Cathedrals of Birmingham

After yesterday's blip of the 2003 Selfridges' retail cathedral we move forward a decade to the 2015 "Grand Central".

As part of a £750 million overhaul of Birmingham's New Street Station, the design features a reflective stainless-steel facade that wraps around the existing 1960s building, with a giant new plastic-roofed shopping and restaurant atrium in the centre. The anchor tenant being John Lewis.

The building's steel skin was designed to reflect trains pulling in and out of the station and the surrounding cityscape. The co-founder Alejandro Zaero-Polo is quoted as saying that the design could have been much better.


More retail cathedrals here