Alsop鈥檚 designs for Birmingham New Street face the axe 鈥� although Network Rail owns the intellectual rights.
Rail operator Network Rail is hiring a design team to work on the troubled Birmingham New Street station by architect Alsop & Partners 鈥� which was bought out of administration in October 鈥� and may scrap Alsop鈥檚 original designs.
A spokesperson from Network Rail confirmed that a 44-week design development period for the 拢350m scheme would only begin once a design team was in place. He said that a tender for a design consultant, contractors and specialist subcontractors would go out before Christmas.
The spokesperson added: 鈥淔unding is confirmed for the project and we are confident it will go ahead and be completed for 2011.鈥�
Alsop鈥檚 design partner on the station scheme, multidisciplinary consultant Atkins, is talking to several leading architects. It is also considering whether to enter into a new partnership to take the project forward.
A source close to Atkins said that there was still confusion over the future of the scheme. He said: 鈥淭here are a lot of stakeholders on the client side, not just Network Rail. The city council is a key player as is [regional development agency] Advantage West Midlands, which has put up funding for the project.鈥�
The Network Rail spokesperson said it had yet to be decided whether Alsop鈥檚 designs would be dispensed with or whether the scheme would be retendered with an engineering-led consortium taking over and using Alsop鈥檚 designs. She said: 鈥淲e will need to talk to our new design partner about the scheme. However, we do own the intellectual property rights to the Alsop designs.鈥�
Alsop and Atkins refused to comment.
The project has been beset by funding difficulties, which were finally resolved when Advantage West Midlands committed itself to finding the missing money.
- Keith Clarke, the chief executive of Atkins, said this week that the company was 鈥渘o longer a recovery business鈥� after it announced a 50% increase in half-year pre-tax profit to 拢26.6m.
