Gartec has installed a disabled platform lift in The Lowry, Greater Manchester’s stunning arts complex at Salford Quays, to enable the centre to comply with Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) regulations and provide ease of access to all facilities within the building.
Set in the heart of the redeveloped Salford Quays area, The Lowry is an architectural flagship for the 21st century. It is triangular in shape, the size of 5 football pitches, and from the outside has a ship-like appearance to complement its magnificent waterside location.
The Lowry brings together a wide variety of performing and visual arts under one roof, and aims to give everyone in the local community and well as visitors from further a field access to new areas of creativity. It houses two theatres for the performing arts and gallery spaces showing the works of LS Lowry alongside other artists of regional, national and international standing. The L S Lowry Collection now numbers around 350 paintings and drawings, ranging across Lowry’s artistic career. Different works from the Collection are shown, alongside pictures loaned from other public and private collections, in changing, themed exhibitions.
To encourage all visitors to fully explore and enjoy the variety of facilities housed within it, ease of movement was highly important to The Lowry. Wishing to comply with the requirements of the 1995 Disability Discrimination Act (DDA), The Lowry decided to improve access for visitors and staff with impaired mobility by installing a platform lift that linked the open ramped route that connects the theatre foyers and gallery spaces, and which form a public promenade around the building.
Barry Rose, Gartec’s Northern Regional Sales Manager, said: “The 3-stop platform lift we installed at The Lowry provides an ideal solution for disabled access to different levels within the complex.”
“Finished in an attractive colour scheme to match the décor, the lift features a fully flexible design, concealed automatic door openers and is of an extremely high build quality. It is fully self-contained within its own 5.5 metre high fully glazed shaft, required no separate structure or machine room, and the lift now provides a smooth and simple way for all people with impaired mobility to access all floors and facilities within The Lowry.”
