Thanks for the Selfridge's link; yes it does look quite exciting I have to admit. I was really talking about the new housing that was put in to replace the back-to-backs, etc. Bland, if functional, design that is boring at best. I'm guessing that most of it is "social housing" owned by the council. It's the same on my side of the pond...housing built on the cheap because we can't be seen to be spending too much on creative architects for the benefit of the poor. Shame.
All that aside, there are a lot of good things happening in the "new" Brum and I look forward to seeing what they do with New St. station.