This was taken from JR Smart's brochure, sorry about the quality as this is how it looked. I will be really impressed if it does turn out like this.

I will also be impressed if it turns out like that and even more so if it is finished in the 21st century

seriously though it will add bulk, density, it will be mix use and most importantly of all (imho) it will create a city centre district south of Cardiff's very own Rubicon.

I really hope they dont build the home care centre (build it somewhere else) and just build another high rise building on that spot.

P.s. everyone you can't see the full picture on an ipad for some reason, have to see it on a pc unfortunately

Oh no! It's that troll again making silly comments and posts.

What is this home care thing? An elderly residential home? Sounds like a very poor location for one of those to be honest. I seriously hope it's not.

What so great about mixed use by the way?

I think there are three ideas why mixed use developments are good.

First, is the idea that a mix of uses means you get office workers and shoppers during the day, restaurant-goers in the evening and residents at night. This has some security benefits and creates more "vibrant" and "interesting" neighbourhoods.

On a practical level it also tends to reduce the peaks and troughs in infrastructure usage. So if you have all-resi and all-business locations you get peak commuting times. If you mix them up, you don't get everyone trying to drive one way or catch buses one way at 8:30AM and the other way at 5:30PM.

Finally, it probably delivers some risk diversification for developers. If the office bit is slow to let, at least the hotel or resi or nursing home is coming along. It also gives more flexibility in responding to changing environment when shifting things. Imagine you start building a big office-only scheme just before a downturn... well its right back to the drawing board.. its easier to add a few more flats or more student rooms to a scheme already with them, than redesign from scratch.

I have no problem with this provided its a good quality building. In fact having more older people in central locations might help ease burdens on social services, health services etc

I'd almost forgotten how that complete scheme is meant to look. I try and keep up with news while I'm away and haven't seen anything for ages.

Has there been any news about the other schemes at that site for example ? I know that Number 1 is going really slow (real shame Hugh James haven't opted for it), but there's meant to be a new car park going there, plus the bridge.

Also, how are the lettings going on the first two buildings, there's an occupier in one of them I think ?

I'm really suprised there's been no takers for the non-office side of things, Cardiff has generally done okay in terms of student accomodation and new hotels. Have we maybe hit a saturation point with them for now ?

Or maybe people are just put off by the site for some reason ?

A planning application has just been put in for 602 bed student accomodation on about four of the plots on the CQ site. No images or much more detail provided at this stage unfortunately.

I just hope that the authorities don't let another pile of architectural crap like Ty Pont Hearn across the tracks get permission to be built. It's time to up the ante on the design front.

I, personally, don't think it is wise to be building more student flats in Cardiff. They are often poor quality, overpriced cages and student numbers are falling, although Cardiff University has seen an 18% increase in applications this year, students generally do not want to live in flats opting for the houses in Cathays, Roath, Plasnewydd and The Heath. Liberty Living, for example, which supplies the student accommodation for Glamorgan students Ty Pont Haearn and then the ones opposite Talybont residences are more expensive than the average rent + bills for students in the traditional areas. They should concentrate on more affordable 2/3 bed apartments which are actually habitable IMHO

SP - presumably they'd build them if they thought they could make money doing that but they reckon otherwise.

I suppose so, but I don't think that there is as much demand as they think there is but I'm no expert. The current stock of student housing definitely needs improving but the majority of people I know live in houses from between 4-12 people

Jantra student accommodation has always been in the plan I believe, whether or not we will get another Ty Pont Haearn remains to be seen

Dare I ask what "Creative Units" means?

Well the Glamorgan Atrium across the road is School of Creative & Cultural Industries, so I am presuming it could be related with the courses they teach there, Media, Fashion, Design, Music etc how they will go about starting it, anyone's guess really

The plans are attached to the app now. (I don't know how to upload the images sorry) The good news is that it's not an eyesore like Ty Pont Haearn. However they're pretty underwhelming. The development just looks a bit like a bigger version of the Driscoll buildings.

At risk of sounding a bit bitchy, I think they look slightly generic. If you look on Skyscraper city forums you can find buildings that are more or less the doubles of these. This two-tone design is hip, apparently.

Still, at least they aren't big concrete monstrosities.

Thanks Cwa for posting them!

