Birmingham’s Natwest Tower is being demolished to make way for a new 26-storey office building that will take its place as the city’s tallest building.

Demolition contractors H Smith (Engineers) have been onsite, stripping the building’s interior since July this year, and a scaffold has been erected around the building to allow them to take it apart one floor at a time, beginning at the top and working their way down to minimise mess and risk, and result in a very neat, controlled romoval of the building which should take about 12 months.

Following demolition, the construction of the new tower will generate 500 construction jobs, with completion targeted for summer 2018. Once finished, the new tower, which was designed by architects Doone Silver, will offer 196,000 sq ft of office space and house dozens of businesses and company administrative offices spaced over 19 floors, with restaurants on the ground floor and the uppermost storeys.

The construction director at Sterling, Peter Graham, said “We’re very pleased that Birmingham City Council has acknowledged our unwavering commitment to this project and this great city.” continuing that they will be “replacing an outdated, inefficient building with a modern, landmark office development that Birmingham can be proud of.”

This looks to be an enormous undertaking, and one that we’ll be keeping an eye on as the new landmark takes shape!