Centre City Tower is a commercial building in the

Birmingham city centre Birmingham city centre, also known as Central Birmingham, is the central business district of Birmingham, England. The area was historically in Warwickshire. Following the removal of the Birmingham Inner Ring Road, Inner Ring Road, the city cent ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

owned by

Bruntwood Bruntwood is a family-owned property company offering office space, serviced offices, retail space and virtual offices in the north of England and Birmingham in the United Kingdom. They own several high-profile buildings in the Manchester area, as ...

. The building's architects were

Richard Seifert Richard Seifert (born Reubin Seifert; 25 November 1910 – 26 October 2001) was a Swiss-British architect, best known for designing London's NatWest Tower (now officially named Tower 42), once the tallest building in the United Kingdom, ...

and Partners. The Centre City complex consists of two buildings, the Tower and the Podium. The Podium is a low-rise building that surrounds the Tower base, but (with the exception of fire escapes) there is no direct connection between the two. This arrangement means that the first floor of the Tower is at approximately seventh-floor level when compared with other buildings. When first constructed, the Podium contained at ground level a nightclub and a theatre. The theatre was a requirement of the

City Council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, borough counc ...

, who stipulated that a public amenity should be provided as a condition of granting planning permission. However, the proximity of three other theatres probably contributed to no-one taking up the concession to run the theatre and it remained unused until c.1990, when it and the nightclub space were converted to additional office accommodation, under the title 'Centre City Atrium'. Before building work commenced, the 'lost' theatre was featured in an article in the UK trade journal ''

New Civil Engineer ''New Civil Engineer'' is the monthly magazine for members of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE), the UK chartered body that oversees the practice of civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the appl ...

''. This may explain why the street at the back of the building is called 'Theatre Approach' though the presence next door of the former Tatler Theatre may be a more convincing explanation. The Podium exterior was cleaned in mid-2006 using a power-washer. It was named as the 'ugliest building in the UK' by photography experts ParrotPrint.

References

External links

*
Skyscrapernews entry
Buildings and structures in Birmingham, West Midlands Office buildings completed in 1975 1975 establishments in England Brutalist architecture in England {{WestMidlands-struct-stub

See also

References

External links