Renaissance in Birmingham

Taken from the book Revival in the Square, by Nick Corbett

Nick is Urban Design Manager at Derby Cityscape

Part two, Eastside, will be published next week

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The city of Birmingham is centrally located at the heart of England, where it serves as the regional capital for the West Midlands. It is the second largest city in the UK, with a population of over one million within its administrative boundary, and it sits within an urban conurbation of over five million people. Birmingham provides an example of how effective leadership and a successful urban design strategy can focus investment to create new and improved city squares and interconnected streets that can transform a city and its region.

In the 19th century, Birmingham had benefited from a visionary mayor, Joseph Chamberlain, who was elected to the Council in 1869 and went on to implement municipal improvements on a grand scale. Much of the city had been in a squalid condition prior to his administration. Chamberlain himself said that before his time Birmingham was: ‘... badly lighted, imperfectly guarded, and only partially drained; there were few public buildings and few important streets ... But now great public edifices not unworthy of the importance of a Midland metropolis have risen on every side. Rookeries and squalid courts have given way to fine streets and open places. The roads are well paved, well kept, well lighted, and well cleansed ... Free libraries and museums of art are open to all the inhabitants ’. Chamberlain also said: ‘I have an abiding faith in municipal institutions ... an abiding sense of the value and importance of local self government, and I desire therefore to surround them by everything which can mark their importance.'

Chamberlain’s legacy has survived to an extent, but Birmingham suffered
greatly through war damage, post-war redevelopment, and highway engineering
that had little regard to wider environmental or social issues. The city had
developed as a significant industrial town in the 18th century, growing rapidly,
with a traditional pattern of streets and squares arranged in an irregular grid
pattern. It became known around the world as the city of a thousand trades. The city later suffered from the collapse of its manufacturing industry in the 1970s. Employment in the city fell by 29 per cent between 1971 and 1983 (Birmingham City Council figures).

Much of the post-war redevelopment of the city contrasted with the earlier
irregular grid pattern, and was primarily designed in the 1960s for motor vehicle accessibility. This resulted in the construction of a number of ring roads, including the inner ring road, now recognised as being a ‘concrete collar’ around the city centre. The ring roads sliced through the traditional urban blocks, leaving a fragmented urban structure and a confused public realm. The backs of buildings and car parks often faced public spaces and streets, resulting in dead frontages and a lack of natural surveillance.

At the end of the 1980s the sparks of municipal leadership began to ignite
again, and slowly but surely much of the neglect in the city centre has been turned around. Through implementing an urban design strategy, Birmingham is now well embarked upon an urban renaissance of a scale unknown since the time of Chamberlain. The strategy has transformed a car-dominated city centre, which was blighted by high unemployment, into an attractive place where tourism, education, international conferences, the arts, and high-technology industries are thriving alongside state-of-the-art shopping and city centre housing. The change in the city’s fortunes indicates the importance of urban design for regeneration.

The strategy has also shown how urban squares can be used to market a city, and to increase its standing within the international marketplace.

While accommodating the motor car had been the principal goal of city planning
in Birmingham in the 1960s, thirty years later it was realised that while roads
were necessary, they must not become barriers to pedestrian movement nor
barriers to important views. Through sacrificing pedestrian permeability and the
legibility of the built environment to the car, Birmingham could not fully realise its potential as the second city of the UK, or as a major European destination for shopping, business, tourism, and the arts. It became clear to the city council that the physical structure of the city centre would have to be improved if Birmingham were to be successful in changing its image.

City centre design strategy
In 1988, Birmingham City Council and its consultants organised an international
design symposium, the ‘Highbury Initiative’, to address the city’s problems. This brought together local interests and international expertise, and it was agreed that the city should define a new role for itself as an international city. Flagship projects for accommodating major events were proposed, including the International Convention Centre and the National Indoor Arena, and there were plans for major new and improved city squares, including Victoria Square, Centenary Square, and Brindley Place, all of which provide a sequential urban design experience. These proposals formed part of a single vision, contained within a comprehensive strategy called the ‘City Centre Design Strategy’. The strategy document was produced for the city by consultants Tibbalds, Colbourne, Karski, Williams and was published in 1990.

