A year on from opening its first Birmingham office, Midlands architectural practice maber is celebrating a string of successful projects and award wins, and forecasts a bright future in the second city.
The practice now has five members of its 70-strong team based in Colmore Row, its Grade II-listed central Birmingham office, and maber associate David Brooks, who manages the second city team expects that to grow.
“We have won a series of significant projects in the West Midlands across the industrial, residential and education sectors, and with the positive mood of the construction sector in Birmingham, we are very optimistic,” he said. “The completion of New Street Station’s overhaul has given the city an international feel. There is so much building work going on with big businesses relocating from London and HS2 generating interest and driving infrastructure work.”
Maber set up the Birmingham office after being named West Midlands Architectural Practice of the Year in the Insider Property Awards, and has since collected a string of other awards including winning the title of Architects’ Practice of the Year at the Insider Residential Property Awards this year.
Its major projects in the West Midlands include designing the new headquarters and manufacturing facility for Controls and Data Services, part of the Rolls-Royce group, in Solihull.
In the education sector, the practice was the architect on South Staffordshire College’s £5.4 million AgriSTEM Academy, which combines a traditional brick-built granary building with state-of-the-art new facilities, and for the £10 million WMG Academy for Young Engineers. It has also designed the new Sutherland Primary Academy in Stoke-on-Trent.
In the residential sector, the practice is supporting a number of clients on student accommodation schemes, and there is a healthy crop of opportunities in the private rental sector. At the other end of the scale, the Birmingham Office’s design for the remodeling and refurbishment of the Almshouses – six Grade II-listed cottages in Rolleston on Dove near Burton on Trent – has recently received planning consent.
Mark Hobson, maber’s managing director who heads up the Birmingham office with David Brooks, said: “We are building successful new working relationships in the West Midlands and are excited to see the region developing as the Midlands Engine for Growth.”