It's quite large and will, I think, be quite alright when finished.

True, but given the amount of space currently in the city centre, bulk doesn't seem like a bad thing!

Two very interesting possible pieces of art for the square. I like both. Would be amazing if we could get both rather than just the one.

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/local-news/striking-artworks-compete-prime-position-3002130

Admiral are commissioning a piece of public art to go in the walkway between St David's Eastside and the Cinema.

Option 1 - "Zeus is angry"


Option 2 - "the Bellway incomplete tower block has melted a bit in the sun"


I'm a fan of neither, but then I'm not a fan of any of the "public art" around the city, full story here:

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/local-news/striking-artworks-compete-prime-position-3002130

I'm not really a fan of either, either! What's wrong with a simple water feature (a modern small fountain)? Or I'd prefer some kind of funky seating area. Rather than meaningless 'public art' that has no link to the surroundings.

*sigh*

Yet more oversized kids toys in the name of "art". When will decision makers in this city learn about taste? Big, ugly, meaningless crap. They are littering (literally) the city centre with this stuff. Do they seriously think these will look good in 5, 10, 15 years time?

Exactly as 'Random' said, some nicely designed seating, or grass it over so people can enjoy sitting on it in the sunshine.

Have to agree with all of the above. Do we HAVE to have public art whenever there is a big development? Sometimes it would be better to roll up the money being spent into s106 payments I think.

I'd rather the money spent on decent lighting of the Admiral building at night. This is 'art' for arts sake isn't it? Wouldn't the money be better spent on trees or imaginative planting?

Do you think if we all band together we can convince admiral that this is a waste of money? Convince them that improving this area with seating, plant boxes or even a simple water fountain would be a far better use of their money?

Somehow I think not... The fact that their down to just 2 potential designs means the decision's probably already been made!

I think you are right when you say the die has been cast. Out of the two I would prefer the second one. Hobsons choice though really.

Is there a way of responding to the 'consultation' without going to the pop-up shop. Would be nice to voice opinions, mine would echo the above.

Public Art DOES incorporate things like street furniture that can also serve a function and would include things like special lighting or a fountain.

To be honest - I would quite like public art if only they used someone with some talent. Surely there must be a good sculptor around.

I'm not sure if anybody saw this, but the old WRU ticket office in StDavids had a voting booth to decide which piece of work they preferred out of the two. I did ask them when(if) these were going to be built, and they told me that they were merely design concepts at the moment and if either of them get chosen then they will be built in the next 12months.

The bolt of lightning is called Bolt and will stand at 8m tall.

The other is called Flow, this will stand at 7m and it represents the river flow of people coming in and out of cardiff (They were uncertain if they should implement a water feature in this one)

Hmm...

The lightning bolt might be cool if it was lit up at night, but that's it.. As for the other, it reminds me of a melted double helix.

I like public art, but only if it fits into the surrounds, which these won't. The ones in the Bay celebrate our history as an industrial port, and they fit in. However, these don't really have any connection, and only seem to be strange for the sake of it.

I would have preferred some trees, or a lawn.

What absolute shit.

Just stick a seating area there that surrounds some plants or a small water feature. Somewhere for people to sit down and relax is all that's needed.

You can try too hard sometimes.

How about they send the money to the Capital Tower and light it up or something, after all it's going to be pretty dark when Admiral move out...

That brings up an interesting subject actually. I wonder what will happen to that building when they leave ?

Re clad and 10 storeys added with rooftop restaurant and viewing platform! No!?.....we can dream :(

Knowing Admiral they'll probably start filling it up again soon enough!

It is interesting what will happen to it. Capitol Tower will be 50 years old in 2017 - that's a decent age for a not a very well built office block. A lot of other Greyfriars Rd buildings must be nearing the end of their design lives as well. We could well see some serious redevelopment in that area over the next couple of decades.

I don'k know, I really don't think it's THAT bad... it got sold recently and now they have some serious letting signs up... I think a reclad would ruin its 'character'. It'sof its time but not sure if it should be demolished?..