The strategy developed the idea that the central part of the city contains distinct ‘quarters’, which are of a homogenous or potentially homogenous character. The strategy states that this character derives from ‘the uses, height, scale and bulk of buildings; colour; materials and textures; topography; edges; roof profiles; landscape; landmarks; and so on’. An important section of the strategy identifies the salient characteristics of these areas so their uniqueness can be enhanced in new development proposals. This section of the strategy has helped to focus development control powers properly.

The City Centre Design Strategy was adopted as official supplementary planning guidance and was incorporated into Birmingham’s Unitary Development Plan 1993, which provided a statutory basis for planning control in the city. The design strategy sought to improve the accessibility of the various quarters which had been cut off from the city centre by the inner ring road (the concrete collar).

As several sections of the ring road had been built considerably above ground level it often restricted pedestrian access and views between the different quarters. In comparison with the central area, the quarters were inactive and poorly maintained due to their inadequate pedestrian access and legibility.

To improve pedestrian access and the legibility of the various quarters, it was proposed that the inner ring road be partly re-graded as a ground-level boulevard with ground-level pedestrian crossing points. This would help to spread the city-centre activity into the quarters, and the quarters would accommodate new international facilities, including major retail developments.

It was recognised that if the quarters were to be lively and successful, they must have direct and pleasant pedestrian links with the surrounding urban structure. Links with the core area would be especially important, but there should also be links between neighbouring quarters.

The strategy focused on the delivery of new and improved city squares, and international venues for major events, to the western side of the city centre. These squares have enhanced the identity and distinctiveness of the quarters they are located in, and they have provided new pedestrian links between the quarters. Successful development of the west side of the city centre provided the confidence to tackle the east side of the city, towards Digbeth. This area had become run down and seedy and was becoming increasingly characterised by criminal activity.

West side story
The first strategic pedestrian link to be created was from the main railway station at New Street to Brindley Place. This link now serves as an important pedestrian route. Brindley Place is a new square at the heart of a redeveloped quarter, the Broad Street Redevelopment Area, which is located beyond the inner ring road to the west of the city centre.

The Highbury Initiative and subsequent City Centre Design Strategy had proposed that the Broad Street Redevelopment Area be developed as a premier location for conferences, tourism, and leisure in the city. These were identified as growth industries, which could create jobs and wealth to replace the city’s lost manufacturing base. This quarter has now been successfully developed, with new city squares, and pedestrian links that connect with the high pedestrian flows of the city centre.

After leaving New Street railway station and turning west, New Street provides a direct axial route to the first square in the sequence, Victoria Square. There is a dramatic sense of arrival when the pedestrian leaves New Street and arrives in this irregularly shaped public space. Prior to the improvement works, Victoria Square was little more than a traffic island, with traffic congestion on three sides. This was considered inappropriate for a civic space defined by splendid Victorian buildings, including the grade I listed Council House (in the style of a Venetian palace), a town hall that rises like the ancient Greek Parthenon, and a former post office in the style of a French chateau.

Victoria Square demonstrates how local authorities can design and develop squares when there is clear leadership, vision, and cross-departmental working practices. Inspired by the principles in the City Centre Design Strategy, the transformation of Victoria Square began with a brief produced by the council’s City Centre Planning Team. This provided a vision for a prestigious, pedestrianised civic square. The works were completed in 1993, when the square became a flagship for the city’s urban design strategy.

The brief required that public art be an integral part of the redesign for Victoria Square, and that a water feature be included to dramatically exploit the gradient difference within the site. Space was to be provided for rest, and for movement diagonally across the square that follows the pedestrian desire line – on the route from the station to the new quarter off Broad Street. The brief also required that the square be designed to include a robust space for civic events and for informal street entertainment, and that the image of the square reflect the civic importance of the enclosing buildings.

The requirements of the brief have been implemented through cooperation between various teams within the city council. The council’s Landscape Practice Group managed the detailed design, while the City Engineer’s department undertook contracting and site management. A public art adviser was appointed to produce a coordinating strategy for new commissions, and a lead artist was appointed to develop a unifying artistic concept, which was to become the ‘river’ group. The public art has been designed and positioned to support human interaction, and people can often be seen climbing, sitting, or propping themselves up on it.

