Masshouse featured on ITV’s ‘New Homes from Hell 2009′ on Tuesday. You can find it on the third part using the ITV’s play again service, it needs to be awarded a fail whale as you have to sit and watch the advertising first.
So, what was wrong? Turns out to be a leaky roof. The now defunct McLean failed to ever sort it, they only made cosmetic repairs. It appears the roof has been built by cowboys, with many holes, plenty of patches and gallons of mastic.
I had a walk around Eastside yesterday, sun was out so here you go.
Old UB40′s DEP International has been demolished.
Masshouse Block M
Eagle and Tun
Etna House
Aston University
The Developers of Masshouse have gone into administration.
From Contract Journal,
Contracting and house building group David McLean has gone into administration.
The firm’s main holdings company and subsidiaries David McLean Contractors, David McLean Developments and David McLean Homes have all filed for administration.
Nick Edwards, Bill Dawson and Carlton Siddle of Deloitte have been appointed joint administrators.
Directors at the Deeside-based firm, which had a turnover of £160m, had been trying to restructure the group’s finances for some time.
Administrator Edwards blamed the property downturn for the group’s troubles.
“Whilst the property downturn has impacted the group’s cash flow, the land and property assets are high quality, and combined with the excellent reputation of the group, should make the house building division an attractive prospect for potential purchasers,” he said.
“We are continuing to trade this part of the business whilst we seek a buyer.”
Edwards said the contracting divison had struggled to generate profitable contracts and would be closed.
Some jobs will stay to complete or transfer works on outstanding contracts.
David McLean employed 320 people but in May this year lost £5m after taking two big hits.
As reported in CJ, the firm suffered a bad debt and irrecoverable work-in-progress from a company that went into liquidation and also was affected by a fatal accident involving a crane that resulted in work stopping on a site for 26 weeks.
From the planning application:
The formal address of the site has been confirmed as; 9 Masshouse Plaza, Birmingham B5 5JQ, but for ease of historic reference for the purposes of this planning submission, the site concerns land referred to as Block J lying with Plot 3 of the Masshouse Development Area.
the proposals concern a single development rising to 11 floors (ground plus 10 floors)
with two basement levels below. The building will accommodate 24 courtrooms for HMCS plus all necessary ancillary accommodation to serve its purpose. This includes, a public concourse at ground level, public circulation areas within the building, ancillary offices, judiciary accommodation to be used by magistrates and members of the legal community, custody cells, service and delivery areas at basement level (-1), car parking at basement level (-2) and landscaped amenity areas around the main building.In terms of construction, and by way of clarification, the proposed floorspace to be created on site, including basement levels, extends to 21,468 sq m and rises to a height of approximately 58m above ground level.
Lots of elevations.
Thank you Simon Felton, again! 
Cheers Simon Felton for the heads up again.
Application number
C/04964/08/RESDate application received
18/09/2008Date application registered
22/09/2008Date application decided
Location
Masshouse, Block J, Plot 3, Birmingham, B5Proposal
Reserved matters application for Magistrates Courts, ancillary parking and public amenity areaStatus
Under considerationConsultation details
Consultations HelpStart date
22/09/2008End date
22/10/2008
One more public sector building for you. We have just had New Street Station, today is the turn for Birmingham Magistrates’ Court at Masshouse. Thank you Simon Felton at Birmingham Central for the images.
I wish Birmingham Central Library would hurry up.
Most of the cladding is up, last two floors of steel to go.
Photos by Simon Felton.
For all of your enjoyment, here are the outline plans for the next phase of Masshouse development. Of note, this does include the new magistrates court.
I’m unsure what exactly the other buildings will be used for. I’ll dig out some plans later.
Thank you Simon Felton for the update. Hey it’s shooting up, there are still three floors missing though. I will look into this.
The Birmingham Post have reported that CSJ Brooke Smith, a leading development and planning practice based in Edgbaston, have been apointed by Denton Corker Marshall as advisers to the new £80m Magistrates Court at Masshouse. You can read the full article here.
Quote:
“Louise Brooke-Smith, of CSJ Brooke Smith, said: “The Manchester Civil Justice Centre is one of the UK’s most innovative, ambitiously designed buildings and has earned numerous awards.
“It’s fabulous that architects of this quality have been appointed to bring something equally ambitious to Birmingham.
“We’ll be working closely together to provide the highest level of professional advice to ensure this building becomes a reality that Birmingham can be proud of.“
I hope they do pull something out of the hat to make us proud. I have an air of confidence in this project.
Eastside Feeds
