Stop 7: Exchange Square
Rebuilding, Reimagining: Post-1996
Created following the 1996 IRA bombing, Exchange Square represents Manchester’s resilience and regeneration. The square’s design by Martha Schwartz Partners demonstrates contemporary urban space-making, with its distinctive wave-form seating and lighting features creating a modern civic space amid historic buildings. The Corn Exchange (1897) anchors one side, its restored Edwardian Baroque facade now fronting a modern retail interior.
The square brings together various architectural periods: the Victorian Print Works building (now a modern entertainment complex), the restored Corn Exchange, and contemporary retail developments. The integration of Metrolink tram lines and modern street furniture shows how historic city centres can adapt to contemporary transport and social needs. The careful material choices – Yorkstone paving, granite seating, stainless steel features – create a dialogue between traditional and modern elements.
Notice how modern interventions respect historic building lines while creating new pedestrian flows, and how lighting design transforms the space after dark. The square demonstrates how contemporary urban design can knit together diverse architectural elements while creating distinctly modern spaces.
To Stop 8, National Football Museum: Cross Corporation Street.
