New facade for Birmingham New Street station is unveiled
Media
16/03/2010
The facade for the new look Birmingham New Street station, part of the overall Birmingham Gateway project on which Mace Group is delivery partner and contractor, has been unveiled at an event attended by representatives from the four client organisations as well as local and industry media.
The façade mock-up provides the first opportunity for both the project team and the wider public to get a feel for what the revamped Birmingham New Street station and Pallasades shopping centre will look like on completion in 2015. At 20 metres in length, ten metres high and standing four metres off the ground, the mock up has created a huge impact, accentuated by the use of mirrored finish stainless steel.
On 15th March, the mock-up was inspected for the first time by Birmingham Gateway's four development partners: Birmingham City Council (BCC), Advantage West Midlands (AWM), Centro and Network Rail. Leader of the council Mike Whitby declared the structure "very impressive".
Among those invited to view it for the first time was Mick Laverty, chief executive of AWM (which has invested £100m in the scheme) who said: "Personally, having seen the cladding for the first time, I think it's going to become the second iconic building after Selfridges. It shows a more dynamic side of Birmingham rather than the tired old Spaghetti junction that has been used for years and years and is going to be one of the region's gateways befitting of an international city of Birmingham's stature."
The function of the mock-up was extremely important from a project perspective as well. Mace operations director Rob Croft, who both package managed and commercially managed the mock-up, said: "After an extensive period of market validation and discussions with the suppliers of raw material, the design team still could not make up its mind as to the material, finish or fixing arrangements". The mock-up was the only tangible way to resolve these issues and incorporated 54 panels of differing conditions dependent upon steel thickness, finish, fixing detail and edge condition. Rob went on: "Fortunately the project team, the designers, the funders and the planning committee all chose the same panel."
The work itself was carried out by Barhale, which installed the foundations, Watson Steel, which provided the framing and Prater / CA Group which provided and managed the stainless steel rainscreen installation.
Follow this link to read an article from the Birmingham Mail.
Follow this link to read an article from industry publication Rail News.
