Icon Get Over You

We're promised an iconic design for the New Street Station make-over. Good news, if what is built matches that much over-used word. My wish list includes no more concrete facades - our weather doesn't like concrete. We need lots of glass, steel and brick, as in the great railway stations of the 19th century and the best that's being built today.

Talk of concrete and architects (and they discourse on little else in The Dog & Duck....) makes me lift half a glass to John Madin. Veteran City designer of the hotly debated Central Library, Mr Madin is still battling to reprieve his creation from its final death sentence. It was very much his vision and 35 years on he sees no reason to call in the demolition squad. But if you can admire his tenacity, his sense of the art of the possible is less striking.

Yes, he's right to say that the politicians and business wallahs mucked up the original design, which saw the upside down ziggurat as part of a grander civic ensemble. Yes, he's right when he points out that the landscaping, marble cladding and other fine finishes were junked. But this means his original concept is dead. Why then keep bits of the corpse on life support?

Growing up nearby in the 60s and 70s, I remember the library when new as a reasonable place to study in; but the windswept concrete tunnel of a courtyard was about as far from the southern European spaces we all celebrate as a Big Mac from a rump steak. The cafes, bars and shops now there have rescued the wind tunnel from its previous role as a muggers' paradise. Unfortunately Paradise Row just off it - better known Desolation Alley - might still qualify.

Mr Madin's sentimental attachment to his baby blinds him to the fact that his dream was never realised. Maybe the topsy-turvy ziggurat idea was interesting, but the overall scheme was flawed, its brutal boxiness sitting badly with what's left of 19th/early 20thc Chamberlain Square.

But before we get to restore Chamberlain Square to something like former glory, let's make sure we learn a lesson or two with New Street Station. If the station make-over works, it will complement the new Bull Ring in transforming the city centre. The stakes are high. Let's get it right this time....