Paul Long and David Parker (2004) ‘The Mistakes of the Past’? Visual Narratives of Urban Decline and Regeneration’ in Visual Culture in Britain,Vol.5, No.1, pp. 37-58

Birmingham has changed as post-war architecture is woven into personal memories and belatedly accorded recognition through the aestheticization of a landscape normally viewed with contempt.  A series of ‘twentieth century’ visions of what a good city should look like and how it should function were buried. Notable is the ease with which familiar images are deployed in visual narratives to both promote and make sense of change. Unappealing urban vistas eg concrete car parks, ring rounds and underpasses conjure up reflex feelings of shame and embarrassment among the local population.

A skyline has major relevance in that it traces the visual signature of a cities identity, it offers an immediate reading of its ambition, modernity and novelty through which economic, social and aesthetic meanings are signified. Urban imaginaries are constituted by visual narratives- summary readings of history and futurity encoded in the skyline, both as it is and how it may be.

The methodology behind the redevelopment employed is the dynamic change in market-driven redevelopment. Force observed, ‘successful urban regeneration is design-led??

The four landmarks identified are The Rotunda, Post Office Tower (BT Tower), Birmingham Central Library and The Bullring. However these posed problems such as failure to sustain the original planning and intervention, maintain the new structures and support the innovations they were built to create. The Bullring failed in an unworkable new concept in car parking and shopping was plagued by their internal complexity (five levels). The Rotunda proved notoriously difficult to let, heat and ventilate, symbolised Birmingham’s half hearted architectural ambition when the digital clock built to illuminate the summit went out after illumination in the 80’s never to be relit again. The post office tower was designed with the idea of public access to the top but dismissed out of hand, there was no demand to go and look at the panorama of Birmingham. Birmingham Central Library design of a building finished in marble was never carried through and the area around the library was left underdeveloped due to recession.