SAS Raddison Hotel, Birmingham
I spent a chilly hour on Saturday afternoon at Holloway Circus Birmingham.
About the Raddison, taken from here: The Beetham Group’s latest skyscraper, by Ian Simpson Architects, is a towering presence on Birmingham’s Holloway Circus with a Radisson SAS hotel occupying its lower floors.
it is in Birmingham that this triumvirate have come together to create 40 Holloway Circus – a 120 metre, 40-storey, £40m mixed use development comprising a 220-bed Radisson SAS and over 150 apartments.
When complete, the Manchester Beetham Tower will be Europe’s tallest residential building. But this accolade would have fallen to the Birmingham tower had it not been for the building’s proximity to Birmingham International Airport. New Civil Aviation Authority guidelines brought in after 9/11 meant initial plans for a 192m tower had to be scaled down by 50 metres. Beetham’s proposal had won out over a two-tower plan submitted by Cala Homes but parts of the original design, which included ’sky gardens’ set amidst large spires on the roof, had to be abandoned.
The building which has resulted may be stunted by comparison but it still towers over everything else in Birmingham, except the BT tower.
Closer to ground level, as you approach from New Street station, the curved facade of the building follows the gentle sweep of Holloway Circus.
But where Birmingham’s road network sprawls out beneath like a bowl of cooked spaghetti, the Holloway Circus tower stands tall and proud, the only disruption to its straight lines being the penthouses which step out from the main facade at level 37 to create a belvedere with views south towards the Malvern Hills.
The turquoise fitted surface, with its tiger print patterning, is designed to provide colour, reflection and solar protection – although this being Birmingham the exterior tends to reflect concrete and cloud more often than it does dazzling sunlight.
Beneath the vast glazed expanses of the building’s skin, the core of the building itself is concrete. Jumpform was used for the core construction with post-tensioned concrete floors following three to four storeys behind. As well as time and cost savings this also allowed extra floors to be built at the top of the tower.
Beneath the vast glazed expanses of the building’s skin, the core of the building itself is concrete. Jumpform was used for the core construction with post-tensioned concrete floors following three to four storeys behind. As well as time and cost savings this also allowed extra floors to be built at the top of the tower.
The construction of the tower was no mean feat. A small enclosed footprint, right by a busy road junction allowed for only one crane and no scaffolding, restrictions which dictated the choice of construction method. Inside, the Radisson SAS hotel occupies the first 18 floors of the tower.
The gentle curve of the facade is carried through to the corridors used to access the 211 guestrooms. The walls are lined with padded silk in dark red and brown linear stripes, complemented the linear motif of the red carpets. Strip lighting is set at angles to mimic the curve of the buildings and guide guests to their rooms.
My latest pictures to be published by the Birmingham Mail can be viewed here. They were taken in Moseley Park. Once again, I am delighted.
I have had an idea for a set of photo’s which I will call ‘Micro Birmingham’. More about that in the next few weeks.
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