HS2 station design
HS2 Curzon Street architects will not repeat the “design mistakes” that resulted in Birmingham’s much-criticised New Street station.
THE architects of Birmingham’s new HS2 station at Curzon Street will not repeat the same ‘design mistakes’ made by the city’s transport planners in the 1960s.
That’s according to Birmingham City Council (BCC) Development Planning Manager Gary Woodward, who is hoping to combat the legacy of concrete brutalist architecture as evidenced by the city’s inner ring road and New Street station.
He says that the former has come to present a significant physical barrier to the swift movement of pedestrian flows and the expansion of the city centre, since being opened in 1971.
Meanwhile, between 2010 and 2015, Birmingham New Street underwent a £750 million redevelopment of its 1967built concourse, having been consistently voted one of the least popular stations in the UK for being dark, crowded and with poor access to platforms.
Designs for Curzon Street, which is due to open in 2026, will instead have permeability and connectivity at their heart. The new station is intended to unite communities rather than divide them.
Speaking in Birmingham at the ATCO (Association of Transport Co-ordinating Officers) National Rail Conference on June 7, Woodward said: “We don’t want the station to cut off anywhere, so it must have 360 degree connectivity.
“We’ve been there before with our concrete collar ring road that chokes the city centre, and through the railway stations that we’ve had to spend billions of pounds on improving.
“We do not want to make those same mistakes again, and the Curzon HS2 Masterplan will make sure that doesn’t happen. We want to create something that Birmingham can be proud of and is fit for the 21st century, which is also about unlocking growth. That is why it is important to get the design right.” The Birmingham Curzon HS2
Masterplan was published in July 2015 as BCC’s blueprint for maximising the economic benefits offered by the eventual arrival of HS2 to the West Midlands, and to promote the city’s expectations for the new station.
In addition to making sure the station is fully integrated into the city’s urban fabric as a multi-modal hub, the document sets out a desire for the station to open up accessibility between the city centre and the adjoining areas of Digbeth and Eastside.
It envisages the redevelopment of a 141-hectare area of Birmingham, in which 14,000 jobs, 2,000 new homes and 600,000m2 of new business space will be delivered.
Grimshaw Architects and WSP have been appointed by HS2 Ltd to create the new station, with the Masterplan expected to inform their preferred design plans before they are released to the public by the end of the year.
Woodward added: “We developed the masterplan in order to influence the HS2 design process, and to set the city’s store in how we want to maximise the economic benefits. We decided that Curzon Street must be a destination station and a landmark building.
“We felt the station deserved a direct connection to the planned extension of the Midland Metro, and that passengers dragging their suitcase around was not acceptable. Digbeth is already cut off by existing railway lines, so having an entrance directly serving it will put this area on the map for new homes and businesses, and substantially reduce journey times to the city centre.”
HS2 Ltd Project Manager Bill Price said the company is conscious of the potential scale of the new station, which will be built on three levels and accommodate 400metre trains.
Design is therefore of paramount importance to ensure that the station is imposing, yet does not become ‘a huge concrete wall’ to surrounding areas.
Price added: “How we make it permeable is at the forefront of our minds, as well as providing value for money. We are trying to create the fantastic station that Birmingham wants and needs, which is a multi-modal hub, and which teases out the potential for growth and development.
“In the stakeholder engagement there was a fear that we would become a huge concrete wall to Digbeth, but current designs show how we can improve permeability to the area. They will be released to stakeholders by the end of the year.”