Alexander Stadium - Associated Architects

Project Value:

£72 million

Completion:

2022

Key Points

Comprehensive and extensive refit

Extension to existing stadium

Increased capacity from 12,700 to 40,000 (games mode)

New West Stand

A Centre of Sporting Excellence

The Alexander Stadium is an international athletics stadium located within Perry Park in Perry Barr, north Birmingham. It hosts the annual Muller Diamond League, is home to the Birchfield Harriers, and was the main athletics venue of the 2022 Commonwealth Games.

The project focused on both the West Stand and East Stand which increased the capacity and provided new as well as legacy facilities. This also involved preparing detailed design for tender before being novated to the contractor for the technical and construction phases, including review and coordination of all subcontractor information.

The team were responsible for liaising and coordinating with the exacting and complex technical requirements of Birmingham City Council (BCC), Birchfield Harriers, the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee (CWG OC), Sport England, Green Guide, Building Control, West Midlands Fire Brigade, and West Midlands Police.

The overall project redeveloped the stadium into a centre of sporting excellence at a local, regional, and world-class level, increasing capacity from 12,700 seats to a permanent capacity of 18,000, and temporary seating taking it up to a limit of 40,000 spectators.

New Stands

The new West Stand provides new seating, as well as:

Bar and club room for Birchfield Harriers,
Athletes and officials changing facilities,
Spectator WCs,
Strength and conditioning gym,
Medical suite,
Offices for BCC and other legacy tenants,
Hospitality suite with full catering kitchen for 400 covers,
Four bars and concessions stands,
Media facilities,
VIP boxes.

Within the new East Stand, new seating and signage was provided to unify the whole stadium. To the north, a new plaza aids circulation and access to the stands.

While the new stands formed the bulk of the work, the wider project also included new sporting facilitates such as a new warm up track, re-laying of a new IAAF Category 1 track, a new throwing field, new lighting across the site, as well as landscaping that provides an attractive, safe environment for staff and visitors while celebrating the Stadium’s parkland setting.

The designs facilitated the temporary ‘overlay’ elements and additional infrastructure needed to deliver the 2022 Games, such as the media village, athlete loading/drop-off zone, ceremony compounds etc.

We were also appointed to BCC’s Technical Assurance Team to review the CWG OC Overlay proposals to ensure safe and workable integration with the stadium itself and to protect BCC’s legacy asset.

Accessible to All

Following the Games, the Alexander Stadium has become a high-profile venue for diverse sporting, leisure, and cultural events. The stadium is accessible to all who wish to visit it, with enhanced community facilities to benefit the city and its residents for generations to come. Its redevelopment continues to act as a catalyst for the wider Perry Barr regeneration effort, helping to deliver development in line with the city’s growth strategy. The area is seeing significant investment including wider housing growth and improvements to local infrastructure and transport provision.

In addition to the facilities for the Birchfield Harriers, we are developed legacy fitout proposals for Birmingham City University’s High Performance Sports Science department for a portion of the stadium.

As part of the project, we also collaborated with Arup to deliver a Social Value initiative – transforming an unused space within a local primary school Pro Bono.