10 Holloway Circus - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

10 Holloway Circus is a 121.5 metres (399 ft) tall mixed-use skyscraper

Skyscraper

A skyscraper is a tall, continuously habitable building of many stories, often designed for office and commercial use. There is no official definition or height above which a building may be classified as a skyscraper...

in Birmingham

Birmingham

Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...

city centre, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. It is named after the developers, Beetham Organization

Beetham Organization

The Beetham Organisation is a privately owned property development and investment company based in Liverpool, UK. It was founded by Hugh Frost as Oastdren Investments in 1985. Its primary focus is city centre real estate, specialising in hotel, residential and office projects...

, and was designed by Ian Simpson and built by Laing O'Rourke

Laing O'Rourke

Laing O'Rourke is a multinational construction company headquartered in Dartford, United Kingdom. It was founded in 1978....

. When it was completed in 2006, it was estimated to have cost around £72 million to construct. The entire development covers an area of 650 square metres (6,996.5 sq ft). It is the 2nd tallest building in Birmingham and the 25th tallest building in the United Kingdom.

Features

It has 39 floors, and is the second tallest building in the city after the 152 m (499 ft) British Telecom Tower

British Telecom Tower (Birmingham)

The BT Tower is a landmark in Birmingham, England, and is also the tallest building in the city. Its Post Office code was YBMR.-History:...

. However, three other skyscrapers which have been approved threatening its status; V Building, Broad Street Tower

Broad Street Tower

Broad Street Tower is an approved 134-metre skyscraper for Broad Street, Birmingham, England...

and the under construction Three Snowhill

Snowhill

Snowhill is a mixed-use development by Ballymore between Snow Hill Queensway and Birmingham Snow Hill station in Birmingham City Centre, England. The £500 million phased scheme has been partly completed on the site of a former surface car park adjacent to the railway station. As part of the...

. There are also plans for Birminghams tallest building standing at 201m called the Regal tower, this is awaiting approval.

The front façade of the building is floor-to-ceiling glass decorated in "tiger stripes" which are used to enhance the vertical impact. As the apartments were being furbished, an aqua coloured camouflage was also added to these windows with some of the tiger stripes being removed. Coloured lights can be seen underneath the overhang at night.

The lower 19-floors are a Radisson Blu

Radisson Hotels

Radisson Hotels is one of the leading, full-service global hotel companies with more than 420 locations in 73 countries. The first Radisson Hotel was built in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1909, and was named after the 17th-century French explorer Pierre-Esprit Radisson...

hotel, which opened to guests on January 16, 2006 whilst the upper floors were still being furnished. The upper 20 floors contain 158 apartment

Apartment

An apartment or flat is a self-contained housing unit that occupies only part of a building...

s.

There are eight circular concrete columns as well as the core on each floor. The post-tensioned flat plates of the upper floors are concrete and measure 225 mm (9 in) in thickness.

10 Holloway Circus received 12 points in the 2006 Emporis Skyscraper Award

Emporis Skyscraper Award

The Emporis Skyscraper Award is an award for architectural excellence regarding the design of buildings and their functionality.The award is presented annually by Emporis to the building representing the "Best new skyscraper for design and functionality". To qualify, nominated buildings must have...

s placing it in eighth position in the top ten.

Design and construction

The plans for the development were first revealed in 1998 as part of a competition in which designs for a tower acting as a gateway to the city centre were to be submitted to the council and also for a building that could aid the regeneration plans in and around the area. The site chosen was the AEU Building, designed by The John Madin Design Group

John Madin

John Hardcastle Dalton Madin is an English architect. He was born in Moseley, Birmingham on 23 March 1924. His company, known as John H D Madin & Partners from 1962 and the John Madin Design Group from 1968, were active in Birmingham for over 30 years. Some of the buildings his company designed...

and completed in 1957, at Holloway Circus. Two serious proposals were put forward, one by CALA Homes, which consisted of two cylindrical glass towers, and the other by the Beetham Corporation, which was a single 44 storey tower with two spires on the roof producing a total height of 192 metres (630 ft). The Beetham Corporation won, however it was forced to scale down the towers height, due to height limits enforced after the September 11 terrorist attacks

September 11, 2001 attacks

The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th or 9/119/11 is pronounced "nine eleven". The slash is not part of the pronunciation...

on the World Trade Center

World Trade Center

The original World Trade Center was a complex with seven buildings featuring landmark twin towers in Lower Manhattan, New York City, United States. The complex opened on April 4, 1973, and was destroyed in 2001 during the September 11 attacks. The site is currently being rebuilt with five new...

, by the Civil Aviation Authority

Civil Aviation Authority

This is a list of national and supra-national civil aviation authorities.-See also:* Air route authority between the United States and the People's Republic of China* National Transportation Safety Board -External links:****...

. The spires were also removed and replaced by two cones placed on the rear of the tower on top of the stair wells. The overhang at the front was added. The proposed office space was also removed and the planning application was withdrawn.

