramic shot showing a look to have landed like some kind of space-age superstructure in the grid of back-to-backs with mills overlooking from the Pennine slopes. Hatherley says "it's a thrilling collision of practically all the ideas around at the time: brutalism, Russian constructivism, Miesian corporate modernism, vernacular, yet it feels an organic part of Halifax."
BDP suffered a wobble in the 1980s and had halved in size before reviving in the early 1990s with new blood. With the Manchester team to the fore, awards have come thick and fast: Abito, Aintree’s new stands; the revamp of Wimbledon, Glasgow Science Centre. It pretty much set a template for new schools with projects like the Hampden Gurney school.
I had a look round with Manchester chairman Gavin Elliott, who came to the city to study in 1982 and saw an exhibition of the still not hugely known Norman Foster’s work at the Whitworth. "We'd hope this can inspire young people. You just don’t get this range of high quality models assembled in one place very often."
As we're talking, a woman approaches. Turns out she used to work for BDP in Preston in the 1960s and 70s, and rattles off some entertaining tales of "GG" and the old days, including the pioneering use of Perspex modelling or the never-built UN building in Vienna. They don't get everything right – who does? – but they’ve done some very good work. Check it out.
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About Neil
During his time as assistant editor of North West Business Insider Neil has forged extensive links with the region's property community. He regularly hosts breakfasts and roundtables with the property industry's leading figures.
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