Birmingham’s Symphony Hall will get £12 million revamp
mainPage\Park Architects from Glasgow have been awarded the £12m contract to bring the public spaces around the excellent concert hall up to contemporary standards.
The hall opened in 1991.
Here’s the new look:
No clue yet how long the facility will be out of action.
Wow! Where did they suddenly get that money from? Presumably it’s being funded by the ICC or NEC Group rather than Performances Birmingham Limited (the people who run the concerts programme)?
Plus, I know you can’t really judge from an artist’s impression, but this looks way beyond what’s actually needed. Very Birmingham: having made an almost clean sweep of destroying its world-class 1960s architectural heritage, it’s now starting to destroy all evidence of its 1980s civic renaissance. They’ve decommissioned the fountains in Victoria Square, they’re in the process of wrecking Centenary Square, and now they’re taking the iconic venue that redefined classical concert halls across the world in the late C20th, and apparently making it look like a slightly rubbish imitation Harpa. Ah, Brum…don’t ever change.
I don’t know whether you are a brummie but your view is very pessimistic and downbeat.
It is too soon to say how Centenary Square will look when it is completed and I feel that the changes to the ICC will be good, with an extension providing more space and activity. After all, the present layout is a little tired. I understand that Symphony Hall is not being changed by this project.
this hall is by far the best acoustic in the UK and I would travel occasionally from Belfast to attend concerts there
The Page and Park work for Scottish Opera and the Theatre Royal in the new public space is an utter joy. It lifts the spirits and actually makes me wish I could see what they could do with an new concert hall or theatre.