Sounds very interesting.

Talking of additional tenants down there have they started building the first Digital Media Centre yet, and if not does anyone know when they are likely to start (I'm desparately waiting for the next half-decent construction project in Cardiff to get underway ) ?

I'm not sure about any building work Kyle but the Council are investigating if Roath Basin should be a saturation zone.

On the one side you have the Waterguard plying punters with cheap booze plus the Norwegian Church with its various drink fuelled poetry readings and art exhibitions. On the other side, just a hop skip and a jump away, you have El Puerto's creating a magnet for ladies that lunch in an area filled with dangerous water hazards (a marina).

There has been absolutely no call for a saturation zone but SWP believe that A3 premises are the root cause of two bicycle collisions that have happened in the last 3 years. The Council will vote for it shortly and have promised to give no consideration to premises type and not to investigate the figures presented to them by the fuzz with any degree of rigour. Thank God they are looking out for us because we are all clearly imbeciles who do not know our own minds.

When are we building a replacement for Temperance Town? Surely that will be on the agenda before too much longer?

Ha ha ha

I think this forum has just "jumped the shark".

Karl, you've obviously never witnessed the carnage of chucking out time at Lightship 2000.

well the bridge is now open, not sure how long it has been open but its a decetn gateway to Cardiffs new media quarter.

I had a little drvie around it and have to say the BBC studios are more impressive close up, the building is very distinct and certainly adds something to the area. There is an awful lot of land to be developed down there, but I think the planners this time have placed a lot more thought to the road layout which emphasis on straight lines. The landscpaing has been done really well too.

It is a shame that the road cannot continue over to the barrage. i know that the barrage has not been designed to take traffic but a circular bus from the Bay to penarth and back again could work. Even if it is only a small bus. It would certainly make travelling from Penarth to the Bay a lot easier having this soty of service given you need to catch two trains at present.

anyway, back to Roath Basin, it seems as if Igloo are a bit more switched on, the devloping is just starting but given the quality of design and the infrastrucutre put in place it does bode well. Lets hope the rest of the mix used development is as bold in design and delivery

Went along yesterday. Still not convinced by the Igloo design but if people say it's good quality materials then fair enough. A lot of dirt is being dug up in front of Queen Alexandra Dock. I can only assume this is a road extension, but to where?

A VERY big white illuminated sign "BBC Cymru Wales" has been affixed in a prominent position to the development.

You no longer have to tell people as you walk past that 'that's the BBC studios!'.

The website for Porth Teigr is finally up

http://www.porthteigr.co.uk/en/home

Some pretty-ish pictures on there, but one of the About pages mentions Cardiff having a popultion of 1.4 million ! I wish !

Has there been any progress on the offices (the Centre for Creative Industries), isthere a planned start date ? I can't see anything mentioned on the site.

Interesting to see from the website that the architects for the Centre for Creative Industries are Ash Sakula. They were the team behind the rather good redevelopment of Chapter. The devlopers seem to be going for top-end people.

The BBC are holding a (semi) Open Weekend at the new studios. http://www.bbc.co.uk/showsandtours/shows/events/roath_lock_open_weekend

Can anyone tell me why the Baycar is not currently going over the new bridge to Roath Lock? I thought this was due to start last September. What's happened?

What I found to be annoying was the fact that they re-routed the BayCar in October 2011 with the result that it no longer stops directly outside the 3 big residential developments of Water Quarter/Adventurers Quay/Celestia or indeed outside the main employment hub of County Hall.

The good news spin was that it extended the service over to the BBC studios and Cathays Park (the bad news that the previous stops were being axed was conveniently ignored).

The justification was that the traffic congestion and hold ups on the Queens roundabout were to blame.

Six months on it still doesn't go over to the BBC (that was originally the BBC's fault apparently). They also installed traffic lights on the said roundabout to ease congestion, but the bus continues along its new BBC route (without including the BBC).

I hardly ever use it anymore. It's less frustrating and quicker and cheaper to cycle.

I've tried searching news articles and none explain (or even seem to acknowledge) that the Baycar isn't going over the new Roath Lock bridge as originally planned in September. The Baycar wikipedia page says something (no citation) about the BBC objecting about a specific route, but is this true? Why would they object to a bus driving past their studio? No Western Mail or Echo articles even mention this change of heart. The wikipedia page even links to a (now presumably withdrawn) route map that shows the baycar's route including Roath Lock.

Does anyone know what's actually going on?

The road across the funky red bridge was closed today but the route by adventurers quay was open. I had a little walk over to the bbc studios today and the view across the dock towards celestia, adventurers quay and assembly square does look very modern with some good vistas

As soon as one exit opens then another closes. I noticed that the metal bollards were up on the red bridge when I went for a walk the other day. I'm beginning to wonder if it's some sort of subterfuge to prevent the Baycar from ever being able to do the circuit that it was supposed to. The 'ghost' bus stops are in place on the road outside the studios but the buses are effectively unable to stop there!

Is the bay car bendy bus your new Virginia creeper?

Baycar is now going over to Porth Teigr BBC studios.

Damn, meant to post that before anyone but forgot lol. Saw it this morning, though it is going over, turning around and then heading back the same way rather than the circular route down Pierhead street. Not sure if it continued in to the evening as there is nothing over there to justify it.

