Located within the Princess Road Roundabout, beneath the northern side of the elevated A57 Mancunian Way, these contemporary digital advertising towers replace the former standalone structure located to the south of the carriageway.
Standing at 18 metres, the two new innovative structures are positioned on either side of the Mancunian Way, each incorporating a pair of digital screens oriented to engage traffic travelling in both directions. A key driver of the design was the careful balancing of architectural quality, buildability, commercial performance and visual impact. The resulting solution delivers a slender, elegant profile that maximises prominence for advertisers while minimising the perceived scale of the supporting structures, allowing them to sit lightly within the landscape and integrate seamlessly with the surrounding public realm improvements.
A new, independent pavilion structure was designed to sit between the towers, beneath the elevated portion of the Mancunian Way. This discreetly housed the supporting electrical infrastructure required to support the displays and provided an opportunity for integrated lighting to illuminate the pedestrian connection between Hulme and the southern edge of the city centre.
With the aspiration to make a positive contribution to this part of the city fringe, the designs also included significant improvement to the area beneath the Mancunian Way. The renewed landscape creates a robust, attractive and welcoming environment, strengthening a key pedestrian route between Hulme and the city, while improving the overall character and legibility of the space.
The later reconfiguration of the traditional roundabout to a branching layout removed the pedestrian subways and created protected cycle tracks, pedestrian paths and signalised crossings. Therefore, the proposed pavilion and landscaped improvement works were not implemented.
Occupying one of the city’s busiest arterial routes, the displays provide carefully considered information to passing motorists and pedestrians. The synchronised displays provide Manchester’s largest audience reach from outdoor advertising, with over 3.6 million impacts every fortnight.