An elevated highway - as one of Manchester s strangest and most compelling modernist beauties -
received the Concrete Society Award in 1968 and is recommended for an outing by the Manchester
Modernist Society on their website: At first sight this might seem an odd even perverse choice
a mistake perhaps. Have we gone too far with this adoration of the brutal this ugly ode to the
car all-around pollutant and bête noir of the green lobby destroyer of much of central
Manchester's original pre-loft dwelling citizenry? This is a strange creature its engineered
details and structure show sophistication and extend their peculiar aesthetics to the large
sunken traffic islands under the belly of the beast all provided with bike and pedestrians
tube-like subways. These are concrete gardens savage and rough habitats to wild animals and
plants. AG3 includes an interview with Richard Brook Senior Lecturer at Manchester School of
Architecture member of the Manchester Modernist Society and contributor to their magazine The
Modernist.
