Millennium Mission

Behind the dazzling facade of Millennium Point, the lottery landmark construction for Birmingham, lies a building that has risen despite many difficulties.

Halfway through the £112m contract, locally based contractor Galliford merged with London-based Try Construction to form Galliford Try. New reporting structures and uncertainty over who your new boss will be are trying, but when your joint-venture partner (Christiani & Neilsen) goes bust too – how do you cope?

And it is not as if the project was an easy one in the first place. The design, by Nicholas Grimshaw & Partners, includes many innovative materials and structures; just look at the terracotta-louvred facade (left) for evidence.

The project is under the political spotlight too. It is the engine that will drive the regeneration of Birmingham's east side. If it is late or over budget, local politicians and press will have a field day; witness the problems facing the new parliament building in Edinburgh.

But in spite of the pressures, project director John Rawlinson is confident that phase one will open in September on schedule and to budget.

The building has four sections: the Think Tank, a science and technology museum with a strong link to Birmingham's industrial past; the Technology Innovation Centre, part of the University of Central England relocating to Millennium Point to create a centre of excellence for technology; the University of the First Age, including a young person's parliament to interest 11- to 15-year-olds in science, technology and politics; and the Hub, a retail and office development that houses the IMAX cinema.

The client is a charitable trust that includes the city council, the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce and University of Central England, who will be one of the occupiers of the finished building. The scheme was given £50m of lottery funding, plus assistance from the European Union and English Partnerships.

IMAX challenge
"The political side of things hasn't really affected us," says John Rawlinson, Galliford Try's project director at Millennium Point. "But, although we tried to keep to tried and tested methods as much as possible, the actual construction, especially of the IMAX cinema, did present a challenge."

So even setting aside the political pressures on the project and the challenges presented by building shops, offices, university facilities and a museum all in one, the technology of an IMAX can be tricky to construct. As only the eighth IMAX in Britain, the cinema represents a relatively new phenomenon. And unfortunately, the IMAX Corporation only provides the technology, not the construction expertise. "It advises us as much as it can as to what its requirements are," says Rawlinson. "But it only provides the equipment. We have to work out how to build the auditorium to suit IMAX."

Acoustic control
In the early stages, the task looked insurmountable, says Rawlinson, especially with the timescale in mind. The project team took a trip to Canada, where the IMAX Corporation is based, to look at other examples and sort the specifications out. "The control of the acoustics is critical," stresses Rawlinson. "We had to control the reverberation and vibration getting out and getting in, or it would spoil the 'experience', as IMAX put it." And as the cinema is based above a busy retail area known as "the hub", achieving that control alone was challenge enough.

"We learned the lessons from other IMAX cinemas," says Rawlinson. "We looked at the way the IMAX at Waterloo was built over a tube station and still manages to keep the vibrations out of the cinema."

Once the cinema was built, there was the question of getting the 16m-high and 21.5m-wide screen in place. "The screen has to be put in after the cinema has been built because it is very sensitive to dust and vibration," explains Rawlinson. "There are two ways of getting the screen in: you can lift it in and then have it coated and sprayed, which takes about 20 weeks all together. But we opted for having a ready-sprayed screen lifted in and then fitted, which only takes about eight weeks all together, so already we've saved 12 weeks."

But this option demanded forward planning, says Rawlinson. "If you are going to have a ready-sprayed screen, it has to be lifted in, in a roll, through a hatch in the roof. It's just another thing we had to be aware of before we started work on the cinema."

"The projector is also a big piece of equipment," he adds. "We had to build in a hatch in the floor of the projection room, so when the projector needs servicing or replacing, it is easy to get at."

Shining lights
The IMAX "experience" was obviously very important to the IMAX Corporation, and Rawlinson says it was the little things that helped the project team to preserve that at Millennium Point. "If light is shining in the wrong place, your eye will pick it up. We went to other cinemas where you could pick out a handrail, which ruined the view of the screen. We put in handrails that are at the same level as the seats, so it appears as a very thin line and doesn't spoil the view."

Built-in flexibility was also key, as the University of Birmingham will be based at Millennium Point and may require the auditorium to double as a lecture theatre. "The cinema can also be used as a lecture theatre by projecting the lights that are under the screen onto it, which reflects enough light to see by," says Rawlinson. "It was also important not to have too much metal or lights in the auditorium to control the vibrations, so having one set of lights under the screen helped out there too."

Teamwork
Despite these innovations, there is no substitute for old-fashioned teamwork, according to Rawlinson. "The main difference for me on this job to other projects I've worked on was the way the team worked together," he enthuses. "I've worked in other good teams, but this one worked especially well. We sat down and talked through problems together until we found a solution, which was critical with the time we had."