Listed status decision gives green light to glass-fronted Birmingham library plans

A new glass-fronted library and theatre will play a central role in the transformation of Birmingham city centre, it has been claimed.

Speaking after the culture minister Margaret Hodge declined to give the city's 1970s library listed status, despite its iconic design, council chiefs have expressed their hopes that its upcoming replacement will be one of the most talked-about buildings in the UK.

Due to be completed within the next three years, the new Library of Birmingham will be joined with a new home for the Birmingham Repertory Theatre in an ambitious building fronted almost entirely by glass and boasting vast sky lights and bespoke canopies.

Council leader Mike Whitby told the BBC: "Our vision around a new world-class library and theatre will be enriching transformational change in the heart of the city."

However, it is expected that the Friends of Birmingham Library campaigning group will maintain its efforts to secure listed status for the existing building, which it says was one of "some distinction and huge ambition" when it was built.

The city's library has been acclaimed as a leading example of the Brutalist style of architecture and, along with the Rotund Tower is one of Birmingham's top Modernist buildings.