Over the footbridge from the Libeskind’s Imperial War Museum there’s extraordinary building, The Lowry Center. As part of a long-term regional regeneration project, the building is an exuberant collection of distinct forms located on a difficult triangular site, the culmination of the collaboration between Wilford and the late James Stirling (1926-1992) on the 1992 Lowry masterplan. The Lowry Center is a combined theater and gallery complex dedicated to L.S. Lowry situated in Salford Quays, in Greater Manchester, England.

In response to a highly complex brief, Michael Wilford’s landmark millennium project, The Lowry Center is located on the Manchester’s historic shipping canal. It is also near to the Old Trafford football stadium. The building was finished in 2000 with the help for £21m of National Lottery funding. The complex brief includes galleries for touring exhibitions and for the City of Salford’s Lowry collection, a Lowry study centre, the Artworks’ interactive childrens’ gallery, a 1730 seat lyric theater and 450 seat flexible courtyard theatre, rehearsal rooms and together with the full complement of support spaces essential for the contemporary visitor attraction such as bars, cafes, retail and hospitality suites.

(more…)