LOOK: Stunning first view over Coventry from new council tower block at Friargate - The Coventry Observer

LOOK: Stunning first view over Coventry from new council tower block at Friargate

Coventry Editorial 22nd Nov, 2016 Updated: 22nd Nov, 2016   0

THIS is the view over Coventry and its historic three spires to be enjoyed by senior council officers when its new tower block opens next year.

Developers behind the Friargate ‘business district’ scheme have issued the images from the top of the 13-storey ‘One Friargate’, which is heading towards completion next year.

The building is now lit as work continues, and has already become a prominent addition to the city’s skyline.

As we reported earlier this month, Coventry City Council remains the only confirmed tenant for the 37-acre site of up to 25 buildings (including 14 office buildings) near Coventry station. It has for a decade been billed as creating ‘up to 15,000 jobs’.




Council staff will be re-located there from the tower block near the council house and other city centre buildings.

Friargate Coventry LLP says a group of residents was first to see the views from top of One Friargate as it had been ‘involved from its early stages’.


Jeremy Thomas, Gary Maltby and Matthew Davies were all part of a Residents’ Liaison Group.

They were joined by project manager Paul Kelly, from Bowmer & Kirkland, and Stephen Reynolds, from Friargate Coventry LLP, who talked them through activity on the site.

Mr Reynolds said: “Local people have been key in helping us shape the plans for Friargate, and we have worked closely with the Residents Liaison Group.

“We felt it was important for us to recognise their involvement by giving members the first chance to climb to the top of One Friargate and take in the stunning view over the city.

“It also gives us an opportunity to showcase the progress we’ve made as we get closer and closer to completion.”

Developers say construction of One Friargate has been ‘particularly swift in recent weeks’ as the final concrete cladding panels, weighing around eight tonnes each, have now been craned into place.

They have given the building, designed by architects Allies and Morrison, its ‘distinctive red-brick façade which mirrors the traditional brickwork common in many of Coventry’s finest buildings’, the developers added.

Hotels, shops, restaurants and new homes are also planned for Friargate.

Leading council figures in 2013 spoke of the council’s move as being a “honey pot” that would attract more private sector companies to the city.

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors remain in discussions over pre-letting the second block, a 14-story tower, for which planning permission has been secured.

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