Piccadilly Gardens, Manchester, UK

A major civic space, it lies between the city's main hotel district and retail area. Before recent transformations, the space was last re-planned in the early 1960s.
By the late 1990s, the whole area was suffering from a lack of investment. The sunken Victorian gardens which lay at its heart had become cut off from their surroundings by busy roads and tramways, had taken on a neglected atmosphere and had become a focus for a variety of anti-social behaviour. Then, in 1996 an IRA bomb blast destroyed a large section of Manchester's retail and office area to the north west of Piccadilly Gardens and following this, an international urban design competition was launched for the reconstruction of the whole city centre.
After almost two years in construction, the gardens were reopened in May 2002 in time for Manchester's hosting of the Commonwealth Games in July. EDAW's spectacular remodelling includes over a hundred semi-mature trees, a large lawned area, a fountain plaza traversed by a catwalk bridge.