New brand for Oldham

Pringle Richards Sharratt’s Gallery Oldham carries the burden of being apiece of remedial architecture, tasked with repositioning Oldham and its people. Phil Griffin thinks the practice has performed a very convincing job.

In 1999 as part of the 150th anniversary of the town's incorporation, Oldham Art Gallery displayed a huge photographic panorama that had been taken in r8'79 by a man called Mr Knott, using a 25 x 20cm glass plate camera. The nine joined images have been scanned, computer enhanced, manipulated and sanitised. Mill chimneys jostle like fag ends in an ash tray at closing time, yet none of them is smoking, and the air is smog free. Much of the town seems under construction, but it is eerily deserted. Not one of the bristling chimneys survives.

Knott's panorama is mounted on the new link bridge that connects the century-old museum, library and galleries building at first floor level to Gallery Oldham, the new building by Pringle Richards Sharratt.

That subtle rebranding - from Oldham Art Gallery to Gallery Oldham -is a fair indication of the civic aspirations here. You feel that a lot more hangs on the scheme than the requirement of a leak-proof home for Victorian oils and contemporary photographs. PRS must attempt to pull-off, Walsall-like, some social reconfiguration, re-imaging, a new brand. They must reposition Oldham for its people, and for people who look upon the town and form impressions. This is remedial architecture, where the client wants to go to bed with a bad head cold and wake up with an entirely new face.

Gallery Oldham is a bright new face in the season's freshest colours: terracotta panels, Reglit, glass and steel. This is the first of a four-phase development that PRS hopes to hold onto through the vagaries of the Private Finance Initiative. Phase two will be a new three-storey library, phase three a refurbishment of the existing Victorian building, and phase four a performing arts venue. Gallery Oldham has European Regional Development Funding, covers 3,000sq m, and cost £9 million.

It was Mr Knott's panorama that caught the design team's eye. That and Anthony Gormley's Gateshead show stopper, Angel of the North. The Oldham site is breathtaking. Behind the old gallery on south-facing falling ground, the site offers commanding views across the town and out to the Pennines, Saddleworth and Hartshead Pike. lan Sharrat and the PRS team (project architect, John McLaughlin) aimed for a scheme that would be an eye-catcher viewed from the moors; a new-Jerusalem lure with all the impact of those long-gone towering chimneys. The solution is a three-storey block with 86m long north and south elevations. The building replaces the south side of what was Ashworth Street, which is now, effectively, a pedestrian street.

The approach to Gallery Oldham from Union Street is by a remodelled garden that forms a forecourt to the new building. The entrance foyer is a double cube, which is glazed along its long elevations, allowing views through to the moors beyond. Concrete is the dominant material through the building. It doesn't have quite the quality that Michael Hopkins has applied to the Manchester Art Gallery, but it feels somehow more integral. The three new galleries are arranged in-line along the top of the building, separated by two lift/stair lobbies.

Both the stainless steel lifts are enormous, and something of a coup. They can carry entire school parties, and present a real feeling of quality and generous provision. The effect is greatly enhanced by artist Peter Freeman's beautiful veiled lighting installations - Dan Flavin crossed with James Turrell. There are other pieces of art that have been designed into the scheme. Peter

Freeman has lit the whole of the gallery level south elevation. You can dial his installation on your mobile from the moors and effect its sequencing.

The Art Department, a Manchester based public art group, has contributed to the garden and installed a glass chandelier above the entrance desk. It's as well these pieces are here, or it would be a while before the visitor gets to the art. The decision to run the galleries at second floor level is elegant, contextual - the art is upstairs in the old building - and effectively top-lit. It's also a bit of a tease. If the commissioned pieces that are dotted about did not declare themselves, you might think yourself in a civic building that could be a library, or rather swish council offices.

Sharratt wanted to adopt the Angel of the North's wing structure. Given that the practice wanted the galleries to be a running steel tube, they went to the shipbuilder who made Gormley's piece. Costings were off the scale and, despite early enthusiasm for curving walls, curators eventually owned up to wanting some boxes. However, council officers and members wanted to retain the high level curving structure. What they have now are running steel ribs that form a distinctive profile, drawing the eye. It also houses, for much of its length on both long elevations, an exterior steel grid walkway. At the moment, this is a bit of a bind.

While health and safety officers are happy with these structures being used by the public, the council is still undecided as to when and how. Which is a pity, because, rather like our response to seaside piers, when you see an outside walkway through a sliding glass door, you want to be on it.

The building is 10m deep and the galleries run front to back. The gallery provision is not enormous given the scale of the building. However, education, administration and conservation spaces are all accommodated, and are likely to relocate in later phases. There is also a basement for storage and plans for a workshop. There are two internal "viewing galleries" at first floor level, overlooking the double-height entrance foyer. These are also the springing points for a phase two bridge that will connect to a fully glazed street linking with the new library building at its top floor level.

Oldham will have its cultural quarter. Phase one is palpably a success. There is an independently-run cafe bar at the east end on the south elevation, which has a 2am licence at weekends. This, more than much else, is likely to ingratiate the building with the community - or not. The site, which is truly brownfield, was above mineworks and chronically contaminated. That said, PRS has an open stage on which to assemble the cast, but the danger is that such campus-based cultural provision may never integrate with the town.

Gallery Oldham has no director. Sharratt tells me, admiringly, that the client team was largely run by Paul Barnett, a council officer who would be sorting out football pitches one day, and galleries the next. Apparently, he and his talents are now benefiting Bristol. The point is interesting. Union Street Oldham is a far cry from London's South Bank, and councillors and officers may know their patch, but be less well up on best practice. In the circumstances, architects, designers and consultants need to be sensitive to the evolution of the brief. PRS demonstrates rational responses to site and programme. Its scheme here has enough scale, presence and visual flare to tease the people of Oldham into building forms beyond retro or the merely formulaic. Gallery Oldham promises much for the later phases. Personally, I'd be inclined to withhold funding for these if the council can't find a way to open their fine new galleries on Sundays.

Project team

Architect Pringle Richards Sharratt.
Client Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council.
Quantity surveyor Davis Langdon & Everest.
Structural services engineer Arup.
Access consultant Fedra.
Landscape consultant Camlin Lonsdale.
Art Consultant The Art Department.
Management Contractor Mowlem.

© Building Design 2002