I doubt the tower itself would come down. I'm thinking more of other buildings on Greyfriars Rd.

They were mainly built in the sixties for the old Glamorgan County Council and are pretty cruddy. We've already seen one of them upgraded and turned to hotel use - the Park Plaza.

I just wonder whether with the centre of gravity for offices moving further south we might see a shift towards residential or HE development in that part of town.

The only ones that should go are the Tiger Tiger building and the NCP car park...

One Kingsway sadly replaced a nicer building but isn't too bad.

I'd like to see some of the offices in Park Place turned back into houses (non student!)

With the way things have gone capital tower will become apartments with penthouse at the top. i kinda like the idea as the tower might be small enough for a 3 bed penthouse taking a whole floor and being 80 meter's up the views will be simply stunning.

Word is that Admiral have already filled the new building so will need additional office space in Cardiff in any case.

Knock it down and replace with lawns to replace that which was lost!

There we are then. Sorted.

and rebuild the priory?..

Greyfriars?

If only.

I could never fathom the thinking behind building on there there must have been plenty of other suitable locations.

The ruins were the remains of a Manor House owned by the Herbert family actually. This replaced the Friary after the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 1530s. Construction of the tower commenced in 1967. The Pearl, as I prefer to call it, is not a bad building, the only thing that lets it down is the balcony on the top which unfortunately seems to have escaped the recent refurbishment. I would like to see this glazed in, maybe it could become a public viewing platform.
I'm not a fan of renaming established buildings it never quite works....

Pan Am - MetLife, Sears - Willis, Nat West Tower - Tower 42, Piccadilly Plaza - City Tower.

I thought that Herbert house was basically converted from the old greyfriars, rather than just built on its place.

I could very well be wrong though as both were long gone by the time I laid eyes on it.

I wonder what happened to the grave of llewellyn bren, who was buried there.

No idea but we're very bad at commemorating local heroes in Cardiff. There's nothing to commemorate Llywelyn Bren at either Greyfriars or Melingriffith. There's nothing for Iestyn ap Gwrgant in Rhiwbina either. At least Ifor Bach has a club - for now.

There are other aspects of the city's history that are just as ignored - the UK's earliest Mosque for one. Ieuan Gwynedd - the publisher of the first Women's Magazine anywhere in the world is ignored. John Bachelor is only known as a traffic cone holder and the martyrdoms both of Rawlins White (protestant) & Philip Evans & John Lloyd (Catholic) are forgotten.

It seems to me sometimes that Cardiff's history has been hijacked by the Clark's Pies & Billy the Seal brigade. The whole complex story of Cardiff has been reduced to Romans - Butes - Tiger Bay - Millenium Stadium and the piss-poor exhibition at "The Cardiff Story" does little to redress the balance.

How on earth do you design a museum called "The Cardiff Story" that fails to tell the story of Cardiff?

sadly i think the oldest mosque in the uk didn't turn out to be in cardiff, I think an academic determined that seemed to have been a typo.

So Zeus and his Thunderbolt
someone in a bar in the heart of Soho London once told me that
the Welsh name for the god with the Thunderbolt is Iau...
which is where Dydd Iau got his name - Thursday in the English..
the English Thursday was name after - the Viking God Thor --
pass me the Penderyn and I'd tell you more
Hwyl

That was Sophie Gillead Ray. I may be wrong on this but I seem to remember that she withdrew her "typo" theory.

It. seems to mean liver.

And also Jupiter.

I think Jupiter I s likely to be the source of the days name.

I think this thread has gone off topic!

Iau does mean liver but it depends on which part of Wales you come from. Generally, a north south divide on iau or afu.

The day is named after the god and not the planet. Iau is Jupiter the planet but also the Roman god who in Grecian theology is Zeus (we were occupied for around 300 years so something had to stick). Most likely comes from Iovis (would have been pronounced Iawis if I am correct) the old Latin for Jupiter rather than where English gets its word from the classical Latin form of Iuppiter. All Latin influenced languages, including Welsh, have Jupiter commemorated in their word for Thursday - Jueves in Spanish, Giovedi' in Italian, Jeudi in French and the simple Joi in Romanian (the closest living language to Latin) but the Germanic languages don't. German is Donnerstag - literally day of thunder and the English words is of Norse tradition hence Thurs(Thor's)day but all are related to thunder in some way.

