Contemporary Architecture
Birmingham has witnessed a new period of construction, prompted by the regeneration of Broad Street through Brindleyplace, which began construction in the early 1990s. It features office and other mixed-use buildings designed by separate architects. including the National Sea Life Centre, designed by Foster and Partners. Other architects involved in the development of Brindleyplace include Terry Farrell, Demetri Porphyrios, Allies and Morrison and Associated Architects.
Other large-scale projects include the major Bullring Shopping Centre development by The Birmingham Alliance, which replaced the earlier 1960s shopping centre which had fallen out of favour with the public. The new shopping centre was completed in 2004 and was designed by Benoy in partnership with Future Systems who designed the iconic and award-winning Selfridges Building which is an irregularly-shaped structure, covered in thousands of reflective discs (see picture) and is a form of blobitecture. In Eastside, the Learning and Leisure Zone has seen the construction of the Eastside campus of Matthew Boulton College, Millennium Point and the New Technology Institute. Future projects will build upon the educational presence that has been established in the area.
One of the most recent high-rise buildings to be constructed and opened within the city centre itself is Ian Simpson's Holloway Circus Tower, which opened in January 2006. When topped out, it became the second tallest building in Birmingham at 122 metres (400 ft), only being beaten by the BT Tower. This has been prompted by the publication of the city council's "High Places" document which outlined locations along the city centre sandstone ridge that were deemed appropriate for the construction of high rise structures.
Developers Urban Splash recently completed the refurbishment of Fort Dunlop and The Rotunda and are involved in the redevelopment of the former Cincinnati Lamb factory in Erdington and the future refurbishment of three tower blocks on the Birchfield Road in Perry Barr.
Read more about this topic: Architecture Of Birmingham
Famous quotes containing the words contemporary and/or architecture:
“The attraction of horror is a mental, or even an intellectual, excitement, but the fascination of the repulsive, so noticeable in contemporary writing, can spring openly from some rotted substance within our civilization ...”
—Ellen Glasgow (1873–1945)
“No architecture is so haughty as that which is simple.”
—John Ruskin (1819–1900)