Ken Shuttleworth’s Make Architects has drawn up proposals to transform Birmingham’s vacant John Lewis department store into offices, capitalising on its location directly above the city’s New Street Station.

The four-storey John Lewis store only opened in 2015, following the £750m redevelopment of New Street Station overseen by Alejandro Zaera-Polo & Maider Llaguno Architecture.

But the retailer pulled the plug on the branch in 2020, along with seven other outlets described as “financially challenged”, and it never reopened after the first pandemic lockdown. It had been the flagship business at the Grand Central shopping centre, which is owned by Hammerson.

…