The architects are not only from the UK, but companies in Poland, Italy, France, the Netherlands and Australia. It is hoped the ‘golden square’, which will replace the car park in front of the Big Peg office block in Vyse Street, will provide a meeting point and area to stage big events.
An expert panel, which includes Ruth Reed, president elect of the Royal Institute of British Architects, Andrew Taylor, founding partner of Patel Taylor Landscape Architecture practice and Professor Kathryn Moore, past president of the Landscape Institute will shortlist the bidders to six. Each company will be asked to develop their design in more detail and participate in community workshops, before a winner is chosen and a final design agreed later this year.
Coun Neville Summerfield, the council’s cabinet member for regeneration, said, “I am delighted that we have attracted such a response from applicants who want to work with us in turning our vision into reality.
“The Jewellery Quarter is a wonderful asset to city centre, with its development being one of the key early priorities of the Big City Plan. The Golden Square will provide a fitting centrepiece to such a unique area, which is as important a component of the city’s development as New Street train station or the new library.”
Andy Munro, spokesman for the Jewellery Quarter Regeneration Partnership, one of the organizations behind the project, said, “I think this will be a much needed boost for the quarter, which is desperately lacking somewhere we can really show off what the area is all about and what it has to offer.”
He said the information centre outside the Big Peg will also be replaced by a new and improved facility, which will double up as an art gallery.
