There is a song on…and you will know us by the trail of dead’s second album where the first line reads, ‘if I could make a list of my mistakes and regrets, I’d put your name on top and every line of the rest’ unfortunately the city of Birmingham’s list would be a little longer! It seems like the city council planners can’t help themselves when it comes to granting permission for misguided and badly designed landmark buildings. Either that, or when they do get the opportunity to support a truly interesting scheme it gets watered down to within an millimeter of it’s life, or they just bottle it! Below I have taken the liberty of writing Birmingham’s list of recent mistakes and regrets, starting at
No 5, Newhall street/ Natwest tower site
[not my image]
Approved despite criticism from CABE
4, Regal Tower Broad Street,
Again against the advice of CABE!
[not my image]
3, The Cube, mmm… shimmering gold… or Birmingham grey?
[not my image]
[not my image]
2, New Street Station
I will be very surprised if the re cladding job on New Street looks anything like this! 
[not my image]
1, Birmingham Central Library.
The heart of the East Side development was ripped out when the Rogers library scheme and replaced by the strangely underwhelming Mecanoo scheme.
[not my image]
[not my image]
I don’t want to be all negative, because Birmingham is a great city, it just seems to have lost its way in recent years.
MM
Architects Ride Bicycles 