GORTON MONASTERY, MANCHESTER

RELIGIOUS ESTABLISHMENTS

LOCATION

Gorton, Manchester

SECTOR

Religious

CLIENT

The Monastery Manchester

ARCHITECT

Ecological Architecture

PROJECT VALUE

£2.2m

CONTRACT

Traditional

PERIOD

Feb 2016 – Nov 2016

CONTRACT PERIOD

44 Weeks

THE BRIEF

After 5 years of being in operation, Gorton Monastery were ready to add to its former 16 year campaign and spend of £6.5m, to award H.H. Smith the next phase of works in its development. The £2.2m, ‘Welcome Wing’ now forms the entrance hub to this beautiful venue. The new build, 2 storey extension adds to this magnificent Franciscan Monastery and external works and conservation works to the existing structure were also part of the project. ‘The Welcome Wing’ is to provide the new Education, Community and Visitor facilities to enable the trust to fulfil its ambition for the Monastery to be ‘open every day for everyone’. H.H. Smith was selected, through a competitive process as a specialist Heritage Contractor who supports and mirrors the trust’s ethos to support local employment, have a specialist trained workforce and deliver the works in a sustainable manner. Valuable experience working with funding bodies such as ‘The Heritage Lottery Fund’ and ‘The European Regional Development Fund’ was also seen as an advantage to deliver the project successfully to programme and specification.

KEY POINTS

The Monastery and its administrative offices remained operational during the construction phase and regular events and weddings had to be accommodated throughout the construction of the Welcome Wing. Major scaffold and works were masked with effective 20m high decorative netting. Full use of the car park was required at all times which demanded robust management of deliveries and waste.

CHALLENGES

Segregation of construction activities from the general building users had to be managed and controlled. Additionally the secure site set up exited onto the busy car park with a separate access door adjacent, this required constant management to ensure authorised access to the project was maintained and the site was safe and secure.