The Muirhead Tower Collection: The Brutalist Giant of Edgbaston

To the casual observer, it is a striking example of 1970s modernism. But to anyone who studied at the University of Birmingham, the Muirhead Tower is a legend.

Designed by Sir Philip Dowson of Arup Associates and completed in 1971, this 16-story giant dominates the Edgbaston skyline. It is one of the UK’s most significant examples of Brutalist architecture, famous for its powerful vertical rhythm. The structure is actually a complex "sandwich"—two steel and glass towers encased within a massive, rhythmic pre-cast concrete frame. These distinctive "fins" were designed as spectacular expressions of structure that also acted to shade the interior from the sun, but they are also blamed for creating the building's own micro-climate of 'knock you down' winds.

To explain this, students have for decades passed down the urban myths that the tower was either accidentally built backwards, or that it was designed to test wind turbines. And while the architecture is world-class, for many alumni, the tower is best remembered for the adrenaline of its intense downdraft winds, and the original Paternoster lifts—the open-compartment "hop-on, hop-off" elevators that kept moving in a continuous loop, terrifying freshers and thrilling graduates for over thirty years.

Whether you admire it for its bold structural logic and heroic form, or you simply survived its wild winds, this collection celebrates the undisputed icon of the Birmingham campus.

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For all our buildings click HERE

The Muirhead Tower Collection: The Brutalist Giant of Edgbaston

To the casual observer, it is a striking example of 1970s modernism. But to anyone who studied at the University of Birmingham, the Muirhead Tower is a legend.

Designed by Sir Philip Dowson of Arup Associates and completed in 1971, this 16-story giant dominates the Edgbaston skyline. It is one of the UK’s most significant examples of Brutalist architecture, famous for its powerful vertical rhythm. The structure is actually a complex "sandwich"—two steel and glass towers encased within a massive, rhythmic pre-cast concrete frame. These distinctive "fins" were designed as spectacular expressions of structure that also acted to shade the interior from the sun, but they are also blamed for creating the building's own micro-climate of 'knock you down' winds.

To explain this, students have for decades passed down the urban myths that the tower was either accidentally built backwards, or that it was designed to test wind turbines. And while the architecture is world-class, for many alumni, the tower is best remembered for the adrenaline of its intense downdraft winds, and the original Paternoster lifts—the open-compartment "hop-on, hop-off" elevators that kept moving in a continuous loop, terrifying freshers and thrilling graduates for over thirty years.

Whether you admire it for its bold structural logic and heroic form, or you simply survived its wild winds, this collection celebrates the undisputed icon of the Birmingham campus.

For all our UK buildings click HERE

For all our Birmingham buildings click HERE

For all our Brutalist buildings click HERE

For all our buildings click HERE

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