Residential scheme to be the tallest in the city鈥檚 Broad Street tower cluster
Glancy Nicholls has been given the green light for a 47-storey tower in Birmingham that will be the tallest among a cluster on the city鈥檚 Broad Street.
Birmingham council approved developer Regal Property Group鈥檚 plans for the 525-home scheme at a planning committee meeting earlier this week.
The 145m-tall building at 90-97 Broad Street will join a growing number of towers in the city centre district, which has been marked out by the council as a tall building zone.
The 0.25ha site is currently occupied by a vacant three-storey commercial building, which will be demolished to make way for the tower. It is close to several listed buildings, including the directly adjacent grade II-listed former Royal Orthopaedic Hospital, built in 1814, and a grade II-listed former bank building built in 1898.
Regal had argued in its heritage and townscape assessment that the construction of the tower would have a positive impact on the former hospital building by replacing the existing buildings with a higher quality development.
The council鈥檚 conservation officer conceded that they were 鈥渘ot entirely convinced鈥� at this analysis, adding: 鈥淎rguing that placing a 47-storey tower adjacent to a 2-storey listed building which presents a challenge to the building and its historic scale is a positive change because it will be high quality does not justify or significantly mitigate for the negative impact caused through scale.鈥�
But the council鈥檚 planning officers said that the heritage harm that would be caused by the proposals did not provide a clear reason for refusing the scheme, which it said would make a meaningful contribution to the city鈥檚 housing shortage.
Other tall buildings proposed for the area include Howell鈥檚 redesigned 100 Broad Street, a 33-storey tower approved last month.
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