CIS Tower
| CIS Tower | |
|---|---|
The CIS Tower with service tower on the right
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| General information | |
| Status | Grade II |
| Type | Office |
| Architectural style | Modernism |
| Location | Manchester, England |
| Coordinates | 53°29′11″N 2°14′18″W / 53.48639°N 2.23833°WCoordinates: 53°29′11″N 2°14′18″W / 53.48639°N 2.23833°W |
| Construction started | 1959 |
| Completed | 1962 |
| Opening | 1962 |
| Renovated | 2006 |
| Owner | The Co-operative Group |
| Height | |
| Roof | 118 m (387 ft) |
| Technical details | |
| Floor count | 25 |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect |
Gordon Tait G. S. Hay |
| Developer | CIS |
The CIS Tower is an office skyscraper on Miller Street in Manchester, England. It was completed in 1962 and rises to 387 feet (118 m) in height. The Grade II listed building, which houses the Co-operative Banking Group, is Manchester's second-tallest building and the tallest office building in the United Kingdom outside London. The tower remained as built for over 40 years until maintenance issues on the service tower required an extensive renovation which included covering its facade in photovoltaic panels.
The tower was designed as a prestige headquarters to showcase the Co-operative movement in Manchester. In 1958 the company proposed building an office tower block, construction began the following year and was completed in 1962. It was designed by Gordon Tait of Burnett, Tait & Partners and Co-operative's own architect, G. S. Hay. In the 1990s, it was granted Grade II listed building status by English Heritage. The tower, described as "the best of the Manchester 1960s office blocks", was listed for its "discipline and consistency". It is part of a group with New Century House and its Conference Hall on Corporation Street. The tower's design was influenced by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill's Inland Steel Building in Chicago after a visit by the architects in 1958.
In 1962, at 387 feet, the CIS Tower overtook the Shell Centre as the tallest building in the United Kingdom, a title it retained for a year until it was replaced by the Millbank Tower in London. In 2006 the Beetham Tower became the tallest building in Manchester.
The office tower building rises above a five-storey podium block. It has a steel frame and glass curtain walls with metal window frames. Black vitreous enamel panels demarcate the floor levels. The building materials, glass, enamelled steel and aluminium, were chosen so that the building could remain clean in the polluted Manchester atmosphere. The tower's concrete service shaft, which rises above the office tower, has two bands of vents at the top and was clad in a mosaic made up of 14 million centimetre-square, grey tesserae designed to shimmer and sparkle. The projecting reinforced concrete service shaft houses lifts and emergency stairs.
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