Originally published on Photoblog by Gethin Thomas AUGUST. 17, 2020
This post just draws a line under the library project, showing what replaced it and the other new buildings. The Library of Birmingham in Centenary Square next door, the new Conservatoire on the other side of the city at Millennium Point, and the new office buildings emerging on the old library site, now dubbed Paradise, plus the new tram extension.
John Madin, with the original model of the library complex. It was never completed as it shows in this model. John Madin resigned from the project after disputes with the Birmingham City Council. There are whole sections that were never constructed, and in this model it is possible to see why there were unfinished exteriors left blank where additional wings were intended to be built.
Photo Birmingham Mail
This is the new Library going up in February 2012.
These site views of the old library below were taken from the roof terrace of the new library above after it opened. Quite by chance, this sequence below, which I took at different times also catches the demolition of another John Madin building, the former Nat West tower, visible as the tallest building on the skyline in 2015 and disappeared in 2016.
A precast section of a new office building arriving at the old library site. The Conservatoire building still standing behind.
Stacking the giant Lego bricks.
The Paradise Redevelopment.
The new Conservatoire at Millennium Point.
Paradise Redevelopment moving ahead.
Click the picture for enlarged view.
The second new building on the old Conservatoire site. The new tram extension also being installed.
This marks the end of the project to document the changing face of Birmingham and the death of a building. I hope to document the new finished areas next time I return to the Midlands, having now moved to the South coast.
