Birmingham gets its first new park for more than a century
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credit: Tim Soar
The first city centre park to be created in Birmingham for more than 130 years opens to the public tomorrow.
Eastside City Park has been designed by leading French landscape architect Allain Provost and architects Patel Taylor – the team also responsible for the Thames Barrier Park in London.
A canal feature which is 188 metres long and includes 21 jet fountains is one of the key elements of the linear park, which cost £11.75 million. Strong geometric forms including topiary columns and Corten steel lighting fins are combined with areas of softer planting.
The 14,300-square-metre green space also includes formal lawns, public squares and the Science Garden, which forms part of the neighbouring Thinktank Birmingham Science Museum.
Andrew Taylor of Patel Taylor said that the park, in the heart of the Eastside regeneration area, has transformed a brownfield site previously dedicated to light industrial and commercial uses into “a new ‘public room’ for Birmingham city” which “delivers a beautiful landscape for collective enjoyment or a place of contemplation for the individual.”
www.birmingham.gov.uk/eastsidepark