Tue Oct 31, 2017 5:53 pm
I do hope that Easy Hotel have not purchased Cromwell House for demolition. It's one of the few unadulterated 60/70's office buildings left in Cardiff. Most have been demolished, reconstructed, converted for other uses or bastardised beyond recognition.
I think it's good quality too - the tiled exterior is something you don't see too often and I love the window surrounds. I can't see the £8m earmarked by Easy Hotels producing a landmark building or improving on Cromwell House. I'd much prefer Trafalgar House to bite the dust if we are looking at Fitzalan Place.
Perhaps I'm getting older but I'm beginning to appreciate the buildings in Cardiff from this era. Capitol House remains the standard bearer for tall buildings in the city more than 40 years after it was built. I also like the in your face naffness of the Big Sleep hotel, Churchill House and Ty Cambria (on the corner of Newport Road and East Grove. Brunel House, with a good clean and new glazing could also be a lovely building. Despite some of them perhaps being a bit grimy and uncared for, these buildings seem to represent the future, more so than much of what was built later. Maybe it's time to start appreciating our 20th century architecture as much as the stuff that came before.