New Bailey Multi -Storey Carpark

New Bailey Multi Storey Car Park (MSCP) is the first building of the commercial zone of the New Bailey Masterplan to be delivered, replacing existing surface car parking, freeing up land for future development plots. It is a nine storey facility providing 620 car parking spaces including accessible parking spaces, an area for motorcycle parking and 6 electric car charging points. The building sits next to a grade II* listed railway viaduct and a major road intersection which was redeveloped in tandem with the building. The car park serves users of Salford Central station as well as the wider development. The building attempts to do away with the preconceptions of 'normal' car park architecture to provide something that is a precursor to the quality of the future buildings of the masterplan. The facade has been designed to allow the building to be naturally ventilated and natural light to penetrate the building, reducing artificial lighting requirements. The facade concept for the MSCP acknowledges the inherent circulation of the car park as a continuous ramp, with bands wrapping and spiralling around the structure in multiple directions. The resulting lattice patterns and junctions/intersections created where these bands cross also echoes, in an abstract way the engineering detailing in the ironwork of the local Victorian bridges that cross the River Irwell adjacent to the site. The overall pattern is optimised so the panels repeat in a non-obvious way. A typical panel is designed to span 3.6m centres (two panels per standard structural bay), minimising secondary framing. Construction commenced in mid-February 2014 with practical completion achieved at the beginning of December 2014. New Bailey MSCP was heavily featured in an article on the front page of the BBC News website titled: ‘The Beauty of Car Parks’ and won British Parking Awards 2016 ‘Best Architectural Achievement Award’.