They've even got a smaller version of the St Louis arch on the first one - how timely

Originally, two blocks would be student accomodation, and one would be a nursing home.

They now propose, on almost exactly the same footprint, two blocks of student accomodation. I think they list it as 4 because there are glazed atria / staircases in the middle of each block, splitting them into two "wings".

So yes, an increase in the number of student rooms, but not taken from offices or hotels.. its taken from removing the nursing home. I guess they found old people don't wanna live next to students (and probably, vice versa).

If the student accommodation was good quality and a competative price then surley it's a good thing. Get them out of the houses in the roath/cathays area into purpose built accommodation. Then the houses can be returned to much needed residential homes for families. This would negate the need to build further out from the city centre which it turn has a possitive impact on commuting in and out of cardiff. Most of the families I've worked with don't realy like the idea of bringing up children in high rise buildings with no outside space right in the city centre. I would even be so bold as to say as a nation we like our houses and gardens.

Not overly relevant to this thread, but as we are on the topic of quality this is rather a cheap blow by the Bevan Foundation http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/need-to-read/2013/01/30/swansea-beats-cardiff-in-urban-design-and-development-says-planning-expert-91466-32706239/

whilst I of all people am never going to find praise in anything that emanates from that filthy backwater fishing village from out west, the author does have a point about the Bay lacking quality and street scape. When we say the Bay lets be honest we are talking MQ and its environs. it is a right dogs dinner with no strategic plan evident. it is well known that the RDC was put there as at the time anything was better than nothing to get the project started. However, the RDC does not interact with LGA in any meaningful way with the only interface being with a surface car park. MQ is ok as a destination but it needs a hot summers day for it to be seen as a decent place to go.

For me, the only place that really does the Bay any real justice is the barrage and the walk along it. It really is a very pleasant addition to the city scape and the sooner we get Roath Basin completed the better. Lets hope the planners and architects have taken some useful notes regarding 'bay development phase 1'. I think not though given the street layout although the road layouts do seem to mirror the wharfs and docks a lot more than they did over the other side of the dock in part 1.

Promising, and it answers my questions from the other day...so there is some progress, even if it's just at planning.

Sure, they are no architectural wonders but nothing in this scheme ever was going to be brilliant and we've always known that. At best it was adding a bit more density to the city centre, particularly the western element of the scheme which will hopefully give us a mid-rise or two.

I'm actually now happier because I always disliked the nursing home element being there. If it helps JR Smart progress the scheme then it's good news, and it will fill in one heck of a bloody hole that looks pretty shit at the moment.

It was be nice for them to get a letting at Number 1 now, that might help them out with further progress as well.

Anyone know what's going on with the foot bridge (in the above renders) and the car park (boring I know but just curious) ?

Here some more pics

Ok good news looks like No.1 Capital Quarter is due for completion shortly as it will become a HQ for some company (Hugh James? Maybe that why they are taking so long as Hugh James tenancy don't run out until 2014, who knows) so hopefully this will be completed an they can move on very quick.

Thank you for the pictures!

These show that there is, on some level at least, a desire to get these done. As was said before, nothing special, but they will help bulk out the skyline, and won't look too out-of-place.

do stuff leg end




what I like about CQ is the fact is it creates some proper street form - proper blocks on a grid pattern. Lets hope so there is some interesting ground floor activity planned for the area that brings the place alive a bit. We don't want soulless blocks giving people no reason to go there other than to work or to live.

DOes anyone know the exact height of all of the proposed buildings?

More skyline obsessions.

Do you guys find you trip over things quite a lot?

LOL mr wolf, I love tall buildings seem to have an obsession with them. When I worked in Canary Wharf for a few months all I did was stare at all the buildings..
Skyscrapers look's beautiful at night and creates a buzz within a city.

Shame there's nothing here in Cardiff other than one or two hotels so I don't trip over anything unless a piece of pavement is out of place (your comment did crack me up). I post these picture's so it keep these message boards fresh an keeps us going until the project get's completed as we haven't really had much to shout about past few years.

The existing concrete shell appears to have had scaffold lifts installed on a number of sides, can anyone confirm? This suggests that rather than mothballing this completely, perhaps they are going to continue with the external cladding but at a snail's pace, without the tower crane.

Nowt wrong with Skyscraper porn.

I bloody loves it