Quintain Kick Off First City Park Gate Phase
Published on 12-08-2008 by Skyscrapernews.com
The first phase of the City Park Gate development in Birmingham is finally seeing some movement with the submission by developer, Quintain Estates of a planning application for the scheme.
Standing a mere 8 floors tall, the scheme reaches a not insubstantial 43 metres in height thanks to the large floor to ceiling measurements of each level.
The proposals feature three staggered buildings linked together by glass sections that will form two separate buildings with about 25,000 square metres of new office space.
The tiered shape helps split the office into sections and also allows the maximum penetration of sunlight on the west to east axis naturally lighting up what would otherwise be dark floorplates.
A welcoming projecting glass frontage bounding Moor Street Queensway near the railway station of the same name will overlook a new landscaped plaza, complete with an al-fresco café that will animate it in the summer. The top floor of the front of the buildings is recessed revealing reddish cladding facing the inside.
Despite the openness of the front, the south facing back is less welcoming and very clearly a closed off elevation although this is no doubt in no small part due to the railway line that runs along the back of the plot. With smaller windows between the dark cladding, the architect has somehow managed to give it the feel of an eighties post-modern office block. As with the front, the upper floor has glimpses of red framing the windows.
Whether the scheme gets the go-ahead is anyone's guess, but the scheme is certainly an improvement on the current empty
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