St. Peter’s Square, Manchester

I’ve finally received the digital files for a commisison I did a couple of months ago. The drawings were for the marketing suite of a prestigious new office building in Manchester city centre (One St. Peter’s Square: developer Argent, architect Glenn Howells), and it was decided that the artwork would be in the style of my urban sketches either drawn from the building – or of the building. You might wonder why the purple emphasis…? Well, the redesign of this important public square was the subject of an international architectural competition – and was won by a German landscape practice Latz and Partners, who proposed purple trees! So whilst the drawings are true to the view as I drew it, the landscaping has been expressed creatively, with a little artistic licence. Apparently the name of the purple tree is Paulownia Tomentosa (Princess Tree) which I think is rather lovely…however there’s been much speculation that they won’t survive our winters here, but they’re planted now, so fingers crossed they make it!

Warmest wishes to all my fellow urban sketchers for a fabulous 2015 and much happy sketching!

view looking out from first floor marketing suite

looking at the building across the square

view of Central Library from the marketing suite

another view from the marketing suite looking out into the square