This new 20,000 sq. ft Grade A office building sits on an important street corner in the Knott Mill district of Manchester city centre. It backs onto the River Irwell and forms part of the river wall at its base. We saw it as a solid, bridge-head building resonating with the robustness of the area's industrial heritage. For these contextual reasons, the building rejects the use of the lightweight façade systems often associated with this building type. Instead it uses brick, stone and steel detailed to express depth and weight and to convey a sense of permanence. Variations in building height serve to break the skyline and mark the street corner. Regular window patterns are counterpointed with scale changes in the composition that express areas of double-height volume within. The plan form is a flexible L shape that can accommodate a range of office suite sizes.