CardiffWalesMap

Best Office Building (modern): Atradius, Cardiff Bay (hands down beats anything built since in terms of ambition)
Best Office Building (historic): Hodge House, St Mary Street (classic proportions)
Best high/mid-rise Resi: Alto Lusso (I like the shape - its instantly identifiable)
Best suburban/low Resi: The Crescent, Whitchurch - it sits nicely on the ridge overlooking the Taff without dominating
Best suburban high street: Merthyr Road, Whitchurch - the "Village" has a nice mix of shops, pubs, restaurants, cafes
Best city square: Hayes Island - a nice shady retreat from shopping
Best city shopping are: the Hayes - at least in summer
Best city shopping frontage: middle Queen Street, north side (Zara, River Island, Topshop etc), although recently spoiled a little by Wilkos

Best upcoming high rise development: Student Accom Charles/Bridge street - I like the massing, the active usage and the linking between two tallish clusters
Best upcoming office development: John Street, Callaghan Square - a high rise element which is now very unusual outside of London
Best development in progress: Central Square - a toss up with Capital Quarter where I admire ambition of JR Smart.

What/where is the Crescent, Whitchurch?

I feel that you are a little Whitchurch-centric. Nothing can beat the villas of Cathedral Road in terms of residential architecture in Cardiff. In my opinion Pontcanna/Canton AND City/Albany/Crwys/Wellfield are much better than Whitchurch for leisure/shopping.

I'm a little biased for whitchurch also, but I still think it deserves 'the best suburban high street' award, there's so much in a small area and the activity actually evolves through the day and into the night.

Best upcoming high rise development: I'm rather predictably going to have to go for 'the big one' on hope street - I think it will be of very good quality and although it is significantly tall it's small footprint I find so interesting. I love the one in charles street also but if I had to chose between the two I'd have to go for hope street for Cardiff


Best upcoming office development: John Street, Callaghan Square - totally agree a development of this size and quality will be dramatic for our city centre and especially at that location.


Best development in progress: Central Square - again it has to be, however if all that is planned for capital quarter comes off and if central square isn't completed as planned the Capital Quarter can snatch it!

I think best residential architecture is the houses around Roath Park green, big villas like Cathedral road on one side and fancy houses the other, though Cathedral road is splendid for its architectural uniformity and well maintained gardens and trees.

RandomComment wrote:Best Office Building (modern): Atradius, Cardiff Bay (hands down beats anything built since in terms of ambition)

Couldn't agree more - absolutely love that building, what's more amazing is it is one of the oldest "new" buildings in the bay, but it still looks crisp and new (proof that good architecture stands the test of time).

Used to remember going down the bay as a child long before mermaid quay and the barrage, this building stood out like a sore thumb amidst the mud flats and industrial wasteland.

Its funny because the material used (some sort of faux-Marble) was very po-mo. But the structure/massing of the building avoided the pastiche or "toytown" look of that architectural style.

It is probably a hugely inefficient building in terms of floor space by volume though. The hudge central atrium and the sloping wings mean less space for offices. In today's more efficiency-minded world that just doesn't happen. Even HQs of big multinational companies are now rather functional in form, even if they have great facilities.