Baskerville House
Baskerville House - pictures, photos, facts and information on Baskerville House (Birmingham)
Baskerville House Picture:
.jpg "Birmingham Civil Justice Centre (Country Courts)")
Baskerville House
Baskerville House is an office building in the centre of Birmingham, in the Centenary Square. It is former Civic Centre. It is a Grade II listed building that was awarded in several competitions, for example the Commercial Development of the Year in 2007.
The building was built on the site of previous home of John Baskerville who was buried nearby. During the construction of the canal through this area, his body was found in a good condition and he was displayed to the public before buried at Christ Church. Two basins were constructed here and after the city bought the land and decided to build the Civic Centre, both of them were filled in.
The competition for the new building was organized in 1926. However, the design was approved just in 1936 and the construction started in 1938 according to the design of T. Cecil Howitt. It remained the only component of the planned Civic Centre that had been proposed to be much bigger. The building is decorated with the Coat of arms of Birmingham.
There is a sculpture of the Baskerville typeface, Industry and Genius, in front of the main entrance. It was created by local artist David Patten in 1990. The letters spell out Virgil, the name of the Roman poet whose works were printed by Baskerville in 1757 in his typeface.
Formerly, there were offices of Birmingham City council in the building, but after they were relocated, it remained vacant. There were proposals to convert it either to a hotel or a library, but none of the plans was fulfilled. The building was sold to Targetfollow who proposed to convert it into offices. The building was extended with two other floors and now there are seven floors of office space and a health club in the basement. The work started in 2003 and was finished in 2007.
The building was built on the site of previous home of John Baskerville who was buried nearby. During the construction of the canal through this area, his body was found in a good condition and he was displayed to the public before buried at Christ Church. Two basins were constructed here and after the city bought the land and decided to build the Civic Centre, both of them were filled in.
The competition for the new building was organized in 1926. However, the design was approved just in 1936 and the construction started in 1938 according to the design of T. Cecil Howitt. It remained the only component of the planned Civic Centre that had been proposed to be much bigger. The building is decorated with the Coat of arms of Birmingham.
There is a sculpture of the Baskerville typeface, Industry and Genius, in front of the main entrance. It was created by local artist David Patten in 1990. The letters spell out Virgil, the name of the Roman poet whose works were printed by Baskerville in 1757 in his typeface.
Formerly, there were offices of Birmingham City council in the building, but after they were relocated, it remained vacant. There were proposals to convert it either to a hotel or a library, but none of the plans was fulfilled. The building was sold to Targetfollow who proposed to convert it into offices. The building was extended with two other floors and now there are seven floors of office space and a health club in the basement. The work started in 2003 and was finished in 2007.
