Brum green-lights 48-storey Metropolitan Workshop tower

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Metropolitan Workshop's proposed Birmingham tower, seen from the north-west. St Chad's Cathedral is to the left

Metropolitan Workshop's Birmingham tower, seen from the south

Metropolitan Workshop's Birmingham tower, seen from Snow Hill Queensway. The 'retained' commercial unit can be seen to the left of the new building.

Metropolitan Workshop's Birmingham tower, seen from Snow Hill Queensway. Steps connect the front of the building to Weaman Street at the rear.

Metropolitan Workshop's Birmingham tower, seen from Weaman Street at the rear

Metropolitan Workshop's Birmingham tower, seen from Corporation Street. Grade II-listed Birmingham Children's Hospital is in the foreground

Metropolitan Workshop's 48-storey Birmingham tower, seen from the north. St Chad's Cathedral is to the left

Metropolitan Workshop's Birmingham tower, seen from Lancaster Circus

Snow Hill Queensway in Birmingham. The site proposed for Metropolitan Workshop's tower is in the exact centre of the image.

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Birmingham City Council has given the green light to a 48-storey residential tower block designed by Metropolitan Workshop despite concerns over its impact on the city’s two cathedrals and other heritage buildings.

The build-to-rent project, which is the London and Dublin-based practice’s first in the city, will replace a low-rise run of disused commercial units on Snow Hill Queensway.

Designed for developer Hub, the project received seven votes in favour and six votes against at a meeting of the city council’s Planning Committee on Thursday last week.

The authority’s own conservation team had called for the scheme to be rejected because of its impact on grade I-listed St Philip’s Cathedral, designed by Thomas Archer, which is sited around 400m away.

Birmingham Civic Society objected, arguing that the tower is around 10 storeys too tall for the site and will affect the setting of St Philip’s Cathedral and St Paul’s Church in the Jewellery Quarter.

Government heritage adviser Historic England stopped short of objecting to the proposals, but expressed concerns about the tower’s impact on heritage assets. It included grade II* St Chad’s Cathedral – which is just 100m north of the development site – on its list of buildings set to be adversely affected.

Recommending the proposals for approval, city planning officers said Metropolitan Workshop’s design was an acceptable option for a “difficult” site in an area where tall buildings are “common and generally supported”.

Officers said the council’s design manager considered the building’s design to be an “exciting and dramatic form” that should “weigh favourably” in the overall planning balance.

The report noted the conservation team’s objection, but said the public benefits of the scheme outweighed the “less than substantial harm” caused to the setting of St Philip’s Cathedral.

Metropolitan Workshop cited Richard Seifert & Partners’ grade II-listed Alpha Tower in the city and Marcel Breuer’s Flaine ski resort in the French Alps among its influences for 2 Snowhill Plaza.

Co-founder and partner Neil Deeley said the practice had been “really inspired” by the “Be Bold, Be Birmingham” campaign launched by the city ahead of last year’s Commonwealth Games.

“Our approach recalls and celebrates the city’s proud post war architectural traditions, delivers new connectivity for pedestrians on Snow Hill and uniquely provides residential amenity on five levels,” he said.