Renold Building, UMIST Campus

The Renold Building is a lecture theatre block designed in 1958 and built between 1960 and 1962 for the Manchester College of Technology, which was renamed the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) in 1966 and fully merged with the main university in 2004. The architect was W A Gibbon, a partner in Cruickshank & Seward, working with his assistant Gordon Hodkinson. The structural engineer was S S Heighway of Ove Arup & Partners, and the acoustic consultant was Hope Bagenal. The building contains a large abstract mural designed in 1958 and executed in 1968 by Victor Passmore.

Construction and Materials

The building has a reinforced concrete frame for both the tower and podium, with the tower block carried over the podium halls by pre-stressed beams supported on large columns. Columns on the upper floors are positioned at 12-foot centres along the elevations and at 24-foot centres on a central line, with additional support from the lift walls and west end wall. The building is clad in white concrete, Portland stone slabs, and grey-green and terracotta mosaic panels. Window frames are of aluminium and steel. The partial terrace on the south and east sides is faced in stone blocks with stone steps and concrete flags.

Plan and Layout

The building comprises a rectangular two-storey podium, standing on a partial terrace on the south and east sides, which supports a rectangular-plan six-storey tower aligned east-west. A north-west projecting stair tower extends from the main structure. At the east end of each floor are 140-seat lecture theatres, with other lecture and seminar rooms opening off a wide spine corridor. The second-floor lecture theatre has been stripped out and some subdividing room walls have been removed on two floors. The floors are accessed by a bank of three lifts, an internal south staircase, and the projecting north-west stair tower.

The podium contains one 500-seat lecture theatre and two 300-seat lecture theatres, along with a large entrance hall, cafeterias, offices, and a first-floor circulation hall that is also used for exhibitions. The building is entered at ground level on the south and east sides, but at first-floor level via a bridge from Altrincham Street on the north side.

Exterior

Podium

The ground floor of the podium is faced on the south and east sides with grey-green mosaic around rectangular window openings. An off-centre entrance on the east front has an aluminium sliding door with sidelights and a cantilevered flat steel canopy, painted black, with a hardwood strip soffit containing circular lights. The entrance on the south side has a similar flat canopy supported on stanchions. The first floor on these sides is cantilevered and glazed with large windows between thin mullions below a shorter clerestory.

By contrast, the north side and west ends of the podium are faced in Portland stone panels with recessed joints. The north side is connected by a glazed bridge at first-floor level to Altrincham Street. This bridge has a steel frame, concrete deck, and concrete canopy with a faceted end. Above the four doors is the name of the building in original sans serif lettering.

Tower

The tower is set on the southern part of the podium. Its most distinctive feature is the east elevation, which has full-width glazing of saw-tooth profile. The lower rakes are faced in opaque black glass panels and the upper rakes have vertical glass panes with slender aluminium mullions. These light the lecture theatres at the east end of the building. The sides of these theatres are windowless, resulting in the north and south sides having all-over cladding of Portland stone, which is also used to face the west facade of the tower. The west facade has a narrow, recessed vertical strip for windows lighting the central corridor.

The remaining facades on the north and south sides are glazed to light the other lecture and seminar rooms, but are treated differently on each side. On the north elevation there is curtain walling flush to the frame, divided into bays by thin mullions and thinner transoms with solid spandrel panels. On the south elevation there is a projecting grid nine bays wide by six bays high, composed of thin concrete mullions forming vertical stacks of deeply recessed square window reveals divided by rectangular horizontal panels at each floor. The different pattern of windows in the second bay from the right indicates the position of the internal staircase.

The flat-roofed north-west stair tower has the same Portland stone facing on the north face but fully glazed sides of very thin gridded framework that expose the unsupported or cantilevered staircase rising within, giving the impression of the stair floating without visible means of support.

At roof level there is a plant room set back into the centre of the tower, disguised by a sculptural, asymmetrical, curved roofline swept upwards at both ends.

Interior

Podium

The large entrance hall and the first-floor circulation hall have widely-spaced, multi-faceted concrete columns and hardwood strip floors, which are partly covered during the present refurbishment. The first-floor columns support large transverse beams with distinctive split 'birdsmouth' ends to encompass clerestory windows. On the west wall of the entrance hall is a long abstract painted mural by Victor Passmore, titled Metamorphosis (1958, executed 1968).

The two halls are linked by a free-standing staircase of cranked concrete slabs with precast pale terrazzo stair blocks and landing, and swept aluminium handrails on slender metal baluster rods. This staircase is presently partially boxed-in to separate it from the main space.

The first-floor northern entrance hall, off the bridge, has a similar staircase linking to the north stair tower. It has cranked concrete slabs with a half landing supported by two columns, black terrazzo stair blocks and landing, and swept aluminium handrails.

The large lecture theatre and pair of medium lecture theatres retain their projector rooms, baffle-lobbies, raked seating arrangement, and preparation rooms which can be accessed externally to bring equipment in. The preparation room for the large lecture theatre retains its five-ton crane, which was used to bring equipment such as aero-engines or machine tools onto the lecture theatre platform.

Tower

The six lecture theatres are stacked at the east end with a raked seating arrangement, though this has been removed from the second-floor lecture theatre. Behind the uppermost row of seats are the angled windows with deep black terrazzo sills. The large upper panes are angled down to reflect sound back into the room. This wall is double-glazed with a considerable distance between the inner windows and the external saw-tooth windows. The lecture theatre walls are sound-proofed.

The south internal staircase is located in a stairwell with double doors opening onto each floor. It has cranked cantilevered concrete slabs with precast pale terrazzo stair blocks and landings, swept aluminium handrails, and slender baluster rods. The concrete staircase in the north-west stair tower is similarly detailed but with black terrazzo stair blocks and landings.

Many original wooden doors remain. Those opening off the staircases are glazed with mid rails, while others have vertical or horizontal peep-hole glazing strips or are plain. The original windows remain, those in the tower with black terrazzo sills. Some grey terrazzo stall dividers remain in the toilets.

Alterations

Partial reconfiguration in 2024 removed some spine corridor walls and walls dividing lecture and seminar rooms in the tower. Some ceilings and the cafeteria areas in the podium were refurbished in 2024. All the lecture theatres have replacement furniture and teaching accessories.

Setting

The terrace walls, steps, in-built planters, and fully-paved areas are included in the listing. The terrace peters out at the west end of the south elevation, so only the definable front wall is included here.