"For a city with a population of approximately 1 million gives Birmingham the title of Britain's second largest city. It has more miles of canal than Venice, was the birthplace of Radar and has more green space than any other city in Europe. However, what about the cities skyline?
Just under 10 years ago, ambitious plans to make Birmingham into a bustling, skyscraper metropolis were revealed. Birmingham's skyline was to match Frankfurt, Paris, London and to be reminiscent of a mini Manhattan or Chicago. However, was this a real possibility or just nothing more than an optimistic city councils vision? Two flagship skyscraper developments were created to start the ball rolling in what was to be Birmingham's skyscraper boom. The 805ft Arena Central tower, to be one of Europe's tallest buildings, and the elegant, slick, 650ft Holloway Circus Tower. But what is the situation now and how far has the city come to achieving its initial goal?
In the past 10 years since these amazing visions were launched, a number of factors have changed. Britain's economic troubles, along with a number of wars, terrorist campaigns and the tragic events of 11th September have proved damaging and even fatal for many of Britain's high rise projects, with Britain's regional cities suffering the most. Projects in Liverpool, Bristol and London were either reduced in height or cancelled. Birmingham was no exception. At first it seemed that only the Arena Central tower was Birmingham's only victim. The developers were concerned that demand for a hotel at the top of the tower would prove to be unwanted and was quickly removed, reducing its height. However, things were later made worse for the city after the IRA attempted to detonate nearly 400lbs of homemade explosives near one of Birmingham's best night spots. It happened to be only yards away from Holloway Circus making the developers of the future skyscraper uncomfortable. A later CAA ruling was to tip the balance and the height of the building was cut by a third.
With skyscraper proposals in London and the rest of the world steaming ahead after 11th September, the future for Birmingham's towering dreams seemed in ruins. Arena Central was being redesigned and there were worries that the sleek and slender tower planned to grace Holloway Circus could end up being nothing more than a stumpy disaster. Birmingham's dreams had slipped from Manhattan to more Milton Keynes. Could things for the city get any worse?
However, in 1999 something would happen that was to be the light at the end of the tunnel. A report was published showing that demand for office space and luxury apartments in the city centre was unlike any other city in England. This was the catalyst that was to give Birmingham's high-rise vision a much-needed boost. New developers rushed forward with new proposals with large amounts of space to be located in Birmingham's already dense city centre. It is therefore obvious that many of these proposals featured high-rise components.
The prospects were made even better when it was discovered that due to overwhelming demand for city centre space, land prices in certain parts of the city were among the highest in the world. The current average price for land in the city centre stands at £29per sqft - higher than New York, Sydney and even space starved cities such as Hong Kong and Tokyo. All that was left now was to wait and watch the high-rise schemes role in.
The first of these was the 21-storey Centenary Plaza. Containing over 350 luxury apartments all with skyline views of the city, this was the first phase of the bigger Arena Central Scheme. Planning permission was soon to follow and construction of the tower was almost instant making it the biggest residential scheme in Britain currently under construction.
Soon to follow were a number of mid to high-rise towers at Smallbrooke Queensway, Masshouse Circus and another tower to compliment the planned skyscraper at Holloway Circus. These prompted Beetham, the developers of the original Holloway Circus Tower, to push ahead with their reduced skyscraper and to make the best out of their bad situation. A new design for the tower was revealed and the building time-table for the tower pushed forward in the hope that they could cash in on demand.
Suddenly after years of doubt to whether or not a new skyscraper would ever grace the Birmingham Skyline, nine new or revised high-rise proposals were on the card for Birmingham. Unfortunately, none of these proposals are anywhere near as tall as the councils original visions however would still have a dramatic effect on the cities skyline. Ranging from 200ft to nearly 450ft, these towers are expected to have a dramatic effect for the city, not only visually but financially as well.
Another benefit to Birmingham is that now, after many other European cities are either in the middle or end of their individual skyscraper booms, Birmingham can now take stock and make sure that the same mistakes that occurred in the mass building of the 60s does not happen again. The council can make sure that their towers do not turn out to be as bland as London's Canary Wharf has seemed become but make sure that they contain the architectural uniqueness and merit of London's Swiss Reinsurance Tower making them truly magnificent buildings.
Now that construction of the Centenary Plaza and the Orion Building at Smallbrooke Queensway has commenced, and construction on the award winning Beetham Tower at Holloway Circus and Edward Cullinan's cantilevering towers at Masshouse is poised to start, the future for Birmingham high-rise visions are good. With the continuing support of the Birmingham City Council, who has assigned 11 prime sites around the city especially for high-rise schemes, more proposals continue to spill in. The latest of these consists of a 370ft office tower on the site of the Birmingham Post and Mail Headquarters and a new 25 storey, "slopping" tower to grace the new Birmingham Eastside Scheme.
Although the original Birmingham proposals had encountered major obstacles in the past, the general vision for a new and improved, impressive Birmingham Skyline seems to be going full steam ahead. With construction commencing on a number of high-rise schemes, with new towering proposals for Birmingham constantly being unveiled and the long awaited, newly designed Arena Central scheme to come, the only way for Birmingham's skyline is up!"