if
it's about Cardiff..
Sport, Entertainment, Transportation, Business,
Development Projects, Leisure, Eating, Drinking,
Nightlife, Shopping, Train Spotting! etc.. then we want it here!
Really! I'm quite surprised by this. As I've not seen plans for what will replace it beyond the master plan. I thought the next build was across the tracks (indeed, it is underway) on the business school. The railway shed is quite nice in a way, shame to knock it down if it will remain rubble for a long time. It certainly helps retain a streetscape to the road.
I guess this is consistent with phase 2 on this little picture:
so maybe they will build something like this:
I guess these are smaller admin offices or spaces for smaller research groups. I guess they would also be cheaper to build and face a less lengthy planning process.
The demolition work on the old shed is retaining the east wall that runs along Maindy Road. So they are clearing space but perhaps we will not be seeing any new builds just yet.
Things have changed since my last post. The old wall has now also gone and they are digging deep holes. Lots of earth being moved around and lots of activity.
The Business school building across the tracks is now up to the first floor in some parts (the offices on the southside, still a big hole where the big lecture theatre will be).
Talybont Gate is currently looming over McDonald's on Excelsior Road, it looks pretty big from there.
A large mob of Cardiff Uni's molecular geneticists have left the Henry Wellcome building at UHW and moved down to Haydn Ellis, so presumably it's open.
An application has gone in for Phase 2 of the Maindy Campus. It's in the list for w/e 16th December.
Looks to be 3 storeys facing Maindy Road. There isn't a render, only drawings, so difficult to tell what it will look like exactly but the plans look interesting enough. I think I remember reading that this building will house offices connected to the work done on the rest of the campus. As part of the application there will be public realm works along that part of Maindy Raod including what looks like a decent amount of tree planting which is always welcome.
It is much more like a single big building than the earlier plans suggested, in which the new buildings on the west side of Maindy Road were styled more like slightly bigger equivalents to the domestic houses across the road. The new design has a much bulkier, institutional feel to it, with less red in in than before (again stepping away from the houses opposite). Still it's decent enough.
If you can be bothered to dig through their website then the pdf with the best pic is called: AR-XX-XX-EL-200-003-A30201190000.pdf
Sorry, cant link to it. The council web site just doesn't work like that. The below link might get you in the right direction:
I'll be going to the Haydn Ellis building next week (I'd forgotten it had already opened) so it'll be nice to see how it's turned out. See if anything else has happned down there yet. They reminded me about parking issues, as they don't have anywhere yet.
Had a brief look inside the building today. Lokks pretty good. One concern was that it might get unbearably warm there in the summer will all the window space - double glazed of course. Unusually there was a shower inside the gents which seemd a bit odd - for people who've been kicked out by the wife and sleeping in the office? I decided not to make use of it and I hadn't brought a towel with me anyway.
They were moaning about parking as the mini-car park next door is for the Optometry building. They can't use it themselves. I'd presume they will do something about parking spaces around there at some point. This would be a rather serious omission. There's a whole mountain of rubble beyong the car park which might be the remnants of that wall which has now disappeared. What's planned there I don't know. Of course there's the Business buiding going up on the other side of the tracks. A new bridge is really needed though. Getting between all those buildings would be a pain at the moment.
Whatever the concerns about bogus colleges and courses it does seem a huge own goal to be clamping down on the number of foreign students.
I imagine the shower is to encourage cycling. Good practice for a large employer I think.
I believe this is now a legal requirement of certain buildings - facilities for storing bikes, lockers for changing and showers.
Certainly actively encouraged if not yet a legal requirement
There are a few applications for discharge of conditions for the second phase of the Maindy Road Campus. Hopefully this will mean work will start soon. I think it;s called Cubric (or something similar) and from what I remember the designs were fairly decent.
Also there is an application for 9 flats directly opposite the Haydn Ellis building - it's a derelict warehouse at the moment. The designs look quite good as well.