“Inward investors find that sort of thing important, sad but true.”

Shame, I’d rather hoped the new library was about more books, better reading and archive facilities, but I’m afraid you’re right – it’s anything but that. What’s even more unfortunate is that there has been so little said about this shift in the function of libraries over the last decade (where were all the people now complaining about cuts when this was happening?). If libraries are about putting us ‘on the map’, portraying the city as ‘cultured’ and acting as a tool for social policy, then I’m not really sure they’re worth fighting for.

It is already looking oversized for the site and there is a danger that it will stand out for the wrong reasons. To be successful it must function – as the current central Library seems to do – for the residents and visitors – or it will become a giant vanity project. And it is being paid for by selling off the site of the old library for development (it all seems to have gone very quiet about what will be going there…). Creating the new Library (people will call it what fits, the Library of Birmingham seems it a bit of a mouthful if you are in Birmingham) is a big gamble that the people of the city will have to live with for years to come – on the back of losing a decent library.

There is a wisdom that it is better to do something amazing and word will spread, rather than spending your resources on telling people something is amazing and then they are disappointed when they arrive. Word of mouth (whether literal or through social media) is still the mot powerful influencer. So lets hope ‘ the powers that be’ know what they are doing with the build and are not trying to cover up by spinning us a line through a PR agency (depending on whether the hype sinks or swims, maybe the local agencies are better off out of it ?)…but as Niall points out, the plans for a new New Street Station shopping experience, that unbelievably do not increase rail capacity, does not inspire any confidence in our ‘leadership’ to make decisions that will positivley affect generations beyond the careers of the politicians who are basking in the glory now. At least the Victorians planned for the future with their infrastructure projects…

Iconic buildings DO alter the external perception of a city – any city. Put the words “Birmingam England” in google images (I just have) and you get a canal, the Bull ring, Selfridges (lots) and the floozy in the jacuzzi. That’s about right isn’t it? Another iconic image will play its way into that cannon. Inward investors find that sort of thing important, sad but true.