Sorry for the entomology lesson, being a language student I just can't help myself.

I agree. No idea what half of them are talking about.

SP said " Sorry for the entomology lesson, being a language student I just can't help myself."

So he thinks that his rant about Thursday is a lesson about INSECTS!!?? WTF has that got to do with the new Admiral HQ?
Given that he's a language student you'd think that he'd know the difference between entomology and etymology. Sit in the corner with your dunce's cap on, you dunderhead.

Calm down, was on my phone and didn't realise that it changed it.

There is an article on Walesonline re the Admiral topping out -

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/business/commercial-property/admirals-new-hq-cardiff-reaches-4751241

An interesting snippet in there is that the developers, Stoford, are looking at new projects in Cardiff -

"He also confirmed that Stoford were looking at a number of potential opportunities in Cardiff, including the refurbishment of an exciting office scheme and the building of a new scheme."

I suspect that it should state existing rather than exciting, but that's the WM for you.

I wouldn't be surprised if the other opportunities Stoford are looking at also involve Admiral, they have already filled the 3000 capacity building and will need further office space in Cardiff by the end of 2014.

Why do they always have to use the word exciting...

Come and see our exciting new menu...
Come and look at our exciting new bus route...
Come and visit our exciting new development

Perhaps the people who write this really need to understand they are using exciting in the wrong context. Certainly it doesn’t excite me at all.

I agree with you there there about the proliferation of "exciting" to spice up that rather mundane subject matter(Oh no, I agree with Jantra about something! shoot me now! )

Off-topic, but related is the inappropriate use of "professional" on certain items. A "Braun Oral B Professional Toothbrush" - seriously!? Teeth brushing is apparently a skill and profession? Who knew?

And don't get be started on the inappropriate use of the word "luxury". I saw a "Luxury BlueTooth Headset". Ah! Such pure luxury, wearing that headset and earpiece stuck in your ear, no doubt(!)
What next, I fully expect to see "Luxury Pile Cream".

A second tower on the Rapports site!?!

God that needs to go! Or at least the NCP car park next to it...

At least the bland pastiche job centre is now concealed from view...

Wasn't there news a while ago that there was plans for a green space on the site of Rapport/CIA, maybe a future phase of Admirals expansion? This could be the Admiral quarter?

If they needed more space they should have just gone higher on the current building going up, surely they would have forecast that ?

I think the Stoford talk is something totally different. You never know though ! I'd love another sizeable office to go up at that Rapport site :)

Actually, I wonder if the refurbishment they are talking about is Admiral's existing offices ? It would be good to hear of plans for that tower. I hope it stays as office space and gets a massive refurbishment.

Hi Kyle, the planning of this project has been ongoing for many years. The growth of Admiral over the last 4 years has been phenomenal and was not forecast. There is also the recent setting up of Admiral Law and BDE Law two new law firms set up by the Admiral Group, they will also need space. Confused is also growing for and gaining market share back from it's competitors for the first time in a number of years. The Admiral juggernaut will continue to grow the forseeable future.

A previous poster mentioned that Capital Tower may be refurbished, I can't see that happening, have you ever been inside? The building is a poor design with the main bulk of the building being taken up by the central lift-shafts and stairwells, the office space is then in a star shape encircling the lift shaft. It is not fit for modern use, as most companies now prefer large open plan spaces, which they would either like to keep like that or are easily able to be modified to their needs. The only thing it has going for it is it's height as the views on the upper floor are fantastic and would lend that exclusive element to the office space. However I think they will struggle to let the lower floors when Admiral move out.

Admiral are far more likely to keep the office space they have in Greyfriars House, Brunel House and the Friary than Capital Tower. The current owners of CT will have to get very creative once Admiral move out in 2014.