battery innards

You may be sad that the old Battery Building got flattened to make way for more excting retail opportunities, but as part of the excellent Flatpack festival, you can see its innards while it was still (just) alive.

On Thurs 25th March there's an event called More Films about Buildings, featuring amongst other things the video "Take Only Photographs, Leave Nothing But Footprints", shot inside the Battery Building by Dale O’Keeffe.

If you can't make the event (and Flatpack's stuff is *always* awesome), you can see the video online here.

(thanks to @genzaichi for the heads up :)).

battery demolition

The lovely jdk653 contacted us to point us towards a Birmingham Post, um, post about the demolition of the Battery building as part of the new Sainsbury's development despite efforts by conservationists (including the venerable Prof Carl Chinn) to save it.

UPDATE: I went down to Battery Park on Sun 7th and took some pictures of the demolition in progress:

The original planning document (2004) specifically mentions that the building was to be repaired, though the BCC site skirts over the demolition vs repairs issue. According to the Post, Sainsbury's say the building is unsafe and therefore can't be repaired. There are some pretty amazing pics on the derelict places site, which reports that a couple of people fell through floors during the shoot.

There's a few conflicting reports about the listed status of the building - the Stirrer reckoned it was, but the SkyscraperCity forums had a few posts from people saying it wasn't - and the Council's listed lists doesn't include it (though the Goose at the OVT is in :)). Either way, it looks like the loss of an historic building.

Also, the "mixed-use development" that's being built on the Battery site includes a technology park: where does that leave the not-quite-built-yet biomedical science park on the old Pebble Mill site (due 2015)? Oh BCC, with these science/tech parks you are really spoiling us ...