Broad Street Tower (also known as 212–223 Broad Street by its address) is an approved 134-metre skyscraper for Broad Street, Birmingham, England. It is designed by DTZ Pieda Consulting and Level Seven Architects.
The developer, Richardson and Cordwell, originally proposed the building in 2005 at 120 metres in height. The original proposal was withdrawn to make changes to the design including increasing the number of floors.
The tower is to be built on the site once occupied by Tramps nightclub which has already been cleared. The site now has a temporary advertisement board occupying it fronting Broad Street. As part of the development, further premises on the street will be demolished to make way for the podium.
The tower will sit diagonally to the street with the curved front facing Five Ways. Originally, a helipad was proposed to be located on top of the building on a podium however, in the latest changes, it was removed from the design though the podium remained with some minor changes.
It will feature a 150-room hotel and will have 350 apartments located on a total of 41 floors. The roof height will be 132 metres with a spire elevating this figure to 134 metres. A hotel operator has not yet been named. It is expected to cost a £100 million to construct.
The tower was to be presented before a planning committee in late August 2006 however, the developers pulled out minutes before the meeting to make changes.
The application was presented again on September 28 and whilst it was originally deferred due to lack of information, concerns over height and payment of money under Section 106, it was later approved. The new proposal also boasts a partial redesign increasing the height of the tower and creating a redesigned façade.
Construction was expected to begin in 2008 at the same time as the demolition of the remaining premises. When completed, it will be the second tallest building in Birmingham before the BT Tower and will be the tallest building on the street. However, another approved highrise planned for the city, V Building, is expected to surpass the height of Broad Street Tower. Other buildings in Birmingham which are in planning such as VTP200 and Snowhill are expected to be taller or be of a similar height to Broad Street Tower.
Famous quotes containing the words broad street, broad, street and/or tower:
“Through this broad street, restless ever,
Ebbs and flows a human tide,
Wave on wave a living river;
Wealth and fashion side by side;
Toiler, idler, slave and master, in the same quick current glide.”
—John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892)
“I hardly know an intellectual man, even, who is so broad and truly liberal that you can think aloud in his society. Most with whom you endeavor to talk soon come to a stand against some institution in which they appear to hold stock,—that is, some particular, not universal, way of viewing things. They will continually thrust their own low roof, with its narrow skylight, between you and the sky, when it is the unobstructed heavens you would view.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“He has given me six hundred street signs.
The time I was dancing he built a museum.
He built ten blocks when I moved on the bed.
He constructed an overpass when I left.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“Culture is a sham if it is only a sort of Gothic front put on an iron building—like Tower Bridge—or a classical front put on a steel frame—like the Daily Telegraph building in Fleet Street. Culture, if it is to be a real thing and a holy thing, must be the product of what we actually do for a living—not something added, like sugar on a pill.”
—Eric Gill (1882–1940)