Birmingham library turns a decorative leaf

John Murray Brown

People's Palace': the £189m Library of Birmingham, which opens on Tuesday

Birmingham officially opened its new public library, one of the largest in Europe, on Tuesday.

At a time when councils across the UK are trimming library services as part of the cuts in public funding, Birmingham city council has delivered a £189m building to grace the city centre.

The building, which has won critical and popular acclaim, replaces the brutalist concrete-clad Central Library, designed by John Madin, the foremost Birmingham architect of the postwar period.

Francine Houben, the new library's Dutch architect, described it as a "people's palace".

Posted by Jim Zellmer at September 6, 2013 12:38 AM
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