The new design was submitted, however, was withdrawn by the Beetham Corporation after talks over the purchase of the adjacent multi-storey car park with National Car Parks

National Car Parks

National Car Parks is the United Kingdom’s largest private car park operator, with over 200,000 spaces across more than 700 locations in towns and cities, railway stations and at airports....

broke down without a deal. This was a surprise to the developers as they had expected to be able to purchase the land and had even included their plans for the site in the previous planning application. Amendments to the planning application were made and it was resubmitted in October 2000.

The final design was approved by the Planning Department at Birmingham City Council

Birmingham City Council

The Birmingham City Council is the body responsible for the governance of the City of Birmingham in England, which has been a metropolitan district since 1974. It is the most populated local authority in the United Kingdom with, following a reorganisation of boundaries in June 2004, 120 Birmingham...

with conditions on April 3, 2003 after the Beetham Corporation paid £1.8 million under Section 106

Town and Country Planning Act 1990

The Town and Country Planning Act 1990 is an act of the British Parliament regulating the development of land in England and Wales-Section 1:...

to gain planning approval.

A model of the tower was tested in a wind tunnel with models of surrounding buildings also being included. The ground of the model was also accurate to that of the Birmingham landscape. The model passed with few problems and construction of the tower began.

Construction began in March 2003 with the erection of hoardings around the site allowing clearance work to commence and the construction of a tower crane. The concrete core then began to rise and reached a considerable height before the construction of the concrete floor panels began. The transportation of materials to the higher levels were done using a lift attached to the middle of the curved frontage. That area was intended to be used as a staircase in the case of an emergency. The building topped out in April 2005.

The construction of the building encountered several problems. Not far into the construction of the lift shaft

Elevator

An elevator is a type of vertical transport equipment that efficiently moves people or goods between floors of a building, vessel or other structures...

, a piece of scaffolding became dislodged and fell to the ground causing traffic

Traffic

Traffic on roads may consist of pedestrians, ridden or herded animals, vehicles, streetcars and other conveyances, either singly or together, while using the public way for purposes of travel...

delays around Holloway Circus which subsequently resulted in widespread disruption in the city centre. On November 24, 2005, 5 pieces of cladding from the higher levels on the sides became detached from the building and fell to the ground. No injuries were caused, however fear of more panels falling off caused nearby roads to be closed for an entire weekend, until the site could be declared safe by inspectors. Clips were later installed to secure the panels, and as of mid-2006, work was underway to permanently secure the panels in place using new clips. The securing of the panels was completed in late-August 2006. The Beetham Corporation could now face legal action due to the structure causing road closures and subsequent congestion. Excluding the problems with the panel clips, construction of the floors took ten months. Concrete was the primary material in the construction of the structure.

The Beetham Organisation again faced legal action over claims by people who signed contracts to buy flats before the tower was completed that the flats they received did not match those described in the sales literature.

As a result of technical problems within the underground car park, resident's cars were trapped for three days. Cars are placed on a platform and are taken into a space by a computer when the owner's card is swiped, however, glitches meant that people who had purchased spaces within the park either could not get access to their cars or were unable to enter the car park in their vehicles.

10 Holloway Circus faced yet more problems when, on July 8, 2007, a glass panel shattered and sent pieces raining 60 feet (18.3 m) on to the ground. The 6 ft (1.8 m) by 3 ft (0.9144 m) panel on the eighth floor of Beetham Tower is believed to have shattered due to a build up of chemical compounds inside the glass. Splinters fell on to the car park roof and Smallbrook Queensway at about 6.30am. It was the third safety incident at the tower in three years.

Compared to other highrises in Birmingham, the tower is new and modern. There are few buildings in Birmingham of an equal or similar architectural style to 10 Holloway Circus. Broad Street Tower

Broad Street Tower

Broad Street Tower is an approved 134-metre skyscraper for Broad Street, Birmingham, England...

on Broad Street will have a similar shape to Beetham Tower as it will also have a curved front façade, however, this will not be full height glass. It is the first tower over 100 metres to be constructed in the city since the completion of nearby Alpha Tower

Alpha Tower

Alpha Tower is a commercial building in Birmingham, England. It was built to a design by George Marsh of Richard Seifert & Partners as the headquarters of the commercial television company ATV and part of the companies' production studio complex known as ATV Centre...

in 1973. It is also one of the first highrise buildings in the city to offer apartments. Buildings that will be able to offer this in the future will be V Building, The Rotunda (refurbished), Three Snowhill

Snowhill

and Martineau Galleries

Martineau Galleries

Martineau Galleries is an important proposed mixed-use development for Birmingham, England as it will connect the Eastside to the city centre core and is also located on the High Street, a major retail area.- Pre-1960s development :...

External links

Beetham Tower, Birmingham at SkyscraperNews.com
Beetham Organization homepage (requires flash-player)
Ian Simpson Architects (requires flash-player)
SkyscraperPage.com
Concretecentre.com
Emporis - Building ID 101376
Radisson Blu Hotel Birmingham @ 10 Holloway Circus

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.