The £16m Centenary Square makeover a ‘shrewd investment’
THE £16m redevelopment of Birmingham’s Centenary Square has been hailed as a ‘shrewd investment’ as it was formally opened.
The public space, which is surrounded by major attractions such as Symphony Hall, Library of Birmingham and the Hall of Memory, now features dozens of lighting columns and a shallow reflective pool with jets shooting water upwards.
The whole area has also been repaved while new seating areas have been installed with more than 5,000 new plants introduced.
But the scheme has been hit by controversy with complications causing a year-long delay in completion with overall costs spiralling from £12m to near £16m.
It will also continue to be surrounded by building sites for the foreseeable future largely due to the extension of the Midland Metro line, a redevelopment of Symphony Hall and with a facelift to Birmingham Repertory Theatre announced in recent days.
But as the new Centenary Square was unveiled before a host of dignitaries yesterday when the water jets were turned on at 11.30am, the importance of the site as a catalyst for investment was underlined, with partners highlighting the nearby developments of the HSBC building and Paradise scheme as prime examples.
Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership (GBSLEP) has provided the bulk of the funding with an investment of £10.5m.
Simon Marks, director for optimising assets at the LEP, hailed the pro
ject as a ‘shrewd investment’ and said: “If you look at Centenary Square you have got HSBC, got HMRC, talk of another building at Arena coming, we know Paradise obviously is coming forward at pace, we’ve got the Metro coming through, we’ve got the Symphony Hall extension, actually you need that fantastic public realm to knit it all together to give people a space to enjoy.
“When international investors come over or home-grown UK businesses come they want to invest in places where their staff are going to want to live and going to want to work and enjoy the quality of that public realm.”
He then talked up the benefits of the square as a place for people to navigate through Birmingham and added: “People often underestimate the value that you generate from public realm, they really, really do.”
Cllr Brigid Jones, deputy leader of Birmingham City Council which has ploughed in £3.8m to the redevelopment, confirmed that Centenary Square would once again host the big wheel this Christmas following the completion of the works.
She said the square represented the city’s ‘past, present and future’ and added: “The square is no longer just a place for people to pass through we wanted it to be something for the people of Birmingham to come and socialise in, somewhere for people to sit and enjoy and somewhere to play as well.
“I’ve already been told off for calling it a pond, the water feature, incredible pool we have, the fountains, somewhere for kids and big kids alike to enjoy.”
There were 185 entries from 30 countries bidding to create the vision for the new Centenary Square. Ultimately it was Edinburgh-based Graeme Massie Architects that were chosen. Sasha Bhavan, of Knox Bhavan Architects and a member of the judging panel for the entries, explained why their concept was selected.
She said: “It had that essence of the thing you hadn’t thought of, this hall of columns and the idea that it could work in the day and work at night and make a 3D room in the city. It all hinged on the columns.
“What was very, very impressive to us was that Graeme Massey designed those columns, had gone through a prototype exercise, they had them costed, we realised that this dreamy view was realisable.”