Number One Riverside, Rochdale

Number One Riverside, Rochdale
FaulknerBrowns Architects for Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council
Contract £42.5m. GIA 17,000m²

Already possessing a grade I listed Victorian town hall, Rochdale’s new £42.5m HQ consolidates 33 council sites, centralises service delivery and acts as a catalyst to regenerate the town centre. Boasting a publicly accessible ground floor with customer service centre and restaurant/cafe spaces overlooking the River Roch, ‘both internally and externally the building elegantly communicates the desired openness between the council and the general public, encouraging inclusive interaction’. 

With a restrained and co-ordinated palette of contemporary materials, and a sustainability strategy that has resulted in a BREEAM ‘Excellent’ rating for the building, the architect has given the city a new administrative headquarters that is a 21st century evocation of civic pride that William Henry Crossland embodied in his first town hall 150 years before.