The brief was implemented through a design that included two massive flights of steps with a cascading fountain in between. The fountain is centred on the axis of the facade of the square’s principal building, the Council House. It effectively exploits the south–north gradient rise across the site, which is approximately 5 m in height. The steps are finished in high-quality stone paving. They are designed to accommodate fast-moving pedestrian flows by being wide and with low risers. Seating is provided beside the steps, along the retaining walls of the fountain, providing an ideal perch for people watching.

The vertical combination of movement and rest, both of people and water, appears dramatic and appealing when entering the square from New Street. The redesigned square also provides an impressive setting for the council’s municipal buildings. The new steps and fountain have facilitated the creation of two level subspaces or terraces out of the sloping site, each measuring approximately 50 m by 30 m. These are robust spaces, the upper level is often used for civic events, while the lower space merges into New Street and is used for more informal entertainment. As a practical alternative to climbing the steps across the square, the ground is shaped along the western corner of the square in a way that facilitates even faster moving pedestrian flows – this route is favoured by commuters in the rush hour.

Clay paviours are laid across the subspaces in a herringbone pattern, which is strong enough to take the heavy vehicle loading necessary to accommodate major events. Street furniture, including lighting, seating, bins, etc., has been specially designed for the square and is carefully positioned for maximum usage without infringing upon robust open space.

The second public space in the sequence is the steeply sloping Chamberlain Square, which connects with the north-western corner of Victoria Square. Although this square has not received anything like the improvements to Victoria Square, it nonetheless provides an important and unusual link.

Chamberlain Square is another irregularly shaped public space, and it measures approximately 75 m by 75 m, with four streets connecting to it. The square is defined by the classical town hall, the side of the Council House, and the city museum and art gallery; as well as by a modernist city library and the Paradise Forum retail mall. The gradient rise from the south to the north is about 6 m, and this has been designed to include both steps and a shaped slope. Similar to Victoria Square, the shaped slope provides a fast moving pedestrian channel that continues the route from the railway station to Brindley Place.

The steps are steep and have a sunny aspect facing south. They are arranged around a circular terrace to form a kind of amphitheatre. Many people sit on these steps, especially because the public library and art gallery attract so many young people. The steps are close enough to the pedestrian flow to enjoy people watching without getting in the way.

While the flat terrace area at the base of the steps forms a natural stage, it has poor loadbearing strength due to an underground car park and so major events are restricted. Informal public speaking and entertainers have traditionally occupied the stage area, but recently a large television screen has been erected within it and its broadcasts appear to have diminished the social interactions. A fountain still stands in the circular terrace at the bottom of the steps and serves as a visual focal point. The fountain is a monument to Joseph Chamberlain, who did so much to strengthen the civic identity of the city. The fountain generates activity, especially by children, who are usually either perched around it or, on hot summer days, playing in it.

The pedestrian route to Brindley Place continues through the rather shabby Paradise Forum mall, which connects with the north-western corner of Chamberlain Square, and out over a new, wide, pedestrian bridge, into the third major public space in the sequence – Centenary Square.
This part of the route was previously bisected by the concrete collar of the inner ring road. Through implementing the urban design strategy, the inner ring road was lowered beneath the new pedestrian bridge so that motor vehicles, rather than people, are forced to change levels. Without these improvement works, the new squares and the Broad Street Quarter would have remained isolated – severed from the central area by traffic.

Pushing vehicles, rather than people, underground has also reduced the harmful effects of pollution and noise, and has facilitated removal of a foreboding system of pedestrian subways. At ground level these improvements have resulted in a new, pleasant pedestrian environment, with direct pedestrian links and a visually stimulating interconnected sequence of public squares. Centenary Square, the third major public space in the sequence, was developed in 1991, soon after the Highbury Initiative. It is a large open space that serves the distinct purpose of being the city’s main events space. Although the square is broken up into four manageable subspaces, its total dimensions are approximately 200m by 45m – it can therefore accommodate very large events.

Activity is generated in Centenary Square by pedestrians, who use it as the main route between the city centre and Brindley Place. Activity is also generated by the surrounding buildings, which include Birmingham’s Repertory Theatre, the International Convention Centre, Symphony Hall, offices, a Hyatt hotel, and a wedding registry office.

