Unstoppable rise of ever-growing tower blocks on the horizon
WORK on Birmingham’s tallest building is under way on the northern edge of the Paradise development.
The world’s first residential tower with eight sides is set to grow to a height of 155 metres.
At more than 500ft, the suitably named Octagon will topple the halfcentury reign of the BT Tower as the city’s highest building.
Soon, it will join other recent highrise developments such as Cortland Broad Street, South Central Tower on Essex Street, The Exchange Square 2 development and the apartments between Sherlock Street and Bishop Street in providing a buff-coloured stalk reaching for the sky.
Whether this new skyline will be considered attractive by future generations is uncertain, with yet another massive student block signed off this week, as reported in the Post.
The rush for high-rise towers has been criticised by many and plans to demolish the Smallbrook Queensway Ringway Centre and replace it with three huge towers is another sore point for many.
But today other parts of Birmingham city centre are looking good, despite all the upheaval, from Brindleyplace to Centenary Square and RIBA-nominated Chamberlain Square.
Nearby, Victoria Square is currently being remodelled and Colmore Row and Waterloo Street are also set to be transformed.
Large scale transport infrastructure investments from the West Midlands Metro to HS2 are also creating job opportunities and investment potential. Some of the developments on the horizon are detailed right...
The Exchange Square, Moor Street Queensway
This has been billed as an ‘exciting new urban village’ with new high quality apartments plus shops, cafes and restaurants’. The completed part one is called ‘Allegro’.
Part 1: £125 million value – 603 rental apartments in three buildings of 27, 14 and seven storeys plus a 5,000 sq ft residents’ hub including a concierge and members club style private lounge. The scheme also provides 30,000 sq ft of prime retail and leisure space
Part 2: £120 million – billed as ‘apartments, hotel and high quality retail accommodation alongside ‘New City Square’, a brand new half-an-acre public space that links Exchange
Square with Bruntwood’s neighbouring McLaren Building’. Includes 375 apartments within a residential block of 37 storeys. There is also a 15-storey Premier Inn and ‘high quality’ retail space.
Cortland Broad Street (The Square)
The Square consists of two residential buildings – a tall 35-storey residential tower fronting Broad Street and a six-storey building on Ryland Street. There will also be an eight-storey 229 bed hotel plus a central courtyard space.
South Central Tower, Essex Street
Since first proposed, it has added two levels to become a 30-storey tower that’s rising at the corner of Essex Street and Bristol Street.
Glancy Nicholls Architects says it will ‘provide 166 high-quality inner-city apartments, ranging from one to three-bedrooms, and a host of engaging amenities and commercial spaces. The design of the tower seeks to exhibit the character of this unique area of
Birmingham city centre, with references to the city’s terracotta heritage’.
Octagon, Paradise
Billed as the world’s first ‘Octagon’ shaped building, the Glenn Howells Architects’ website says there will be
346 ‘spacious new homes’ in the 49-storey tower now underway at the northern end of Paradise. It will ‘offer uninterrupted views across the city
(and be) instantly recognisable from across Birmingham’.
Work began in earnest in December 2021 when the development was valued at £110 million. The ‘build to rent’ tower is expected to be 155 metres tall (509ft), making it taller than the BT Tower.
Get Living, Southside
A giant new Get Living apartment block between Bishop Street and Sherlock Street is a Watkin Jones build to rent scheme that is being financed with a £136 million forward funding deal. It is set to have 551 one to three bedroomed apartments as well as a double height sky lounge and a public square.
Kent Street / Bromsgrove Street
Winvic is building four developments on land bounded by Bromsgrove Street, Gooch Street North, Kent Street and Henstead Street. Ranging in height from seven to 18 storeys, there will be a mix of studio, and 1-2-3 and 3-bed duplex apartments on a site once best known as being the home of Kent Street Baths.
There will be semi-basement parking for 86 vehicles plus nine dedicated electric parking spaces. As well as a ‘green roof’, there will be a landscaped central courtyard, too. They will be completed in 2024.
Holloway Head
Winvic is building another four multi-storey blocks off Holloway Head with a projected value of up to £70 million. The 14-storey site – which will include a new HQ for Girlguiding Birmingham – is bordered by Brownsea Drive as well as by Blucher Street and Ellis Street on the Cleveland Tower side of Holloway Head.
April 2025 is the completion date target to build 132 one-bed, 344 two-bed and eight three-bed apartments. Winvic says there will be shared meeting and workspaces, a residents’ lounge, dining area and a gym. There will also be car parking for 56 cars and storage for 112 bicycles.
Soho Wharf, Dudley Road
The Soho Wharf project opposite City Hospital covers 11.6 acres and will create more than 750 places to live next to the Birmingham Old Line Canal. There will be 102 two and three-bedroom townhouses and 650 one and two-bedroom apartments, more than 10,000 sq ft of commercial space, new public realm, parks and gardens, and shared amenity spaces.
And more...
In central Birmingham, Paradise is an ongoing redevelopment likely to take up much of the rest of the decade with several more buildings and public squares to come. The 42-acre Smithfield site will also take around a decade to complete.
West Midlands Mayor Andy Street says the future redevelopment of The Square Shopping Centre area into Martineau Galleries will be the ‘most exciting’ of all given its proximity to
HS2 and the Eastside West Midlands Metro tram extension, now set to reach High Street Deritend in 2027 instead of 2025. The former John Lewis will become Drum with more than 70 per cent office space creating demand for leisure, food and hospitality.