The renowned architect behind ambitious £350 million plans to redevelop Birmingham New Street Station has been taken off the project. Station owners Network Rail said Will Alsop, known as the "enfant terrible" of British architecture, will not be leading the design and development phase, despite the project going ahead with his design. His practice Alsop Architects has gone into receivership, although Alsop himself is understood to be continuing to lead other projects started before the financial difficulties. Network Rail said it was not prepared to risk such a politically sensitive scheme as redeveloping New Street, dubbed "Birmingham's black hole". The rail infrastructure company, which owns the intellectual property rights to Alsop's design, has now asked for expressions of interest from major architecture practices and engineering firms. A tendering process for bids to head the project will be opened shortly and it is hoped the lead consultant will be in place by February. A spokeswoman for NR last night said every company contacted so far had registered an interest in taking over the landmark. The plan involves a huge glass roof, letting natural light stream down on to the concourse. This means the removal of the car park above the station although exactly how it will affect The Pallasades shopping centre is commercially sensitive and has still to be publicly announced. Alsop has been the driving force behind a plethora of headline-grabbing projects, including the proposed transformation of Barnsley into a semblance of a Tuscan hill town, the planned creation of a "mega-city" for 15 million people linking existing settlements across the north of England, and the rebranding of Middlesbrough with proposed blocks of flats shaped like Prada skirts. A spokeswoman for Alsop last night confirmed the architect would not be lead consultant but declined to comment further. Birmingham City Council, which has taken the lead role in bringing together a steering group to find public and private money, also declined to comment. Alsop's New Street design is intended to increase the passenger capacity of the station by 50 per cent, a crucial element of the scheme, prompted by the fact the current station is deemed to be at capacity. The existing station is designed to handle 80,000 passengers a day but regularly exceeds that. | 
