I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to join a tour of the construction site of Mecanoo's Library of Birmingham yesterday. I was also very fortunate that the site manager running the tour allowed me to use my video camera as we walked.
First impressions were that this is one seriously big building. There are a total of 9 floors, the first of which is a whopping 12 metres up, cantilevering a whopping (i know i've already used that word but this building is MASSIVE) 9 metres. The building has reached its 8th floor and is due to be completed in mid 2013.
A few other things to note…. the atrium at the rear of the building runs right the way up to the top floor and will be capped off with the Shakespeare Memorial room (which was retained from the victorian public library of Brum and currently resides at John Madin's central library). The atrium isn't completely open at the moment and is divided up by temporary flooring during the construction phase.
There's loads more information about the project over on Birmingham City Council's website.