Looking up at 101 Barbirolli Square in Manchester: a large glass curtain-wall office tower rises above curved Victorian sandstone railway arches bearing a Q-Park sign. A willow tree frames the left edge under clear blue sky.

Victorian Railway Arches Meet Glass Tower, Manchester

8 October 2019 · Manchester

Sandstone railway viaduct arches, built to carry Victorian-era trains, now carry a curtain-wall office tower above them on the edge of Manchester city centre. The Q-Park signage occupies the arch face; above it, 101 Barbirolli Square rises ten storeys of glass and steel into a clear autumn sky. It is the same site, two centuries apart — the masonry holds the weight of the new, and the new reflects the sky the old never reached.

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