Cumberland House Gets Makeover

Cumberland House Gets Makeover

Published on 02-03-2011 by Skyscrapernews.com
Cumberland House in Birmingham, is one of the many sixties slab blocks that were built across the city as part of the modernist post-war regeneration.

Now considered obsolete, they are gradually vanishing, or in the case of Cumberland House, get a full makeover to drag them kicking and screaming into the 21st century as part of the regeneration of Broad Street.

The plans from Falconer Chester Hall feature a complete overhaul of the 18-storey 64 metre tall former office building that has been designed to work within the constraints of the existing building structure. Replacing the long rectangular office floors will be hotel rooms, with an average of 21 per floor although this will be reduced slightly on the upper floor as the rooms get larger.

In doing so, this allows the hotel rooms to effectively be fitted into the building with the current building service cores retained and the bedrooms spaced between the structural columns. The available space is expended on each floor by the removal of the building toilets allowing the creation of extra rooms.

Outside the building will be perhaps the noticeable changes. Cumberland House will be having a full reclad with the removal of the existing concrete spandrels and their replacement with darker cladding panels. The windows will also be removed and single-paned aluminium framed glazing will go in their place. The plant space on the top of the building will be retained where possible, whilst decorating the upper corners of the facade will be signage for the new hotel, although the nature of this has yet to be agreed on by the local council.

Once redeveloped by Sanguine Hospitality, the building will take on a new life as a 285 bedroom three star hotel run by Hampton with various other functions one expects from city centre accommodation including a new restaurant, meeting rooms, and serviced office space for the business traveler.

Work is already underway on the scheme, with the top four floors of Cumberland House at the rate of approximately one floor a week already reclad. It is set to reopen in 2012.
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