103 Colmore Row showcased in latest issue of Architecture Magazine

More great project coverage for our client Ryder Architecture, with the stunning 103 Colmore Row featured in the latest issue of Architecture Magazine.

Designed by Doone Silver Kerr (now incorporated into Ryder Architecture) for Sterling Property Ventures and Tristan Capital Partners, 103 Colmore Row is a new 26-storey office building at the heart of Birmingham’s central business district. Described as “one of the coolest addresses in Birmingham,” it is also the city’s tallest office building.

The scheme provides over 220,000 ft2 of Grade A office accommodation over 20 floors, with floorplates of up to 12,250 ft2. At the top of the building, a restaurant offers 360-degree views across the city, also acting as a lantern at night. Outer screens of vertical silver blades add interest to the façade, reflecting the light as it changes throughout the day and lending the building a vibrant quality.

As is frequently the case with distinctive buildings, Doone Silver Kerr’s design concept for 103 Colmore Row emerged out of the reconciliation of a number of unique opportunities and an array of complex challenges. In this case, the opportunity to deliver a true high-rise office building, replacing the former NatWest Tower in the heart of Birmingham’s core business district, needed to be balanced by meeting the demands of delivering that new building efficiently and appropriately within its historic Conservation Area location.

However, whilst achieving height together with distinctive landmark character were key objectives, the 103 building, as conceived, is first and foremost about enhancing the civic realm and providing versatile high-quality work space for occupants. Giving back generous public space, carved out from valuable office floor area, the building celebrates the historic crossroads of Colmore Row and Newhall Street at the highest point in the City with a cathedral-scale four-storey high colonnade. This new space for Birmingham not only signals the entrance to the building but also animates the street scene. It achieves this through the introduction of a café set adjacent to a Silver Birch grove, with the astonishing ‘Equinox’ sculpture by the late John Pickering hovering high above.

Andy Street (Mayor of the West Midlands) described 103 Colmore Row as “one of the coolest addresses in Birmingham. Not only is it a beacon in the physical way, but in a more important way too. This building symbolises our enormous ambition and hope for our region, but also the confidence investors have in our plans to bring economic recovery and jobs to the region.”

You can read the full story on pages 56 - 58 of the February / March 2023 issue of Architecture Magazine HERE