The AJ100 practice’s scheme was submitted earlier this year and recently validated by Birmingham City Council. It is the final piece of Make’s Arena Central masterplan, drawn up for Keir, the developer behind the latest application.
The latest scheme features a 30-storey skyscraper and a neighbouring 17-storey tower block, delivering one, two and three-bedroom flats together with shops and commercial space.
In planning documents, tp bennett said the taller, slenderer tower facing Gas Street Basin acts as ‘a local landmark within the townscape’, while the shorter tower is ‘proportionate in scale with the prevailing heights of its neighbours, as well as the Gas Street Basin, and their contribution to Birmingham’s broader urban skyline’.
Black and orange aluminium are proposed for the separate façades, which tp bennett says offer ‘a refined and contemporary’ appearance referring to Birmingham’s former coal wharf and red brick vernacular.
The application site is immediately south of Make’s stalled office building at 5 Centenary Square, which secured approval in May 2021, and west of Make’s 3 Arena Central office building, which completed in 2020 and is now occupied by HSBC.
Make has overseen completion of 1 Centenary Square, which completed in 2018 and became home to HSBC.
The Arena Central masterplan, which secured approval in 2014, is located opposite opposite Mecanoo’s Birmingham Library and Graeme Massie’s Centenary Square.
A timeline for approval and completion is unclear.