Hotel over heritage? - Newhall Square hotel proposal

Plans have been submitted for a 195 bedroom hotel adjacent to Newhall Square, on Charlotte Street, in the Jewellery Quarter, planning application 2012/04308/PA.  The hotel forms another part of the Newhall Square development, taking in blocks C & B in the site plan below from the planning application for the Travelodge hotel in the Newhall Square development, Squaring the Jewellery Quarter.





The hotel proposal is for an Aparthotel by serviced apartment operator Staycity which already has an existing 78 apartments at the Arcadian Centre on Hurst Street in the former  cinema.
The £16 million proposal, pending planning permission, would see construction commence in Autumn 2012 with completion expected late 2013, http://www.insidermedia.com/insider/...ove/index.html.


The picture below from February 8 2008 shows the site, which was the site of the former Science Museum, itself the former premises of Elkington Silver Electroplating Works.  The former Whitmore Warehouse is in the middle of the picture and would remain surrounded by the new hotel.




The first phase of Newhall Square saw a 100 bed Travelodge, 10, 856 sq ft new build offices let to NSPCC and MADE and 6,028 sq ft of offices in a refurbished Grade II listed building let to Ormiston Academies Trust.  The site also sits next to what will be a new University College Birmingham (UCB) campus.

While the new development is a welcome addition to the Jewellery Quarter and helps to complete the Newhall Square development I am not convinced on the design.  The canal frontage features grilles to the car park level and I feel misses a valuable opportunity to create an active frontage onto the canal front.  I also feel the massing surrounding the Whitmore Warehouse overpowers former warehouse and while the brick's used reflect the local heritage the close proximity of the new building will clash.

The following images are reproduced from the planning application to encourage comments on the planning application before the public consultation ends on 02-08-2012














Image of the new hotel in the Newhall Square development with Piazza reproduced from: http://headlinepr.wordpress.com/2012/02/06/staycity-checks-in-at-newhall-square/




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