Faithful & Gould team up with Turner & Townsend for station scheme

Faithful & Gould bid for the job against its parent company, Atkins. Atkins is understood to have lost a separate role as design partner, supporting the project’s original architect Alsop & Partners, after the practice went into administration last year.

Alsop’s fate led to the client, Network Rail, scrapping the original plans, even though it owned the intellectual rights to the design. A lead consultant, the multidisciplinary group WSP, was appointed in March and has hired architects John McAlsan & Partners and Chapman Taylor to work on a new design.

Turner & Townsend will provide project management, planning supervisor services and value and risk advice on the design project, up until Christmas. Rob Flavell, associate director at Turner & Townsend, is heading up the team of six that the firm has assigned to the scheme.

The team from Faithful & Gould, which will be led by director Simon Raine, has also been contracted up until Christmas.

The proposed scheme involves the redevelopment of the Birmingham New Street station concourse and platforms into a high-profile city “gateway”. After the 36-week design programme is completed, Network Rail will submit its planning application. The project is scheduled for completion in 2011.