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Old Posted Sep 18, 2006, 7:01 PM
Engels Engels is offline
Poping over from SSC
 
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Birmingham, UK
Posts: 7
Background:

Although 2x130m may not seem that tall to some international readers it's pretty big in terms of regional citys in the UK and will make a large addition to the Birmingham skyline. With the exception of London which has 200m+ towers and proposals at 300m all other UK city's buildings are less than 200m.

Birmingham has by some people's deffinition the best skyline in the UK due to its large number of talls situated at the top of the ridge of a hill which the city centre streches accross. A boom in post war deveopment saw Birmingham become one of the first old citys to modernise and have many tall buildings. By the end of the 1970s however most of the construction of tall buildings had ceased with only sporadic additions over the next 20-30 years.

Birmingham's tallest building remains the now 40year old BT Tower (156m communcations tower in the city centre). Many new towers are now being built and planned as British citys genearly enter a second age of high rise constuction.

Birmingham is at the forefront of this new boom with the recent construction of the Beetham tower (122m and currently second tallest building in the city) and Orion Building (90m). A lot more buildings are planned but if built first then these two buildings would become the 2nd and 3rd tallest in the city. Their central position on the skyline would no doubt also make them a focal point even with large buildings planned elsewhere in the city.

The central location of the proposals is part of the Birmingham gateway scheme to redevelop Birmingham's New St station a 1960s era station that is massively over capacity and such an eyesore that it is known as the Blackhole of Birmingham. The area around the station is one of the few remaining areas of central Birmingham to remain untouched by regeneration over the last 15 years.
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