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Centenary Square developments 2019

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One asset that Birmingham will always have (and mentioned in the 103 Colmore Row blurb) is its central location. Birmingham New Street station probably has the highest total number of connections to other parts of England, Wales and southern Scotland than anywhere else in the UK. Dave.
 
Good to see Centenary Sq being used for events. Brought to life at last. I’ve said somewhere else on here, that my memory of this part of Birmingham when I left always had an air of ‘unfinished’ or abandoned. It’s finally losing that look. Viv.
 
Vivienne14 said:
I’ve said somewhere else on here, that my memory of this part of Birmingham when I left always had an air of ‘unfinished’ or abandoned. It’s finally losing that look. Viv.
Click to expand...

I am not sure when you left, but this area has been a hive of building activity for the last few years.

There have been 4 major buildings projects in this one fairly small area, as you can see from the image below.

For those that don't know the 4 building project are as follows:

Paradise (shown with a red border in the image below). This is on the site of the 1970s Madin library and the Copthorne Hotel. Two buildings are currently under construction with another half a dozen yet to be started (1 hotel the rest office blocks). This is a 10 year project.

Arena Central (shown with a green border on the image below). This is on the site of Alpha Tower and the old Register Office and Central TV studios. Recently built are the Holiday Inn Express hotel, the HSBC headquarters, and Dandara apartments. Being built is HMRC office block with further offices to be built.

Tram Line (shown in orange in the image below). Runs from Paradise St in the top of the image, to Broad St at the bottom of the image. This section due to open in December (next month). The tram line will eventually go down to Five Ways and beyond.

Centenary Square (shown with a blue border in the image below). Complete redevelopment of Centenary Square. This is almost finished, just waiting for the tram line station to be finished off.

All this building work has been VERY disruptive to the area for the last 2 or 3 years, with different roads blocked off and dug up, pedestrian routes constantly changed, and all the dust and dirt from building work everywhere. Sadly it will carry on for a while as they continue to work on the Paradise and Arena Central developments, though Centenary Square and the Tram line (in this section) is coming to an end.

City Centre.PNG
 
That is a great plan for us non dwellers Guilbert of the areas that have or are being re-developed. Only having visited the city for a couple of days in 1981, or thereabouts, (my true memories as a youngster were prior to 1954) it nicely put it all into perspective.
 
Yes thanks from me too Guilbert, I left in the early 1980s, major changes since then. They were just starting on the Convention Centre. Way before that I think the area probably suffered from unfulfilled plans when the full Civic Centre plans didn’t materialise in the 1930s. I think the new tram line will help, because when I worked at Alpha Tower it always seemed a bit off the beaten track to me, on the fringes so to speak. Viv.
 
I know what Vivienne means about 'off the beaten track'. Apart from the occasional visit to Lee Longlands store I was never taken to that part of town, except........one memorable moment for a VE maybe VJ Day parade. We stood on the grassed area - as it then was - near to the Hall of Memory - 'all a memry' as it was frequently called. ;)
When I was older and made my city visits on my own it was rare for me to be in that area.
 
Today I popped to Centenary Square and observed as a tram went to the new tram stop on a test. Will get the photos up later. Starting to look complete. Those who moved away should come back for a weekend visit and see for their selves the changes.

Viv The ICC was built in the late 1980s.
 
Following on from my image above showing the four projects going on in the Westside area of Birmingham, here is a bit more detail of one of those projects - Arena Central.

This plot is on the site of Alpha Tower and the old Register Office and Central TV studios. It is bordered by Broad St in the North, Bridge St in the West, Holliday St in the South and Suffolk St Queensway in the East.

There are three existing building on the site:

Alpha Tower
Crowne Plaza Hotel
Old Municipal Bank (now owned by University of Birmingham and being refurbished)

New buildings built or BEING built

Holiday Inn Express hotel (on Holliday Street) been open over a year
HSBC bank UK headquarters on Broad St - been open about 6 months
Dandara apartments (two towers) - facing Holliday St / Suffolk St Queensway - almost finished
HMRC (HM Revenue and Customs) offices - currently being built

The area down the left of the site facing Bridge St (see image below) will eventually contain 3 more office blocks.

