In its hopes to revitalize an overlooked commercial area of Birmingham in the U.K., the design and engineering partners behind the One Centenary Way project have successfully confronted and resolved unique location challenges.
One Centenary Way was completed in 2024 by U.K. builder Sir Robert McAlpine. It connects two of Birmingham’s most important public spaces, Chamberlain and Centenary Squares, and represents phase two of the multi-phased Paradise development in the city’s centre. Engineering and environment consultancy Arup occupies three floors. Goldman Sachs has more than 1,000 employees in the building, while international property company JLL has another 150.
The 13-storey, 280,000-square-foot building straddles the A38 Queensway Tunnel. The motorway remained open during construction. This precluded the construction of a load-bearing core or extensive foundations. The Birmingham architectural office of Howells, in conjunction with local delivery architectural firm Weedon, was commissioned to deliver a solution.
Howells also collaborated with global engineers Arup to devise a design based on Vierendeel trusses to transfer the building’s load to either side of the underground roadway.
A Vierendeel truss contains no diagonal members and in that way differs from the more common triangulated trusses seen in construction. Vierendeel truss members are joined rigidly together with each required to transmit bending, shear and direct stress.
As Howells describes, “Acting like a giant bridge, 16 one-storey steel trusses transfer the load of the building to either side of the tunnel and support a podium slab for the shear-resisting exoskeleton to rest on. In close collaboration with engineers Arup, we developed a structure that addresses the specific logistical challenges of the site in an architectural language expressive of Birmingham’s metalworking traditions.
“An eight-metre-high lantern on top of the building, constructed within the façade’s structural grid, features a changeable 360-degree light display visible from miles around, adding a colourful crown to Birmingham’s city skyline. One Centenary Way’s interior spaces feature exposed steel frames complemented by a materiality of natural textures and bespoke fittings.”
The 16 trusses, totalling 1,156 tonnes, represented some of the largest-ever designed and constructed in the U.K. for a commercial building. They were fabricated from rolled recycled steel sections at a specially expanded factory in southern Scotland by BHC Steel before being transported to the heart of Birmingham by road. Howells explains using hydro-generated energy to fabricate the rolled recycled steel sections saved 900 tonnes of embodied CO2 and reduced the carbon footprint of the entire building.
Positioning the trusses required a 1,200-tonne mobile crane with a reach of 89 metres. The largest single truss was 34.6 metres in length and 5.2 metres wide, and the heaviest weighed 119 tonnes.
Façade contractor KFK International provided the unitized stick system façade, assembled around a three-metre grid with a strong horizontal emphasis, making the building’s appearance notable for its striking black exoskeleton frame that acts as the main source of stability for the building.
One Centenary Way is an all-electric building that features smart-enabled building management technology to collect live data on energy and facility use, allowing for more efficient use of energy, water and other amenities.
It has achieved BREEAM “Excellent” certification and an Energy Performance Certificate ‘A’ rating. It has also been designed to meet WiredScore requirements for connectivity, a certification that recognizes best-in-class digitally connected buildings.
Boon Edam was chosen to deliver an entrance solution for the new reception hall. The company specified three automatic Circleslide curved sliding doors, 2.8 metres in diameter and 2.9 metres high for the ground floor entries in order to facilitate smooth entry and exit.
“These doors are equipped with high-performance air curtains, which create a thermal barrier, preventing cold air from escaping the lobby,” Boon Edam says.
The building is also Birmingham’s first large-scale cycle hub by providing secure lock-up space for up to 500 bikes, showers and locker rooms for cyclists, plus servicing and bike hire.
John Bleasby is a freelance writer. Send comments and Inside Innovation column ideas to editor@dailycommercialnews.com.
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