Centre City Tower

Location: Birmingham, England
Architect: Richard Seifert and Partners
Completed: 1975
Status: Present
Brief Overview: 

Centre City Tower, situated in Birmingham's city centre, England, is under the ownership of Bruntwood. Designed by Richard Seifert and Partners, the commercial building comprises two main structures: the Tower and the Podium. The Podium, a lower-rise edifice encircling the base of the Tower, lacks a direct physical link, save for fire escapes. Consequently, the Tower's first floor aligns approximately with the seventh floor of adjacent buildings.

Initially, the Podium housed a nightclub and a theater at ground level, a requirement set by the City Council to fulfill a public amenity prerequisite for planning permission. However, despite the demand, no one took up the opportunity to manage the theater, which remained dormant until around 1990. Eventually, both the theater and nightclub spaces were repurposed into additional office areas, named 'Centre City Atrium'. The theater's existence as a dormant space was highlighted in an article in the UK trade journal New Civil Engineer before its conversion.

Concrete sculptures are individually hand cast in solid concrete. This means that each piece will have distinctive markings and minor blemishes due to air bubbles in the concrete. This is a natural part of the material and will mean that no two pieces are never exactly the same.