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Bradley Court, Park Place Redevelopment

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Cardiff

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Re: Bradley Court, Park Place Redevelopment

PostThu Apr 27, 2017 3:32 pm

I think if this had been proposed elsewhere in the city then there would be less judgement, but Park Place next to quite modestly sized buildings of a similar era and style seems monstrous, and the brutalist stylings add no grace or beauty to it.
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RandomComment

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Re: Bradley Court, Park Place Redevelopment

PostWed May 03, 2017 5:46 pm

I've got very mixed views on this. On the one hand, I think that brick towers of this kind can work very well. There are some good examples near Kings Cross - they have a solidity and tend to look better for longer than rendered or panelled buildings. On the other hand, I'm not sure I like the colours being used for this building. Nearby buildings are predominantly using darker stone or more red-coloured bricks. I think this building might look better if it used a redder or darker brick tone to blend in with either of these styles (rather than contrasting so much - and not in a particularly interesting way). I'm also not enamoured by the interaction with Stuttgarter Strasse - lots of white render and windows in to the restaurant but no entrances to animate the scene more. It just looks quite stark.

Am I surprised they changed the design? No. The original design was just to get people used to the idea of something tall and was going to be impractical for student accomodation. Do I hate this? No. But I think a new pallette and rethinking of the frontage to Stuttgarter Strasse is required.
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Simon_SW17

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Re: Bradley Court, Park Place Redevelopment

PostWed May 03, 2017 8:02 pm

The previous design was a massive step up for Cardiff in terms of quality and I find it disappointing that it's now going to be another soulless student resi development. I'm sure that there would have been enough demand for a quality new build apartment or office block on this site.

Shame.
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Peiriannydd

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Re: Bradley Court, Park Place Redevelopment

PostWed May 03, 2017 8:14 pm

What would be interesting to find out is why the offices shut? Was the quality poor? Was the rent too high? Was there an issue with access?

I suspect that the CBD is going to shift south of the railway line and so I can't really see any new offices being built around this location that aren't for the university. Why couldn't Cardiff University have picked up the site for one of their many expanding buildings?

I agree with Simon_SW17, I think that the previous design was a massive step up for Cardiff in terms of quality and a step in the right direction. I don't think it would have cost a huge amount to build (let's ignore the swimming pool!). It's just simple architecture with simple clean lines and quality materials used in minimal amounts to maximise the wow factor.

The interaction with Stuttgarter Strasse was my first criticism of the scheme. It's bland, it's boring and it provides no incentive to interact with that area.

It'll be interesting to see how it fairs with planning. I can't help but think (or hope) that Cardiff's Uni's new student building (which is high-spec and using similar looking materials to the civic centre) will be a reference for the planners.
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Karl

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Re: Bradley Court, Park Place Redevelopment

PostThu May 04, 2017 8:46 am

The offices shut because Blake Morgan moved to 1 Capital Square. I agree that the commercial heart of Cardiff is moving southwards although there is still a need for smaller offices in this location for professional services as well as a variety of other uses.

The initial render was never going to be built and the developers have been completely dishonest about their intentions. This development is wrong for this location. Park Place is one of the few relatively intact period throughfares in the city. You have the Park hotel, the New Theatre, the lovely red brick Engineers Institute and the refurbished Victorian townhouses. Across the road from this site you have further Victorian villas, Gorsedd gardens and then the civic centre.

I know Bradley Place and the building opposite are new(ish) builds but their scale is appropriate for the setting. A 17 storey tower would completely unbalance the streetscape.

There isn't actually much need to go that high. There is a substantial car park at the rear that can be built on. If its student accommodation there is no need to keep any car parking. A 6 or 7 storey building would work well here with the portion fronting Park Place being built to a scale appropriate to its surroundings. This would make it similar in size to Windsor House just up the road.

I'd also echo comments elsewhere - there are umpteen sites that are available for tall buildings and in a more appropriate location. Some of these sites have been empty for decades and they are near to the city centre.

Jantra

Re: Bradley Court, Park Place Redevelopment

PostThu May 04, 2017 10:44 am

Karl wrote:I know Bradley Place and the building opposite are new(ish) builds but their scale is appropriate for the setting. A 17 storey tower would completely unbalance the streetscape.

Cardiff's tallest building is less than 200 yards away
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Karl

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Re: Bradley Court, Park Place Redevelopment

PostThu May 04, 2017 11:08 am

If you are referring to Capitol Tower then it is substantially more than 200 yards away. It was also built in 1967 when architecture was going through some sort of adolescent, nihilistic phase. It's safe to say that ideas about conservation, scale, form and fitting in with the streetscape were not at the forefront of contemporary thinking.

I'm also not sold on the idea that just because something happened 50 years ago this gives carte blanche for it to happen again. It's like justifying the demolition of the early Victorian terraces in Charles Street because a load got bulldozed back in the 60's to make way for Littlewoods (now Next).

Jantra

Re: Bradley Court, Park Place Redevelopment

PostThu May 04, 2017 12:09 pm

according to Google Maps, capitol tower is 0.1 miles from Bradley Court. That is 176 yards, so less than 200 metres.

My point wasn't really about past approaches to building whatever, wherever. it was more about the fact that Cardiff's tallest building is less than 200 metres away, which sort of contradicts your claim that a 17 storey building here will ruin the streetscape.
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Cardiff

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Re: Bradley Court, Park Place Redevelopment

PostThu May 04, 2017 12:52 pm

To be fair its the only building of substantial height that close to park place, and as the proposed tower will be the only tall building on that section of road, of entirely low rise buildings it will stick out like a saw thumb. I like capitol tower but i dont think it is in the right position either, which means that another tower in this location would be a poor choice, especially as there is not much room for future towers in this area. I just dont think there is the urban fabric of scale to make this building fit in, either in style or size, and i cant see how this would change in the future if it was built.
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Karl

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Re: Bradley Court, Park Place Redevelopment

PostThu May 04, 2017 2:26 pm

Jantra wrote:according to Google Maps, capitol tower is 0.1 miles from Bradley Court. That is 176 yards, so less than 200 metres.

My point wasn't really about past approaches to building whatever, wherever. it was more about the fact that Cardiff's tallest building is less than 200 metres away, which sort of contradicts your claim that a 17 storey building here will ruin the streetscape.


Not my claim, my opinion. Capitol Tower is at the other end of Greyfriars Rd and has little bearing on Park Place. I doubt you would be able to see it from Park Place or Stuttgarter Strasse. It's also surrounded by much taller buildings - Friary House, the Hilton, the Principality building etc.

I'm talking about Park Place - the stretch from Queen Street to Bradley Court. The streetscape is relatively uniform in scale and the modern interventions have been designed with that in mind. A 17 storey tower of the type proposed would - IN MY OPINION - detract from the streetscape. I believe that it would be detrimental to the urban fabric and would be jarring in much the same way as I consider that Summit House jars when compared to the rest of the buildings in Windsor Place - again that is my opinion.

The proximity of a building that was erected 50 years ago on a different street and in a much more varied streetscape is irrelevant.
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