Quayside Tower, Commercial tower on Broad Street, Birmingham, England
Quayside Tower is a commercial office building on Broad Street in central Birmingham, rising 19 floors above street level. Its facade is covered with abstract concrete reliefs that give it a textured, sculptural appearance unlike most office towers nearby.
The tower was designed by architect John Madin and completed in 1965, during a period when Birmingham was rebuilding itself as a modern commercial city. It was renovated in 2003, with some original features from the 1960s kept in place.
The concrete reliefs on the facade were made by William Mitchell, a British artist known for large-scale public works. They are still visible today and give the building a recognizable face along Broad Street.
The building sits on Broad Street, one of the main roads through central Birmingham, and is easy to reach on foot from the city center. The facade reliefs are best seen during the day, when natural light brings out the texture of the concrete.
William Mitchell created the reliefs here as part of a broader movement to bring art into postwar British buildings, an approach that is rarely seen this well preserved today. Mitchell worked on dozens of public buildings across the country, but this Birmingham example is among the least known of his works.
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