Diggers on site today!

This morning

Yes, why?

Yee hes good. Nice to have him on here

Lol thank you, funny how the pic on this page is out of focus! I keep meaning to join the Cardiff photography club but always find some reason not to be brave enough.

I could be in danger of pushing this thread way off topic, and speculating wildly about things unfounded, but hey, this is the internet and stuff like that happens online.

I noticed a report on wales online about the winner of an EU tendering process, managed by the Welsh Government’s investment bank subsidiary Finance Wales, for the Welsh life sciences fund. What caught my eye, and why I put it in this thread, was the last line: "It is expected that the Welsh Government will also soon confirm investment into and the location of a life sciences hub, where the fund managers will be located." I seem to remember plans for Roath dock including a lide sciences hub, or something of the sort, to the north east of the site. I wonder if there could be any relationship? Anyone remember the details in the original plan?

Obviously it is hard to speculate without knowing what this 'hub' involves. If it is just a location for fund managers then it could be a small office in any existing office block. If the hub will also bring together research or manufacture facilities then it will be a much bigger site. These types of things are not usually in prime locations like Roath dock though, see GE Healthcare out by junction 32.

So yes, there you go, wide speculation on something about which I know very little. Aint the internet great.

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/business-in-wales/business-news/2013/01/16/arthurian-life-sciences-wins-100m-welsh-life-sciences-fund-fund-manager-tender-91466-32607417/#ixzz2I987E6pO

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/business-in-wales/business-news/2013/01/25/arthurian-confirm-board-for-100m-welsh-life-sciences-fund-91466-32682505/

Not sure where to put this, but it is very interesting indeed. Any ideas where they'd put the hub? Lots of land left at the basin.

I'm intrigued by this life sciences thing, cos I've heard very little about it and while I know very little about the subject (as evidenced by my calling it a 'thing') I do think this seems like the kind of industry we should be attracting.

I'd like to see it in the City centre personally, so closer to the transport links and the universities.

Since we've had chat recently about hard hats on the other side of the bay, does anyone have an update on this site? Is there a big hole yet? We should be two months into the build now!

The front of the building reminds me of a game of Jenga gone all wrong. I do however like the overall design of the building.

Yep a fair bit of work - when I ran past the other day they appeared to be inserting reinforcing cages into the pile holes. Will still be a good few weeks before this starts to rise, not that it's rising that far anyway.

Hopefully will spur other development on, someone mentioned plans for a second building were already afoot. Any news? It would be good if they could develop the area closest to the bay first, as its the most used but also the most interesting and constrained part with the dry docks etc.

So exciting... finally that wasteland is being developed!

Shame about the old dock buildings between here and the barrage... what's the future for tat ara anyway? conversion/redevelopment/years of dereliction?

At least it now looks like the Bay is still developing to visitors and not a has been!

Update

Those steel rods blend in with the skyline making it look like some sort of

metropolis!

Scrolling through some stuff and found this http://chetwoods.com/portfolio/design-for-the-technium-cardiff-bay/ does anybody know more about it or did the building that's being built at the moment replace these plans?

They are up to the second floor

Gear stuff. Thanks for these. It does look very close to the waters edge. Not a massive walkway for pedestrians and cyclists.

There is an application in for a miniature railway, sand pit diggers and motorised toy boats for the area just outside the re-furbed lock keepers cottage which is just the other side of the funky red bridge.

The area around it will be landscaped and the lock keepers cottage will act as a ticket office and will also serve refreshments. It is described as being temporary whilst the Porth Teigr area is being redeveloped.

It seems like a good idea to have that space landscaped and create critical mass rather than leave the area fenced off and fallow for what could be the next decade. In addition to the obligatory ice cream this will be something else they'll be badgering me for when I take my sons down the Bay!

I was only down there yesterday and thought it would be nice or interesting to have something like a model railway down the bay area somewhere.

so is that a miniature railway as in something small enough to sit and ride on like in Heath Park, or is it smaller again, like a Hornby set?

Excellent, so were finally getting the light rail system in the bay

Not sure a Hornby set would require planning Me.

It would if it was in a new building.

I went along to Roath Basin for the first time in ages yesterday. I thought I'd look in on the Doctor Who exhibition, until I realised it was a)closed (at 3.30pm) and b) £15!. Presumably there are a fair few trekkies or whatever the equivalent is who would pay that amount to go in. Perhaps if it is a success they might think of building something more permanent. I actually think it doesn't look to bad, all things considered.

What floor is the centre for creative industries up to? Any pics? Does it give a sense of scale yet?

Progress pics!

Why are my pics being squashed?

They look fine on my monitor?

Thanks for the update photos.

The building looks lonely on that site for some reason. It really does highlight the amount of space left at Roath Basin, even taking into account the BBC studios.

Has anyone heared any news lately on the remainder of the site, the second building linked to this one or anything else for that matter ? It's all gone very very quiet.

I took a picture of the media centre framed by the crane and Bellways Horizon.

Interesting read about Vale of Glamorgan Councillor's planning dispute about whether the ITV Culverhouse Criss site should be knocked down so houses can be built.

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/job-loss-fears-stall-plans-4874137

It seems as well as the ITV studios the site also houses 50 small to medium sized companies. The councillors are concerned that these businesses, and their jobs, would leave the Vale when they needed to find new locations. I guess these are the types of company that could well move to the new media centre under construction in roath basin. The vale councillor's seem to be working to make sure they don't.

Pull it down it's an eyesore

so is anything already signed up to move into the new media centre building or not?

ITV and BBC are next to each other in Manchester now...might as well do that in the Bay too!

Maybe some traction at Roath lock. I think it's the natural choice for the BBC, near the studios and near the seat of (cough cough) government. Things could really get going if HTV decided to locate their as well. Cardiff could have quite a decent media district

What's the plan here. I went for a walk around the site yesterday and noticed that it's all boarded up even though you have just one the one building going up. The rest remains derelict. I also noticed there's a new building going up by Roath Dock, no idea what it is, it's not been mentioned on here I don't think. I don't know whether it's suitable for more residential or if an extension of the Bay's cafes and restaurants is a possibility. However you're heading into more industrial territory which I would think limits things somewhat.

Where are you talking about? You may be either referring to the new incinerator which is a massive building or the temporary building by the Norwegian church for the extreme sailing this weekend, as part of the harbour festival?

The incinerator isn't being built by Roath Dock!!

It's massive, you might have noticed it by now if it was.