The walk over the bridge that spans the roadworks on the inner ring road at Paradise Circus is a depressing one, site hoardings define the entrances to the Copthorne Hotel, Chamberlain House, gone are the Grapevine pub that was later named The Yardbird, and the Italian restaurant below the Library Theatre, graphics on the hoardings claim that the development is ‘History in the Making’ referring to the scheme as simply ‘Paradise’ as the traffic island that defined the ‘circus’ is thankfully being removed. Ahead the iconic inverted ziggurat John Madin’s Birmingham Central Library stands derelict, rain stained and despite campaigns by the 20th Century Society, the building was not listed and now stands awaiting its demise at the hands of demolition contractors.
On the site hoardings are visuals of the scheme that will replace such an icon and surprise, surprise, more Grade A office space accommodated in the same blocks as proposed for Arena Central, it is as though the less vibrant elements of Brindleyplace are being replicated across the city, transforming the civic heart into another office district driven by net-lettable area and vacant office space, augmented by a few expensive restaurants and exclusive apartments, throwing out the baby with the bathwater perhaps? Universally loved it was not, but a destination in the civic heart of Birmingham it was, with a strong identity that personifies the design of late 20th Century. As a library it worked just fine, it needed some of the circulation elements updating, it needed a good clean, to return it to its 1973 glory, in a similar way to London’s South Bank Centre, together with some intelligent landscape improvements, this could easily retain its status as an icon in the civic centre of Birmingham. The reality is that the library has moved out to the hugely expensive Mecanoo decorated box that effectively does exactly the same thing. The question is what to do with Madin’s Library if it were retained, based on its location alone, adjacent to the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery and the Gas Hall, it would make an ideal home for modern artworks, a permanent exhibition of works associated with the Manzoni plan for the modern Birmingham, the models of the unrealized 1930s Civic Centre, that resulted Baskerville House being the only completed element, that was listed and refurbished. The unrealised Madin plan of the 1960s, with the central Library as its surviving element, would make an ideal location to exhibit the heroic visions of the future, along with all the public art that was commissioned at the time, what happened to the relief sculpture in the banking hall of the Lloyds at the base of the Rotunda? What happened to the relief sculptures that were displaced by the development of Martinau Galleries? All these traces of the identity of the city swept away in the name of commercial development. The central library could be the centerpiece of the new development, commercial drivers accommodated in a mixed-use landmark tower in the manner of Piano’s ‘The Shard’ at London Bridge. No need for costly demolition, costly in both financial and environmental terms.
Walking through the internal street that passes beneath the inverted Ziggurat, gone are all the meeting places: Wetherspoons, Raphaels, McDonalds, that formed a central part of the lives of so many students, along with recitals at the Conservatiore or live music events at X-posure Rock Café in the adjacent blocks that are soon to be demolished. Looking up through atrium of the library that is now an empty shell, bizarre steel trusses define what were once the retail units that were added when the Paradise forum underwent a facelift removing all the plastic stage set resembling Roman ruins. Now everything is locked away behind site hoardings claiming that history is in the making when in reality it is once again being swept away, this time to become an anonymous new pedestrianized street passing between office blocks that could be situated just about anywhere.
The back story is available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble published by Xlibris - Do We Need ARCHITECTS?
No comments:
Post a Comment