Talk:Architecture of Birmingham
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Architecture of Birmingham has had a peer review by Wikipedia editors which is now archived. It may contain ideas you can use to improve this article. |
[edit] 20th Century Architecture
Whilst I agree with the removal of The Barber Institute of Fine Arts from the section on 19th century architecture, I noticed that there were no paragraphs in the article on the period from 1900 to 1945. Surely this is a significant gap in this article as it covers the very late Beaux Arts and the important Art Deco period. The Art Deco period is outside my area of competance, neither do I know Birmingham well enough to be able to identify the key buidings and architects of the 20th century so sadly I am unable to fill this gap, DonBarton 20:25, 13 June 2006 (UTC)
- Yes I hated doing it. I've now added a section. Oosoom 20:47, 13 June 2006 (UTC)
This page does absolutely no justice whatsoever to Birmingham's post-war architecture. It's obviously written with a bias towards older styles of architecture and against modernism, completely ignoring, for instance, the fact that many of central Birmingham's towers, such as the Rotunda or the NatWest Tower, were very successful. Neither of those buildings is even mentioned; nor is the Alpha Tower, the Post and Mail Tower (one of Britain's best Modernist buildings) or the Chamber of Commerce building.
In my view this article is biased and needs to be rewritten to give more coverage to the greatest (in my opinion) period of architectual rebirth any British city has ever gone through - Birmingham 1950-1975.
[edit] Poor town planning and failiure to LOOK at the built environment...
Why is the latest urban architecture in Birmingham so dull. I loved the Selfridges building because it is a fresh idea, but looking at many of the latest creations, Millenium Point, Southside Appartments, the UCE National Technology Institute - It's like most of the architects seem to come from the "I draw with a ruler only!" school of building design. Why do we not have a Frank Gehry piece or a Norman Foster design? - Why is Birmingham so, well, square?... My biggest critcsm is of the new 'Cube' building going placed by the canal close to the Mailbox. I'm sorry, but the town planners and the architects haven't learned ANY thing since the disaster days of the 60's.
Don't get me wrong - I love the Library, but I hate the poor planning around it. I love the Alpha Tower, but again, poor planning and development, means it will never really shine. The BT tower is sooo cool... but why on earth over the canal and not beside it?????? Why put a cube by the canal, when it could be much in keeping with the area, to rejuvenate and expand upon the old lofts?? - In France, architects are more aware of the area and will design to suitthe area - otherwise the whole area just gets redeveloped. We in Britain, and Birmingham is a prime example, create beautiful buildings, but just plonk them anywhere we can with think of the rest of the built environment - Look at the Beetham Tower - Why wasn't the Holiday Inn removed and the car park next door. Why put a gorgeous tower in between a pair of turds??? It doesn't make any sense!!!
Now the planners are putting in a city park - outside the city centre(?!) as yet another after thought - No doubt with very artificial or very square looking buildings in the middle of it....
Ross 82.36.80.15 11:51, 31 January 2007 (UTC)
