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The Birmingham Modernists have just published a map of the 50 best Modernist buildings in central Birmingham.
It celebrates a time when Birmingham was willing to innovate and commission cutting-edge national and local architects.
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So, here we celebrate three of these architects.
Each one trained at the Birmingham School of Architecture which was leading the way in new methods by encouraging students to appreciate "the abstract qualities of architecture, of proportions, rhythm, colour and texture".
George Marsh was the principal architect of the grade II-listed Alpha Tower.
Born in Birmingham, Marsh joined Richard Seifert in 1957 and became a founding partner in R Seifert & Partners a year later.
Marsh was the practice's leading designer throughout the 1960s and early 1970s.
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The 28-storey Alpha Tower was part of the 1970 ATV development and is recognised as one of the most aesthetically successful office buildings in Birmingham, with a shaped outline and careful detailing giving it a dynamic forcefulness.
Its design successfully combined several ideas into a powerful and elegant building.
It retains many of its original details of doors, windows and staircases and has survived in part because it was designed to be an adaptable building.
The elegant look of the building lies in the use of subtle, tapering concrete panels and windows.
The whole, slightly boomerang-shaped building stands on cleverly shaped concrete pillars which effortlessly float the building above the ground.
Marsh needs to be celebrated - he brought a fresh design input to the Seifert practice.
From the time of his arrival in the late 1950s, their work displayed a new-found flamboyance influenced by the architects Le Corbusier and Oscar Niemeyer.
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And one might also ask how much he was influenced by his early training in Birmingham.
Graham Winteringham specialised in theatre buildings.
We are lucky enough to have one of his best designs in the shape of the Birmingham Repertory Theatre.
The curved concrete and glass façade, like the flounces of a theatre curtain, was designed to flood the interior with light.
No material other than concrete could be used in such a design.
The concrete itself is textured to resemble tree bark.
It is a masterpiece of Modernist design.
All theatres are complex machines for presenting performance and Winteringham's design expresses function and form in perfect balance.
In 1972, Winteringham received a Royal Institute of British Architects Award for his design.
The REP is such an integral part of the city landscape that most of us have probably never stopped to really look at this magnificent building which still holds its own as a calm presence between the immensities of the ICC and the new library.
If, by any slim chance, the work of these two architects has passed you by, it is difficult to miss the work of our third.
James Roberts is the local architect who designed the Rotunda, the Ringway Centre and so much more of Birmingham city centre.
These two buildings have become icons of Birmingham.
The refurbished Rotunda is now grade II-listed but the magnificent sweep of the Ringway Centre, running the whole length of Smallbrook Queensway, is scheduled for a disastrous steel and glass makeover.
What is striking about the original developments is the clever use of limited sites which were left over following the building of the ring roads.
Both are products of a sometimes difficult relationship between architect and developer.
Roberts recalled in an interview with David Adams of Birmingham City University: "So, having won the whole scheme, I had to allow the developers to be involved in the construction drawings which meant that I was...down to just pure design."
The Rotunda, a reinforced concrete tower, clad in textured glass panels, rises 24 floors and, although not much of the original interior remains, there is still a huge and wonderful abstract mural created by local artist and sculptor John Poole, partially visible on the first floor of the Zara shop in New Street.
Roberts was born in Kings Heath in 1922.
Alongside his practice James A Roberts Associates, he was a senior lecturer at the Birmingham School of Architecture and, as a member of the Civic Trust Association, received several Civic Trust Awards for conservation and restoration work.
Other notable architects who trained at the Birmingham School of Architecture and went on to shape our post-war city include Frederick Gibberd and John Madin.
It must have been a very exciting place to train.
The Birmingham Modernists' map celebrates the best of this period of architecture, including the House of Fraser store, our only Festival of Britain building in Birmingham.
A few weeks ago, seriously disappointing plans for the refurbishment and repurposing of this building were revealed.
The good news is that, following a pre-planning application meeting, the owners and the architect appear to have taken note of our concerns and are considering a new design.
Fingers crossed that the major iconic features, for example, the delicate, graphic quality of the concertina windows are retained and the lightness and joy of the building preserved.
Mary Keating represents Brutiful Birmingham which campaigns for the preservation of the city's best late 20th century buildings