Comment Brum’s masters of Modernism
lecturer at the Birmingham School of Architecture and, as a member of the Civic Trust Association, received several Civic Trust Awards for conservation and restoration work.
Other notable architects who trained at the Birmingham School of Architecture and went on to shape our post-war city include Frederick Gibberd and John Madin. It must have been a very exciting place to train.
The Birmingham Modernists’ map celebrates the best of this period of architecture, including the House of Fraser store, our only Festival of Britain building in Birmingham. Last week, seriously disappointing plans for the refurbishment and repurposing of this building were revealed.
The good news is that following a pre-planning application meeting the owners and the architect appear to have taken note of our concerns and are considering a new design.
Fingers crossed that the major iconic features, for example, the delicate, graphic quality of the concertina windows are retained and the lightness and joy of the building preserved.
Our next column will look in detail at the proposals for House of Fraser and consider how heritage can be preserved in the face of refurbishment and repurposing.
Brutiful Birmingham is a campaign group established to fight for the retention of the best of late 20th century buildings in Birmingham. We welcome views: www.facebook.com/ Brutiful-Birmingham, follow us on twitter: twitter.com/brutifulbrum, or email us at : brutiful2015@gmail.com Mary Keating represents Brutiful Birmingham