Carmody Groarke is working with Adamson Associates, while David Kohn Architects has teamed up with Weedon Architects. The four teams are in the running to create an office and market building (known as Plot 7A1) at the eastern gateway to Smithfield.

The latest project will sit at the heart of Lendlease’s 17ha masterplan (on plot 7A) overlooking the Bullring shopping centre and St Martin’s Church.

The complex will feature 17,200m² of new office space and will sit above a 1,850m² reimagined Rag Market.

It will be close to an indoor market building (Plot 5A) designed by David Kohn Architects working with Birmingham-based  ‘artist-run pluriverse’ Eastside Projects.

The finalists were picked from 27 submissions. They will submit more detailed submissions this month, and a winner is due to be announced by early April.

The announcement comes a year after Bell Phillips and Intervention Architecture won planning approval for some of the first housing within the major regeneration site, near New Street station in Birmingham city centre.

The council named Lendlease as its joint venture partner for Birmingham Smithfield in 2018 and granted planning permission in June for the area’s £1.9 billion regeneration plans, following a lengthy planning process.

The masterplan, a revision of an earlier version, was drawn up by a design team including Prior + Partners and David Kohn Architects and was submitted in October 2023.

An original application was lodged in January 2023, before a revised masterplan was submitted to address concerns raised by Historic England over harm to the historic cityscape.

The design was led by Prior + Partners along with New York High Line lead James Corner Field Operations. It includes buildings by Stirling Prize-winners dRMM and Haworth Tompkins, and up-and-coming local practice Minesh Patel Architects.

Smithfield project director Colin Murphy said: ‘Smithfield Birmingham is one of the most important regeneration opportunities in the UK, and this plot will set the tone for the quality, ambition and identity of the whole development.

‘We were impressed by the strength of the applications, and we’re delighted to shortlist four outstanding architect teams who each bring a distinctive design perspective. This milestone is a great moment for the practices involved and an exciting step forward for the project.

‘We look forward to seeing their concepts develop over the coming weeks as we move into the stage where we choose the firm who will take this work forward.’

Source:Lendlease

Illustrative masterplan. Credit: Lendlease

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