BHM Gateway Plus Project

[Badger]

General Birmingham Gateway Plus thread? Haven't seen one so starting one.

Was reading cracked and found this:

http://www.cracked.com/article_19682_5-most-embarrassing-architectural-failures.html

Scroll down to number 4:

#4. The Walt Disney Concert Hall "Shoots Heat Rays"

As you can tell from the above photo, the building in question is very shiny, and while shiny things are all sorts of pretty (by virtue of their shininess), they also tend to reflect light. If you concentrate that light onto a single area and angle it just right, you get a crude laser. If you're a comic book supervillain, you might use that knowledge to burn your name into the moon. If you're the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, you set your sights a little lower: maybe just heat up some neighboring condos, like the Promenade Towers, by 15 degrees or so. Or nearly blind some drivers at nearby traffic lights. Or, hey -- just see how hot you can get that sidewalk (the answer is a ridiculous 140 degrees). Unluckily for humanity, Frank Gehry gave a building an uncontrollable death ray. But luckily for us, it was more on the terror level of a kid with a magnifying glass than Chairface Chippendale.

The Gateway Plus project looks nice... but I wonder if it will suffer the same drawbacks?

I remember somebody on Skyscrapercity asking the question of drivers being blinded, but maybe there are more serious issues. I'd say "well they designed it so it won't", but as seen on the cracked article design isn't infallible.

There's a similar one in Vegas apparently.

Anyway, sorry to get off on a negative note. Here's some links to draw discussion:

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=948914

http://www.newstreetnewstart.co.uk/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgz0IBvT6iA

Personally I'm excited by the project. While I never saw anything wrong with Birmingham as it is, besides the need for a larger capacity concourse (and more platforms (not feasible)), this is definately a Good Thing.

I wish they'd link the Palasades II up with the Bull Ring as one unified shopping centre though. (Properly, not a narrow walkway like joins the Mander and Wulfrun centres).

Station wise - well, not much to say really. More exits is great, we don't have to go either out the current main entrance towards the Bull Ring, or through the Pallasades towards... the Bull Ring. (Ok that's unfair, we have Navigation Street.)

Looking at birds eye views of it the public square is a logical move, although surely this is going to put the platforms in even more darkness? Isn't that one of the points of GWP, to lighten up the platforms?

 

[185]

The next train to depart from Platform 14a, will be vaporised. FZZZZT!

Looks like a nice design though, shame Network Rail take forever to get these projects underway.