However, the activity is insufficient to cover such a vast square and the broken, poorly defined building frontage adds to the lack of an appropriate sense of enclosure. Broad Street also bisects the square along its length, and the heavy traffic adds to a sense of severance. A controversial sculpture was poorly located in the middle of the square – until local people burned it down. The plinth for the sculpture remains and serves as a skateboard park, which generates a dynamic sense of activity and keeps young people within a safe distance of pedestrian flows.

In the 1930s, an interesting urban design scheme was proposed for the area now occupied by Centenary Square, with classically inspired Portland stone buildings of a uniform scale that better related to a civic square. Although a few of the buildings proposed in the scheme were built, a lack of organisation and funds, and the impact of the Second World War, appear to have ruined the vision for the project.

From Centenary Square, the pedestrian route continues through another semipublic mall, the International Convention Centre – which internalises activity in an unfortunate way – and then it continues out across a canal to the new Broad Street Quarter, which contains Brindley Place. While the City Centre Design Strategy provided the vision and set the principles for the new Broad Street Quarter, Terry Farrell and Co. Architects produced a detailed master plan for the area, including the focal point of Brindley Place. Once the city council had assembled and packaged the redundant industrial sites within the quarter, a private company, Brindleyplace plc, was established to develop the sites on a commercial basis. A dynamic new quarter has now been developed within the Broad Street Redevelopment Area. Although this area has taken about ten years to build, the City Centre Design Strategy managed to help boost confidence in this part of Birmingham soon after its publication in 1990.

Another problem with the Broad Street Quarter has been the large number of bars that were approved in a relatively concentrated area, especially along Broad Street and fronting the canal side beside Brindley Place. These bars were encouraged to complement the international tourist and business facilities in the quarter, but are in fact mainly used by young people from across the region. Visitors to Birmingham’s hotels located off Brindley Place arrive on a Friday or Saturday evening and find they will have to negotiate their way through hoards of revellers, which has resulted in an image problem. It is the concentration of zones of single uses, be it bars or offices, in one area that appears to exacerbate problems that would normally be more diluted within traditional mixed-use urban areas.

Notwithstanding these problems, the housing scheme off Brindley Place provided the first opportunity for relatively wealthy urban pioneers to live within Birmingham’s city centre. Prior to the publication of the City Centre Design Strategy there had been no post-war private housing development within Birmingham’s city centre. The Brindley Place housing proved that there was a demand for a range of housing types within the city centre, and many new residential schemes are now being developed over commercial premises elsewhere in the city centre. These developments are helping to create a livelier, safer, and more sustainable, urban environment.

Many car-dominated cities in Europe and North America find themselves in a similar position to Birmingham’s prior to publication of its City Centre Design Strategy. However, once they begin to invest in new people-friendly public spaces, they also find buoyant markets for homes in their city centres. A central address located by a fashionable square is increasingly popular, both for business and living space. This is the case in old cities such as Copenhagen in Denmark, but also in modern cities such as Toronto in Canada.

Implementing Birmingham’s urban design strategy to the west of the city centre has helped to focus investment into creating new public spaces, which have helped Birmingham to win contracts to hold major world events. In 1998, the quarter around Brindley Place hosted the G8 summit of the world’s wealthiest industrialised nations. World leaders, including the President of the USA, made use of the restaurants, bars, and leisure facilities, around Birmingham’s new squares
– as well as the new conference halls. The reward for successfully managing this event was a world marketing opportunity, which the city council embraced to the full. In the year after this event, Birmingham attracted 42 per cent of the entire UK conference market business.21 To attract major international events, it has been essential for Birmingham to provide appropriate facilities within a well-designed physical environment – a factor of increasing importance as cities bid against each other to hold prestigious international events.

Producing an urban design strategy that includes the vision for city squares and interconnected streets has helped to put Birmingham firmly on the world map.

Part one of Birmingham renaissance, taken from chapter 4 of Transforming Cities: Revival in the Square, by Nick Corbett (published by RIBA)

Part two, Eastside, will be published next week

This book will give confidence to those who want to challenge the status quo in the design and management of public space and provides an insight into how design strategies for new public spaces can transform our cities. Illustrated throughout with international examples of best practice, 'Revival in the Square' provides practical advice and guidance on how to build public spaces that will bring people together for a positive, shared experience of urban living.