THE design of a £406m makeover for Birmingham New Street station has finally been settled – with the new structure clad in a reflective surface that will change as the day goes by.  Already some Brummies have dubbed it ‘the silver armadillo’.

As the new design by Spanish architect Alejandro Zaera-Polo was unveiled, Network Rail’s London North Western route director Peter Strachan dismissed suggestions that new deep-level tunnels were planned to give extra capacity for north east/south west CrossCountry and Cross City trains. 

“There is absolutely no intention of providing deep level tunnels,” he told a press conference, stressing that the aim of the project, now dubbed ‘New Street – New Start, the Birmingham Gateway Project’, was to increase passenger flow and pedestrian capacity.

Mr Strachan said the existing platforms would also get “a complete refresh”. They would be made “brighter, more sparkling to match the image above,” with 42 extra escalators and 14 more lifts linking them with the new concourse.

Individual platforms at New Street had to be closed 20 times last year due to overcrowding, according to Net-work Rail.

When Mr Strachan listed the funding agreed for the project – £168m from Birmingham City Council, £128m from Network Rail, £100m from Advantage West Midlands (the regional development agency) and £10m from Centro (the West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive), all adding up to just £406 million – there was no mention of any further investment from the private sector, even though the joint press release issued by all the sponsoring organisations referred to “the £600 million Gateway project”.

The proposed ‘twin towers’ commercial development on the south-west side of the station has also disappeared from the latest designs. Peter Strachan said the towers remained part of the overall plan, but architect Alejandro Zaera-Polo said they would be dealt with in a second phase.

Nor were there any signs or glossy images – as there had been on previous artists’ impressions – of any West Midlands Metro trams running by New Street station.

Birmingham City Council leader Mike Whitby ducked questions about extending the Metro from Snow Hill station to serve New Street – failing to mention that Transport Secretary Ruth Kelly withdrew funding for the planned Metro extensions earlier this year after West Midlands councils failed to agree on a road pricing scheme to fund public transport improvements, including extensions to the Metro.

AWM chief executive Mick Laverty said his agency’s £100 million contribution to the station redevelopment was the biggest investment in any project by any regional development body in Britain.
It reflected AWM’s belief that the project would bring £2 billion of benefits to the West Midlands’ regional economy, create 10,000 new jobs in central Birmingham “and be an iconic gateway to the Birmingham city region”.

Peter Strachan said the start of work was planned for next year, but confirmed detailed planning permission had still to be obtained. He said the plan was to open “a significant   part of the new concourse” in 2012, with the whole scheme completed in 2014 (although this had become 2015 in a live interview on BBC News later).

The station design has been awarded to Foreign Office Architects and its principal partner Alejandro Zaera-Polo. His firm beat off 47 rivals, including many of the world’s top practices, to win a competition judged by a panel headed by Sir Bernard Zissman, a former Lord Mayor of Birmingham.

The judges had to consider 117 objectives and features in the design brief to satisfy the project’s financial sponsors.

Mr Zaera-Polo said Birmingham had become a model for urban regeneration, and his firm wanted to reflect the city in the design for New Street station. “So we started working with reflections,” he said.

The new exterior of the station will use “curved linear geometry” and be clad in a surface that “will change as the day goes by”, by reflecting the light at the different times of day, he explained.

“We want to make a new public square in the city centre, which will have open, cathedral-like space so people can see the growing skyline of the future Birmingham.”

Birmingham City Council leader Mike Whitby said the present New Street station had been developed 40 years ago to handle 16 million passengers a year.  “At present it is coping with 33 to 34 million passengers and creaking at the seams,” he said, “but the new project will give capacity for up to 52 million passengers.”

Councillor Whitby said he believed the station redevelopment “will be an internationally-recognised landmark... and enhance our reputation as a truly world class city.”

Mr Zaera-Polo’s concept designs will now be developed by an integrated team led by Network Rail which will include Foreign Office Architects, WS Atkins as lead consultant and Mace as delivery partner.