Graham’s £286m Manchester Met halls: design, phasing and services notes for engineers
Reviewed by Tom Sullivan

First reported on The Construction Index
30 Second Briefing
Graham has secured a £286m contract to redevelop Manchester Metropolitan University’s Cambridge Halls, delivering 2,302 student bedrooms in two new multi‑storey blocks rising up to 30 storeys on the site of demolished 1990s accommodation. The Cartwright Pickard–designed scheme combines cluster flats, studios, ground‑floor commercial units and a community health centre fronting Cambridge Street. Targeting BREEAM Excellent with air source heat pumps, PV panels, low‑energy heat recovery ventilation and intelligent BMS, phase one is due in 2029 with final completion in 2030.
Technical Brief
- Contract places John Graham Construction as main contractor for the Cambridge Halls regeneration scheme.
- Works proceed on a constrained brownfield footprint, following demolition of 1990s accommodation blocks already under way.
- Two multi-storey towers, up to 30 storeys, demand high-rise temporary works, vertical logistics and craneage planning.
- Joint venture client structure pairs Manchester Metropolitan University with Unite Students, affecting funding, governance and lifecycle priorities.
- Internal and external amenity spaces require integrated structural–landscape interfaces and acoustic separation from student and commercial uses.
- Ground-floor commercial units and a community health centre fronting Cambridge Street introduce mixed-use loading and servicing constraints.
- Building services design must coordinate air source heat pumps, PV arrays, heat recovery and intelligent BMS in dense plant zones.
Our Take
Within our 710 Infrastructure stories, very few UK higher‑education schemes approach the multi‑hundred‑million scale of Manchester Metropolitan University’s Cambridge Halls, signalling that this is one of the more capital‑intensive campus redevelopments currently in the pipeline.
A 30‑storey student accommodation block in Manchester puts John Graham Construction into direct competition with high‑rise residential contractors active in the city’s commercial towers, which is likely to drive demand for high‑rise‑capable supply chains and specialist temporary works expertise on this job.
The 2029–2030 phased completion window means Cambridge Halls will be delivered through at least one full UK construction cycle, so cost planning and risk allowances will need to account for potential volatility in labour and materials markets over a prolonged build period.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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