The new tram line being built along Broad St will have a stop outside of the HSBC headquarters (and opposite the new library).

The web site for the Arena Central project is here:

Masterplan | Arena Central, Birmingham

Arena Central has been masterplanned to provide a truly mixed-use location in the heart of Birmingham city centre. The site has planning consent in place for the delivery of: Up to 670,000 sq ft of Grade A office accommodation Up to 530,000 sq ft of residential Ancillary retail/leisure Designed...
arena-central.com arena-central.com

Here is an image of the development with each of the buildings identified

Arena Central.PNG
 
john knight said:
Took this this morning, 26 storeys with a restaurant on the top, tallest office block in Brum, wander if the restaurant will be open to public.
Click to expand...

This is 103 Colmore Row, on the site of the old Nat West tower.

If you look at the website below, and scroll down to the "Floor by Floor" section it does show a lift going all the way from the ground floor up to the restaurant and it is called "Restaurant Lift" so it makes me think the restaurant WILL be open to the public.

103 Colmore Row, Birmingham - Above all else

Birmingham’s tallest office development is an architectural tour de force. This towering development will be visible from miles around the city – even at night, when its double height restaurant at the top of the building’s 26 storeys will act as a beacon.
www.103colmorerow.com
 
In two updates above I have tried to show details of the developments taking place around Broad Street.

To continue that here is an update on the "Paradise" project (so called because it runs alongside Paradise St)

This is the site of the old 1970s John Madin library that was demolished a couple of years ago.

There are plans to build nine different buildings on the site, over a 10 year period.

Two buildings are currently being built (they are almost finished), with another due to start soon (though this was due to start earlier this year). I think the tram line development has delayed the start of this building.

There are two OLD buildings on this site

Copthorne Hotel - when the new hotel is built on the site this hotel will be demolished.
Small office building (shown in the bottom left in the first image below). This will also be demolished.

The two buildings currently being built are:

One Chamberlain Square - PWC will occupy the whole building in early 2020.
Two Chamberlain Square - Only the two top floors taken at the moment, a legal firm. They move there in 2020.

Below is a view of the site as it pretty much is at the moment.

The red border shows the extent of the site. The black lines show the site of the next 3 buildings to be built (one hotel and two office blocks).

Paradise Site.PNG

And below is the long term plan for the site. When first announced it was a 10 year project, and we have already had about 3 years.

The project is being built in 3 phases.

RED buildings - Phase 1 - both buildings nearly finished.
GREEN buildings - Phase 2 - none of these started yet. To be built over the next 3 or 4 years.
YELLOW buildings - Phase 3 - to be started when phase 2 is finished.

Paradise.PNG

I do hope this project is finished as planned. Sadly the plot as it was (Madin library, Chamberlain House etc) had a whole hotch potch of buildings in various styles.

The big problem comes if the office buildings that are planned to be built (phase 2) are NOT occupied then it is unlikely the developer will go ahead with phase 3 so that part of the site could lie vacant for years.
 
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Radiorails said:
Many people here lament the loss of architecturally beautiful buildings in the city and yet this monstrosity, appearing like something cobbled from items found in a scrapyard, has pride of place.
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That photo was from 2007 and is no longer in Centenary Square, it has not been there for years.

It is now in storage in the Museum storage centre.
 
Can’t have been there for long then. Also looks like it was a fountain. Not the most attractive of pieces. Viv.
 
It was there from around 1991 to 2009 I think. Spirit of Enterprise. They left it outside at the Birmingham Museums Collections Centre. Saw on two open days in the past.
 
Didn't really want any more Ice Skate Birmingham photos, but got these views instead.

Birmingham Big Wheel reflected in HSBC UK at 1 Centenary Square.



The Library of Birmingham lit up blue, sandwiched between the Big Wheel and ice rink.

 
Arriving by tram in Centenary Square.



This is the route to the Library of Birmingham while Ice Skate Birmingham is on.

 
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