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When completed, the CIS was the third tallest building in Europe. It is often quoted as being the tallest, but Milan's Pirelli Building and Madrid's Torre De Madrid are taller and were completed earlier.

It is considered by many to be the best of Manchester 1960s buildings. *It is the UK's tallest office building outside of London

It was the UK's tallest building outside of London for 43 years. In 2006 it lost this accolade to Birmingham's Holloway Circus Tower, which itself lost the title to the Beetham Tower Manchester later that year.

In December 2004 a �5.5 million project started to reclad the CIS Tower's concrete service tower. In 2006 the service tower was clad in 7,000 blue solar panels. *The solar panelling is the UK's largest solar array and Europe's largest vertical solar array. According to CIS, the panels generate 180,000 units of electricity each year - enough energy to make 9,000,000 cups of tea. Probably more than CIS staff manage to drink each year. *The solar panels will create 181,000 units of renewable electricity each year - equivalent to the energy needed to power 55 homes for a year. *In October 2005 Prime Minister Tony Blair switched on the solar panels that had been added on the south side.

It was heavily influenced by SOM's Inland Steel Building in Chicago.

It is a grade II listed building.

It was the first building in Manchester to surpass the Town Hall's 87m spire.

On a clear day, Jodrell Bank observatory and the Clywidian Mountains in Wales can be seen from the top floors.

News Articles

06-05-2005 > Giant Crane Flies To Manchester

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