Coventry Civic Centre 2

An office and studio block built in 1957–1959 for the Architecture and Town Planning Department of Coventry City Council. It was designed by George Sealey working under the city architect Arthur Ling.

The building has a reinforced concrete frame. The northern block features curtain walling with aluminium framing and stainless steel cladding, with a flat felted roof.

The northern range comprises two tall storeys of studio space above an open ground floor, supported on pilotis. This creates a pedestrian walkway and provides access to a central courtyard. The principal interruption to the open ground floor is a rectangular exhibition room with glass walls and doors, lined with sheets of plate glass butted at the corners with aluminium and stainless steel mullions. Glass doors at the east and west ends retain their original furniture and are acid etched with the word 'ARCHITECTURE'. The pilotis are exposed at ground floor level and clad with mosaic tiles, dividing the north range into eight bays. The studio floors above have curtain walling with spandrel panels of milky glass and plain glass, framed with stainless steel sheeting and fascia panels. The building was designed with adaptable office divisions capable of being entirely open or divided by demountable partitions.

The ground floor exhibition room has an original hardwood floor with sunken mat trays by the doors. Pillars at each corner are copper-clad. Ceilings are coffered at the east end with a suspended ceiling inserted at the west. The original staircase at the east end remains but is now encased. It rises through the studio block with its north wall displaying samples of coloured and patterned tiles as a sample board viewed from different floors, including a tile marked 'CARTER TILES / by / COVENTRY TILE CO. LTD. / Edmund Road, Coventry'. Metal balusters and hardwood handrails are original. Suspended ceilings have been fitted throughout most of the building.

The building is linked to a medieval basement on the site of the Old Star Inn (separately listed Grade II*), which was adapted to form the department bar. At its north-western corner, CC2 joins Civic Centre 3 (1974–1976). The former western end wall, with a patterned surface reflecting internal spaces, is believed to remain in situ.

The courtyard was landscaped contemporaneously with the building. The sloping site was levelled using retaining walls on the southern and eastern sides. The eastern retaining wall has panels of different bricks with contemporary labels indicating type and origin. The flat courtyard surface is divided into rectangular panels with borders of granite setts, functioning as a test bed or sample board for different paving types readable from the studio block. A rectangular reflecting pool occupies the east side, and a smaller circular pool with fountain was placed at the south-west corner, both later featuring sculpture.

Pursuant to section 1(5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990, the block to the east of the courtyard running north-south is declared not to be of special architectural or historic interest, except for the medieval basement on the site of the Old Star Inn, which is separately listed at Grade II*.