As one of the UK’s last remaining major UK railway hub transformations, the Birmingham Gateway project to rebuild the city’s New Street Station, was always going to be high profile. The new station has been designed by Foreign Office Architects and is due for completion in 2015.

"CABE’s design review panel has helped us draw together a holistic scheme where it is possible to deliver a great experience from the minute passengers step off the train," says Nigel Edmondson, city centre design manager at Birmingham City Council. ‘We regularly work with CABE on major initiatives and the panels are invaluable for providing fresh eyes on a scheme. Their views can be quirky too, but are always interesting and helpful in this sort of complex scheme with multiple stakeholders."

"CABE’s great strength is its independence," says Carol Stitchman, head of design at Network Rail. ‘When you are really close to a project, it gets difficult to be objective and we value an independent third party opinion." She says the panel’s strongest contribution at the Gateway project has been to provide unity between the new building design by Foreign Office Architects and the public realm design. ‘With the help of the panel it has been possible to make seamless connections and now it’s a fantastic scheme."

She adds that it has not been possible to take on all panel suggestions because of operational considerations, but the review experience has been invaluable.

For Alejandro Zaera Polo of Foreign Office Architects, the key contribution of the panel has been to ensure that the central design ideas were taken through to delivery. "I’ve been involved with panels before, they are excellent forums for discussion and probably the only way to ensure quality is delivered, especially in large-scale urban projects. The panels are formed of distinguished individuals and they understand the impact of such major interventions as the Gateway project and the way the city is shaped for the future."