I'm doing a dissertation for my Masters in Planning at the University of Liverpool on the role of urban design in incentivising brownfield development. I'm looking for a development built on brownfield in Birmingham city centre (inside the A4540). The development should also be of average size (about 2 hectares) and be mixed use... can anybody help with this?

Thanks in advance

Will McAllister

i suppose it terms of inner city and mixed use, your best best is going to be

Brindley Place
Mailbox
Masshouse u/c


those are thr main mixed use develoments going on.....though depending on whether u accept mixed use as 300 residential units and 3 shops pn the ground floor then theres shit loads lol

i suppose it terms of inner city and mixed use, your best best is going to be

Brindley Place
Mailbox
Masshouse u/c


those are thr main mixed use develoments going on.....though depending on whether u accept mixed use as 300 residential units and 3 shops pn the ground floor then theres shit loads lol

I'm gonna look up those now (well not Brindleyplace, that has already been studied in this way), what I would prefer would be predominantly residential but not that predominantly.

EDIT: Mailbox isn't really suitable for me as it is a single building and you can't really analyse the urban design of a single building.

Masshouse looks very good, except it hasn't been built yet :(

Thanks anyway. I'll keep looking, there must be some somewhere, with these seven quarters that are being regenerated Birmingham must be a hive of regeneration activity.

Jupiter/WaterMarque though thats almost all residential

park central

^^Yeah - Park Central is good - largely resi (1400+ units plus some retail, leisure, commercial) on the site of an old council estate and offices, factory units etc.

Also the area around Browning/Sheepcote St (near Broad St) - loads of apartments - Symphony Court, Watermarque, LibertyPlace, King Edwards Wharf, Jupiter etc etc. On old brassworks, workshops, industrial units etc.

Park central does look good. The Birmingham.gov.uk website says that work on Park Central is currently ongoing, do you know if any parts of it are completed yet?

Park central does look good. The Birmingham.gov.uk website says that work on Park Central is currently ongoing, do you know if any parts of it are completed yet?

Yes Zone 1a/b at the Bath road side are complete and occupied, as are zones 2/3 on the Bristol Rd end. Have been for a while. One of the 2 parks in the centre (Moonlit park) is open and work is advanced on zone 4.

It's a long running project but it will begin to look well advanced during 2006 as the second park (Sunlit park) opens this summer so the site will open up well for pedestrian access as well as work continuing onto later phases.. go have a look and a walk arround the site.. good excersie it's a massive site.

check out parkcentral.co.uk (I think) or Crest Nicholson's website. You can probably get a brochure too.

It is a massive project, contract value of £130m I think, and it still has 6 years left to run...

so there's enough there now that is finished and occupied? I think this sounds like my best bet for a case study.

There are 3 apartment blocks at the top end occupied, 2 down the side which are very nearly complete. There are also quite a few houses occupied and others nearing completion. There is also an office block complete and occupied.

At the bottom of the site there are lots of houses complete and occupied and several low-rise apartment blocks occupied. The one park is also open.

Council maisonattes/tricorn flats have been refurbed and there are 3 apartment blocks under construction. A hotel has been completed and is open too.

Several more apartment blocks are planned together with community facilities/amenities, leisure and retail. Crest are deciding whether to continue building offices or they may instead designate these as resi.

There is also the potential of a resi tower with supermarket below.

The benefit of Park Central is that it is all one project, but if you have a look around the top end of the site there are lots of other projects going on, and it is only a few minutes walk from the Mailbox/Cube etc.

Hope this helps!

so there's enough there now that is finished and occupied? I think this sounds like my best bet for a case study.

If you do decide to do a case study on Park Central then i'm happy to swap notes etc. as i am also doing a study for my Advanced Diploma in Planning & the Environment

Let me know if you go ahead

ps there is also a thread for Park Central on this forum