In your opinion, what are the best looking and worst looking buildings in Cardiff? What buildings do you think should be preserved, give a make over, or just knocked down entirely, and why?

The welsh office or something else in cathays park

The senedd, I think it is hideous

Best: the castle, Glamorgan County Hall, City Hall, the Millennium Centre, the Senedd.

Worst: Golate House, Ty Pont Haearn, anything in Pontprennau.

Best: WMC, Senedd, Radisson, WCMD, most of the Civic Centre except Central Police Sataion and the Welsh Office, Helmont House (probably a bit Marmite but it's stood the test of time), Old Library

Worst: Ty Pont Haearn (particularly unacceptable considering it was built recently), Motorpoint Arena, Capitol Centre, Eastgate House, Westgate St car park, Golate House, Queen St Station

Why are people always ragging on Ty Pont Haearn? I agree that it isn't the nicest looking thing in the world, and has aged well beyond its years. But people seem to have a real problem with it.

Because it's a characterless, ugly 1960's monstrosity that was unbelievably built in the 2000's.

Horrendous!

As someone mentioned on another thread, the multi story on westgate street is.awful.

Favourite is probably from city hall, the pierhead bldg , Norwegian church.

Stadium House and the Millenium Stadium though the latter is growing on me. There's no excuse for the former though. I can't wait for it to be knocked down. It wasn't great beforehand but somehow they've managed to make it worse.

Stadium House is so oddly positioned. It needs to go.

Do people think some buildings get better with age?

It certainly isn't pretty. But what gets me is that the one we see is actually a fairly recent makeover to the building. Now, how did the building look before if the developers thought that it was so ugly that they had to fix it?

Google image search 'arms park' will get you a few pics

I'm going to steer clear of the more obvious ones - many of which have already been named and pick out a few hidden gems/eyesores.

Best - the italianate former Unitarian Church in West Grove, The Greek Orthodox Church in north Butetown, the CRI, the former Cardiff & Cowbridge Union workhouse (aka the old St. David's Hospital), the whole of Rhiwbina Garden Village, the new Central Library, the original Art Deco Welsh Board of Health / Welsh Office building, BBC Wales, Llandaff.

Worst - The Welsh Office extention (CP2), Heron House, the Maelfa shopping centre, ITV Wales, Culverhouse Cross, the Caspian Point and Scott Harbour office blocks.

I did some searching on Stadium House, and although I'm not a fan of the spire and the current paint job, it definitively looks better now then it did before. That being said, it is still an uninspired slab.

I cannot accurately express how much I want the Maelfa to burn the fuck down. It is the ugliest slab of concrete that I've ever laid eyes upon, and being inside is like walking through a drain pipe. There have been plans to redevelop/knock it down, but, from what I'm told, it's been mentioned for decades, and will probably never happen.

I vote for Wyndham Arcade as one of the better looking buildings, and I'm not just saying that because I work there. .

I do love the new library. It is a lot smaller than some city libraries, like Birmingham, and Manchester, but it's also a lot better stocked, and I think that it stands out quite well.

Ty Pont Haearn is the ugliest building in Cardiff, no question. Its design is inexplicably monstrous; the quality of the materials used was shoddy; and it's already dirty and shabby. What makes it worse is that it's situated opposite one of our best modern builds - the Atrium.

I'd knock down that monstrosity known as the Millenium Centre! A 'carbuncle' on The Bay.

No calls for the WJEC building on Western Avenue?
I think it's one of the best-looking modern buildings in Cardiff!

Ugliest - pretty much all the po-mo buildings but especially the Capitol centre and the buildings on the west side of the Taff. Honourable mentions must also go to Ty Pont Haearn (inevitable), Windsor House, Golate House, Marland House, Fusion Point, Arriva Trains building on Penarth Road, Westgate Street car park, Caradog House in St Andrews Place, CIA, Park Inn and almost all of the buildings on Dumfires Place aka Stuggarter Strasse.

Best - WMC, Senedd, Pierhead, HSBC in the Bay, Cory Buildings, RWCMD, Park Hotel, Hodge House, St Davids Hall (without the telly), as a collective the buildings on Park Place opposite the New Theatre, the Hilton, almost all of the civic centre and of course the castle.

Out of the city centre and Bay I would reference most of Cathedral Rd but especially the former synagogue, the church on West Grove that Ash has already mentioned, St Peters Church in Roath, the library in Cathays, Howells school, Maindy Barracks and the old Bishops House on Station Rd in Llanishen.

Good call on the maelfa, even surrounded by llanederyn it manages to look awful.

Pretty much all the usual suspects have cropped up for the 'Worst' camp, although obviously the one's that stick out like a sore thumb will get a mention!

Tax Office anyone???

I think The Parade is one of Cardiff's most interesting roads. Each building seems to be architecturally different. I also love General Buildings on Newport Road. There's something very American about it. The brickwork is fantastic.

For me the best buildings are: WMC, Senedd, BBC Roath Lock, Coal Exchange, Llandaf(f) Cathedral, The St. Mary's side of the market, The NatWest on St. Mary's Street, all of Cathays Park, apart from the police (I rather like the imposing nature of CP2), Mansion House, Park House Club, The Sherman and the Old Post Office on Westgate Street.

The stinkers: Capitol Tower and the Friary, Capitol Centre, Game Queen Street, Heron House, the concrete stack building on St Mary's Street, Westgate Car Park, all post-war Cardiff University buildings (Union, Psychology, Music and the ASSL Library being particular stinkers)