Beetham Tower, also known as Holloway Circus Tower, was designed by Ian Simpson and built by Laing O’Rourke. The tower stands 121.5 metres (399 feet) tall and covers an area of approximately 650 square metres.
Completed in 2006 at a cost of around £72 million, the tower is a striking modern addition to Birmingham’s skyline. It was the first building in the city to exceed 100 metres in height since the completion of Alpha Tower in 1973.
With 39 floors, its glass façade and aqua-coloured frontage house the Radisson Blu Hotel, which occupies the first 19 floors. The remaining levels contain 158 luxury apartments, with prices originally starting at around £2.5 million. The building was initially intended to include office space, but planning permission for this use was not granted.
Plans for a major tower on this site date back to 1998, when regeneration initiatives produced several proposals for large-scale city projects. The Beetham Group later modified the original design following objections from the Civil Aviation Authority, as new height restrictions introduced after the events of 11 September 2001 required the building to be reduced from 44 floors to its final height of 39.
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