And here it is, finally going over the bridge;


Inaugural bus stop;


This is the sign being labeled

pic number 2

he must have thought the local trainspotters had taken up another hobby

Piece in the Guardian about Porth Teigr -

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sustainable-business/best-practice-exchange/igloo-port-back-to-life?INTCMP=SRCH

It's very complimentary but isn't it rather jumping the gun? Apart from the BBC studios the only other building is a big blue tent.

I thought that a digital media centre was imminent (maybe even 2 given the reported level of interest)plus a 3 star hotel. That was back at the beginning of last year. Since then next to nothing apart from the bridge being open to the public.

Could Porth Teigr be the next Capital Waterside? Lovely renders but naff all building activity?

Very positive words indeed. It reads to me like a press release that's not had much editing done to it. I'm not sure the author is part of the papers inhouse team either, looks like a promo job for the developers.

maybe Karl. We certainly have an awful lot of developments spread right across the city that seem to promise a lot but are not actually delivering much. I think it is more a sign of the times. My list is as follows:-

Capital Waterside
Porth Teigr
Callaghan Square
Capital quarter (although there is some activity)
Havannah quay (in whatever form it is in now)
glass Needle (although this has no doubt been shelved)
CBD (we should run a book on when we reckon this will be started)
Bayscape
ISV in general (although Greenbank partnership may actually get something done)
Prospect Place

there is a lot of promise, but little is actually beling deliverd. Perhaps a more joined up approach targetting one area at a time providing critical mass may be a better approach - rather than spreading ourselves too thin at present

Architects website - doesnt really add myuch to the original renders we saw.

http://ashsak.com/digital-media-centre-cardiff/

Mmmm. Looking at their picture, they have the Basin dominated by a large patch of grass lawn. Temporary, or are the bigger plans for development on the site off now?

The all important dates:

"Construction is anticipated to commence in December 2012 and the main contract completed by January 2014, with the centre opening for business in June 2014. The Welsh Government will take a 25-year head lease on the property."

That's pretty soon! Hopefully someone nearby will keep the photo updates going...

I quite like the design, but I guess its long term success will depend in part on how it relates to the other buildings that spring up around it. Obviously we have no idea about that just yet...

From memory (so could be wrong), it's nothing to do with the BBC. The vision is that small independent media companies will be able to rent small office spaces within it and they will supply the BBC (and others) with services. So not directly BBC lead at all.

So who's paying for this, WAG?

The Welsh Gov are principle landowners of Roath Basin site; the overall regeneration programme entails all sorts of incentives and contra deals. It appears that WG have agreed to lease the new resource for 25 yrs - which could be described as a 'subsidy' in the form of guaranteed revenue. Presumably WG (or more likely agents of) will then hope to raise 'actual' revenue from the user sub-lets.

Yes. And depending on how successful, they could even make a profit on those sub-lets. Effectively, the Welsh Government is taking on board risk that the private sector has become vary wary about taking on.

Things seem to be moving fairly slowly here - not sure if this is because of government involvement. But we've heard nothing more about the plans for a second media centre buildings, hotels etc, that were first mentioned quite a few months ago. And this (pretty small) building will have taken about 2 years from announcement of the design to commencement of construction! And god knows when the concept was first announced!

Edit: an old article suggests IGLOO agreed a rent of £2.1 million a year with WAG. If that's true, it seems very expensive. It works out at around £50 a square foot!!! Perhaps this is for a larger site... hrm.
http://yourcardiff.walesonline.co.uk/2011/02/14/first-look-at-new-cardiff-digital-media-centr/

The usual suspects will no doubt be shouting about misuse of public money, but IMHO this is exactly what WG should be doing - using capital spending to underpin job creation opportunities - which if successful will become self financing.

As it worked so well with the Techniums dotted around the place.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-11790468

I think it was Kevin Costner who once said/heard 'If you build it they will come'

I am saying -

if they want it, they will build it!!

Although i am glad to see activity

Reliably informed that this is due to start on site in January

but this is not a Technium - if anything this is a 'Plan B' following the realisation that the Technium tide was over

There is a render of the media building in cardiff life magazine, if it turns out like the render then i think we are all going to be disapointed as its mostly red brick (think Arup building next to Celestia except without any curves and cheaper smaller windows).

The Design Commission for Wales have reported on public realm plans for the small area between the Dr Who exhibition and the bridge over to Mermaid Quay. It doesn't say much, the street furniture and soft landscaping themes around Dr Who will be continued in some form. But it does make passing reference to this Bay Beach idea, which I do remember hearing something about before. Does anyone know any more about this?:

http://dcfw.org/media/designreviews/264/en/porth_teigr_public_realm_design_review_report_pub_241012.pdf

The problem with the DCW reports is you get their comments but you usually dont get the plans they are commenting upon!

I seem to think that currently there is a bike hire place on this plot. What might happen to that? Still there? Moved on?

"Construction is anticipated to commence in December 2012"

http://www.porth-teigr.org/en/news-events/design-approval-for-%C2%A36m-centre-for-the-creative-industries

You have thirty days or I'm coming down there to sort you out!

Noticed some men in flourescent jackets on site the other day, and now there is a digger on site (though it isnt doing anything, but who knows what it will be doing tomorrow).

The 'turf' was cut today according to the bbc:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-20775047

no new info in the story from what i could see, but a pic:

The site has been fenced off and a few skips and portacabins have appeared. Blimey - work is actualy starting on something.