McAlpine to design new municipal offices

The existing municipal offices (far right) will be demolished and replaced with a new building across the road as part of the major regeneration of Rochdale town centre.

Rochdale Borough Council has appointed Sir Robert McAlpine for the design and build of a new £55m municipal office building in the town centre.

The new building, on Smith Street, will house around 2,000 council staff and extend to between 250,000 sq ft and 320,000 sq ft in size. It will feature a new library and information centre, public customer services, training and conference facilities and offices for the NHS. The current municipal offices will be demolished, as will an adjacent bus station.

Construction is due to start next summer with the building opening in autumn 2012.