Levelling Up: The Aerial Environments of Wilson Womersley

Brook, Richard ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4215-3091 (2021) Levelling Up: The Aerial Environments of Wilson Womersley. The Modernist (40). pp. 28-31. ISSN 2046-2905

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Abstract

Lambasted and lost, pretty much characterises the architectural output of Wilson Womersley in Manchester; the city that spawned their partnership. In a bombastic blast of red, grey and yellow, the firm designed the University Precinct Centre (1967-72), Hulme Crescents (1965-71) and the Arndale Centre (1972-79). In the space of a decade they shaped Manchester’s urban fabric, leaving a questionable legacy. The technical quality of their buildings was undoubtedly poor, but their qualities – bold forms, monolithic materiality and streets-in-the-sky – were of the moment, and captured a particular brand of urban renewal, imported from North America and inflected through British post-war planning.