Link: CABE Case Study

The new art gallery has created a distinctive presence and identity for Oldham Town Centre.

The building contributes to one of the many new routes attracting people through revitalised urban fabric in the newly designated Oldham Cultural Quarter. The scale of this cultural building is unexpected in an area which had little contemporary built identity. Gallery Oldham is marketed as 'a new space for people and ideas'. The open quality of galleries and other spaces in the building is attractive to users and the building has been described as 'being used as a community space'.

The new Gallery is a ten minute walk from Oldham Mumps railway station. Designed as a landmark building, the architects state that “'the scale, presence and repetitive structure evokes the mills and sheds of Oldham's industrial past' and they refer to the influence of Anthony Gormley's Angel of the North (in Gateshead) as a powerful skyline image which established a sense of place.

Description
The building is arranged on four levels, the upper three coinciding with those of the existing library, and intended to foster the opportunity for future connections.

Internally a space free of columns has been planned for future adaptability. The basement level accommodates plant rooms at either end of the building, goods handling, workshops and vehicle access. At the centre of the ground level the double height entrance foyer, which is fully glazed on both sides, provides an enclosed extension of the forecourt, drawing visitors through the gardens, and is used as a regular route through to the town centre from the residential areas to the south. A café and education facilities are located on either side of the foyer. A lift large enough for a school group or art work, and a generous staircase on either side, transport visitors up to the gallery floors.

The foyer space is overlooked by two viewing galleries, springing points for a Phase 2 bridge. Accommodation on the first floor comprises fine art stores, curatorial and administration areas. Gallery spaces on the top floor are arranged as three “long galleries��?, the two at either end of the building top lit and enclosed to maximise display and to stabilise internal environmental conditions.

The central gallery is more open and, like the circulation areas, provides views over Oldham to the north and hills to the south. It is extended beyond its glazed elevations to external terraces within the elliptical steel frame running the full length of the building. An extension of one lift lobby at the upper level becomes a glazed bridge linking to the existing library galleries.

Design process
Pringle Richards Sharratt were appointed to design Gallery Oldham in 1999 as part of an initiative to regenerate the area south of Union Street. The planning application was accompanied by a design statement outlining a masterplan for developing Oldham Cultural Quarter. The philosophy was to establish a strong sense of place, “To truly create an urban quarter as an area distinct from its surroundings a strong identity must be nurtured and sustained through the recognition and development of its character- ideally building on one that exists��? (from the Design Statement). The architects observed a “‘warehouse quarter’ of under exploited flexible buildings and hierarchy of streets and backstreets��?, and referred to the mills and sheds of Oldham’s industrial past.

Physical and visual linkages between the proposed Cultural Quarter and the existing Town Centre were seen as fundamental, achieved primarily by enhancing the north/south streets cutting through the area. Surrounding open spaces were seen as “the common thread that binds the quarter together and goes a long way towards establishing its character��?. The extension of the existing Victorian Library Garden, reconfigured to introduce disabled access, was seen as important in announcing the presence of the Cultural Quarter on Union Street, “a sense of arrival at a new destination in Oldham��?.

The project is the first of four phases. Phase 1 is a landmark building containing galleries, education & art storage facilities. Subsequent phases for new library facilities, refurbishing the old library as a museum and a performing arts centre are planned. The initial site for the gallery was behind and across the road from the existing library and it was envisaged in the brief that access would be through the library via a number of link bridges. However because of potential access difficulties with the existing steep entry stair into the library and a potentially empty adjacent Phase 2 site, the building footprint was reconsidered as “an inhabited wall��?, a ten metre deep strip along Ashworth Street, the road parallel to the main pedestrian route of Union Street.

During the development of the building design Oldham Borough Council commissioned a number of artists to work with the design team, and the final building features work by artists inside and outside the building. Gallery Oldham opened in February 2002.

Evaluation
The building has succeeded in becoming a distinctive landmark and presence in Oldham. The site chosen for the building and the reconfiguring of the adjacent garden and street spaces demonstrates an understanding of the specific local context and the need for urban legibility and accessibility.

The new transparent entrance foyer effectively becomes a new urban place, linked to routes and other urban locations such as the town centre. This urban linkage allows the internal building spaces to be experienced as part of its context, in contrast with the existing discrete Library, local History and Gallery buildings which were raised up from and distant from the Victorian streets. The building is well used as a route to and from residential areas and the town centre.

Internally the building feels very spacious and calm, with generous circulation and inventive lighting installations by various artists. It is easy to understand where you are and although duplicating public stairs and lifts seems unnecessary, it gives an opportunity for a route to be suggested around the building (up in the pink lifth, down in the green one) as well as meeting escape requirements.

The lightest spaces in the foyer move up to darker gallery spaces at either end of the top of building, an inversion of the traditional Victorian gallery arrangement. Visitors to the galleries have increased (approximately 3000 per month) and are mainly local, and there is an ethnic mix, although temporary exhibitions attract a wider audience.

The high level walkway balconies originally intended for public use are now only open for functions when the area is supervised, however attendants have noted that there are generally fewer problems with young groups messing around in the space than in the previous galleries. Some adaptations of the entrance area are planned in response to the working use of the building: automatic doors to the south which need to be activated from a disabled button are to be changed, and the reception area desks reconfigured, as well as blinds added to the glazing to the south.

Project team
Pringle Richards Sharratt Ltd
Quantity Surveyor: Davis Langdon & Everest
Planning Supervisor: Davis Langdon & Everest
Structural & Services engineer: Arup
Remediation strategy: Arup
Access consultant: Buro Happold
Soft Landscape: Camlin Lonsdale/ OMBC
Management contractor: Mowlem Management

Project summary
Location: Oldham
Completed: 2002
Client: Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council
Design team: Architects: Pringle Richards Sharratt
Planning authority: Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council
Funding body: European Regional Development Fund 
Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council
Contract value: £9m
Researched by: School of Architecture and Planning, University of Newcastle

Further information
Architect/Designer:
Architects: Pringle Richards Sharratt
http://www.prsarchitects.com

Project Address:
Gallery Oldham
Oldham Cultural Quarter
Greaves Street
Oldham

Readings:
Collection: Building
Date: 13.02.02

Collection: Building Design
Date: 19.04.02

© CABE 2007