Major city-centre office development takes shape

Due for completion early next year, a new prestigious 17-storey commercial block is now towering above Birmingham’s Snowhill due to advantages of steel construction.

Known as Number Two Snowhill, the development is 65m tall includes four basement levels for car parking, scenic lifts and a stunning steel-framed glazed atrium.

The steelwork contract for the job was let on a design and build basis to Caunton Engineering, and the company has designed, fabricated and supplied over 2,000t of structural steelwork together with metal decking and shear studs to the project.

The building footprint covers an area 54m long by 45m wide and is made up of a 9m by 9m structural grid. The main entrance façade tapers out from ground level up to level 13 where the building then steps back, creating balconies.

Double height spaces at level 15 and 16 contain plant. Above ground level, floors are of composite construction with steel beams and columns framing into the three main stability giving cores.