Work at grade II-listed building will deliver new glass façade and three-storey elective care hub
BDP has been granted planning permission for upgrade work at Birmingham Children’s Hospital that will deliver new arrival space with a striking glass façade and a three-storey elective care hub at the grade II-listed building.
The practice’s proposals for the city-centre facility, which dates back to 1862 and was originally Birmingham General Hospital, also include new windows and a ground-source heat pump system with an energy centre.
BDP was appointed to the project in 2020 as part of a £442m contract that also included the delivery of new premises for Birmingham Women’s Hospital at Edgbaston, three miles to the south-west. Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust said the cost of the Children’s Hospital project was set to be around £65m.
Birmingham Children’s Hospital’s new elective care hub will be the home for a state-of-the-art interoperative MRI machine that will mean some patients no-longer need to go to other parts of the country for particular treatments.
The hub will also have additional theatre facilities that could be used to reduce waiting-list backlogs and improve clinical outcomes for some categories of surgery.
BDP’s project will also see the expansion and recladding of the hospital’s existing buildings on Loveday Street.
BDP principal Max Martin said a combination of redevelopment and refurbishment would create a modern healthcare facility capable of sustaining world-class provision of paediatric services in the heart of Birmingham.
“We are incredibly proud to be designing these projects for such an important anchor institution,” he said.
“The ambitious decarbonisation credentials alongside the theatre expansion and iMRI provide critically important facilities for the children of Birmingham and the wider region.
“The sympathetic reimagining of the historic Victorian courtyard will provide the trust with a modern main entrance re-creating a sense of arrival that celebrates the building’s origins while meeting the needs of patients and families.”
Matt Boazman, who is chief executive of Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, said councillors’ backing for the plans was “excellent news” for the hospital and its patients.
“The developments will not only improve existing services but create opportunity for us to do more for the young people who rely on us for their care,” he said.
The Victorian Society objected to the proposals. It said the extensions to the newer parts of the hospital would make them appear “too dominant and overpowering” in views of the listed elements of the hospital and the wider Steelhouse Conservation Area. It added that the new glazed entrance building was a “completely innapropriate” addition to the grade II building.
BDP is working with Graham Construction to deliver the project under a ProCure23 contract. Work is due to begin this autumn.
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