Looking ahead
By Rob Groves, Regional Director, Argent
December brings short days, cold nights and frosty mornings. But there are always rays of life and light between the darkness too: it is Christmas, after all!
And at Paradise we are growing increasingly excited about how the development is going to look and feel by this time next year.
Come December 2019 our first two buildings, One Chamberlain Square and Two Chamberlain Square, will be finished with new cafes, restaurants and bars occupying the ground floors.
More importantly, the new pedestrian spaces between and around the buildings – namely Chamberlain Square, Centenary Way and Congreve Street – will also be fully open.
All of this will bring a real buzz to Paradise and create a welcoming and warming environment for those visiting and working across the development.
By 2019 the wider context of our place in the city should also start to make more sense for the millions of pedestrians who walk through every year.
The tram extension along Broad Street is scheduled to be open (as far as Centenary Square) bringing two more Metro stops to the network. Centenary Square itself will have re-opened following its refurbishment, and the western pedestrian routes in and around the city will be transformed as a result.
We can’t wait for the public to not only see and feel the difference Paradise will bring, but directly benefit from all the hard work we have put into the project.
Our first new building, One Chamberlain Square, is fully let to international professional services firm PwC, which will be moving its existing Birmingham office across town as well as creating enough space to accommodate up to 1,000 new roles.
We’re also looking forward to welcoming tenants to Two Chamberlain Square, a building we are convinced the public – and those working in it – will take to their hearts with its dramatic stonework and amazing views of the city’s civic landmarks.
With columns four times higher than those on the Parthenon in Athens, and which pay homage to the adjacent Town Hall (itself a tribute to the Temple of Castor and Pollux in Rome), Two Chamberlain Square has been designed not only to form a dramatic, classical backdrop to the square, but to bring life and vitality to the whole of Paradise.
Thanks to active ground floors with shops, restaurants and cafes, the building will make Chamberlain Square a place people will want to spend time in – a place to sit and watch the world go by.
We can’t wait to start giving Birmingham what architect Glenn Howells describes as ‘new dwell spaces and new living rooms’ for the people of the city to use and enjoy. Roll on 2019.