Cardiff wrote:Looking at your recent pics the new square in front of HMRC is a bit underwhelming, very bland and not much going on. What happened to the exciting open spaces that were planned. It would be nice to see more high level fixed planters with evergreen plants or even grassy areas to bring some life to both central square and HMRC square.
That's my biggest criticism of the whole development. Just the sheer lack of greenery. Central Square always looks so cold and grey and windswept and lifeless. Only greenery is the few spindly trees outside the BBC. I believe someone said the reason was because of fears of damage from match day crowds and to have an open space for barriers and crowd management etc. but surely other much bigger cities have found solutions to this issue? Semi-mature trees that can withstand crowds, hardy box hedges, movable planters etc.
A few more trees by M&S Food and along that wall where those mosaics are would have been okay surely? The Hayes is always busy with shoppers and tourists and used by drunks at night, yet they've never had any issues with their trees/planters. Some of those big curved pots with some trees in perhaps. The
More London development is on the South Bank right next to Tower Bridge and City Hall, heavily used by tourists and hundreds of office workers yet they've got plenty of greenery. I'm not a huge fan of living walls, but perhaps planting on the giant concrete corners of the BBC building would give some interest to those empty walls/absorb pollution/give some greenery/cool the building/give the BBC and Cardiff some environmental cred points and something to boast about.