Topping out at Paradise
Carillion has topped out the first building at the Paradise re-development in Birmingham city centre – almost two years to the day from when the initial demolition on the city centre landmark site began.
The construction milestone was marked by the completion of the final section of concrete on the eighth storey of One Chamberlain Square.
PricewaterhouseCoopers will be the sole occupier of the 172,000 sq ft building, and its Midlands regional chairman Matthew Hammond led the topping out ceremony. He was joined by representatives from funders Hermes Investment Management, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, development manager Argent, Birmingham City Council and West Midlands Mayor Andy Street, together with the project team from Wolverhampton-based Carillion.
Demolition on the site started on December 14,2015 and two years on, the frame of One Chamberlain Square has reached its highest point.
Since construction began, 12,110 cubic metres of concrete have been poured to form the building frame and work has now begun on installing 1,140 glazing panels on the building facade.
One Chamberlain Square features an elegant, curving external structure, using a variety of materials to complement the neighbouring civic architecture. As well as plans for top quality restaurant and retail uses on the ground floor of the building, the large roof terrace on the sixth floor offers spectacular views across the city.
Simon Dingle, Carillion's operations director, said: “One Chamberlain Square represents the very latest in design and delivery implementation and we’re proud to have reached this construction milestone. The overall Paradise scheme is a very complex project in a city centre environment, which creates significant location and engineering challenges. Working with Argent and the full design team, we are now ready to move onto the next phase of delivery as we start the internal construction phase and fit out.”
Mr Hammond said: “Our team is excited and eager to experience PwC’s new home in the heart of Birmingham, the Midlands and the Country. With its high quality space and central location in the city’s newest and foremost commercial development, One Chamberlain Square represents a blueprint for our larger regional office model.”
Rob Groves, regional director of Argent, said: “This is a big moment for both Paradise and Birmingham. We have achieved so many milestones over the past 10 years, but this one feels the most significant and reflects the huge momentum built on this vastly significant scheme.
“Following the fantastic recent news that PwC has now committed to all of the office space in One Chamberlain Square, we are looking forward to continuing the collaborative approach with PwC to deliver the best space to work. From this point forward, the scheme will really start to come to life as we count down to the official handover of the building to PwC in spring 2019.”
Carillion has also started the second phase of demolition at the Paradise site, including the former Birmingham Conservatoire, to allow the next phase of the scheme to progress.
