General Developments

Meanwhile the council has unveiled plans for one or possibly two new schools serving Grangetown & Butetown.

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales ... ls-8483965

The gist of it seems to be that the council has swapped some of the vacant land north of County Hall for the site behind the Hammadryad hospital that had previously been earmarked for affordable housing. They're to consult on whether the school to be built there will be WM or EM.

If it's WM, EM schools in Butetown will be extended to cater for more pupils. If the Hammadryad school is EM - there'll be a new WM school on part of the Channel View site with the leisure centre remaining open.

Both solutions seem pretty sensible to me. Either site would be pretty central for the WM catchment area (Butetown and Grangetown wards) and increasing the EM provision should avoid the nasty linguistic tensions that can arise when extending WM provision appears to be to the detriment of the EM sector.

The only slightly sad part is that the last shred of Newtown's Irish identity look set to disappear as St Cuthbert's changes from a Catholic to a community school. That change reflects the reality of the students background but it's still a little moment in the city's history.

Here's a quick mock up I did a couple of months ago regarding Cardiff 's / Grangetown's Welsh Medium school adjacent to Channel View Leisure Centre... definitely is a sensible and feasible site for a school;

http://socratesarchitects.com/portfolio/2fe-welsh-medium-school-grangetown-cardiff-intial-design/





http://socratesarchitects.com/wp-content/uploads/Elevations-Welsh-Medium-2FE-School-Grangetown-Cardiff-Architects-render-705.jpg?86ffe2

Steak of the Art is almost finished and looks incredible on a New York sort of level.

It's amazing how you can transform a space.

Steak of the Art is almost finished and looks incredible on a New York sort of level.

It's amazing how you can transform a space.

Thank you zygoticmynci ...

This area definately does need some regeneration and organisation. The current 'outdoor activity centre' needs some tidying up - it would be relocated nearby or incorporated and managed as a part of the school.

Also Channel View Leisure would be managed as the school's sports hall and opened for the public out of hours. Not to mention utilzing and sharing the vasts amount of adjacent sports fields on the Marl park.

I like your expression;

Steak of the Art

Haha, I think you are accepting praise where it wasn't meant Nick. Steak of the Art is a new restaurant opening up in Helmont House. I think he was referring to the 'transformation' of the former empty units. Which looked kind of uninspiring and bland.

But your image - I think the design is decent, although the outdoor space doesn't look very child friendly (lots of steps to fall on and hurt themselves!). But I don't think this plan is likely to be honest. The leisure centre users won't be pleased with the loss of access during school hours. And there will be opposition to the loss of open space to school playground and field, which would have to be fenced off.

Given the land swap, more likely they'll do the Welsh medium in Butetown, and expansion of other nearby schools to meet English medium demand. Would seem more cost effective too.

Could maybe fund it by selling part of the land you identify, and letting a 3-4 story block of flats be built.

Haha... Classic. Honest mistake I thought it was a typo

REQUEST FOR NICK
Hi Nick - Now I'm sure you're a busy man but could I put in a request that may even get the echo assuming a development is proceeding!! (cheeky i know and feel free to ignore!!) anyway... opposite the golden cross pub and on the other side of the road to the radisson blue and backing up to the railwayline is a small area of land that needs the New York 'super skinny ' http://432parkavenue.com/?state=home treatment in my book. Now, even I concede that 1300ft would look a little out of place in cardiff. However surely taller than swansea's tower would suffice!! so 360ft - 30ish storeys - sorted, mines the penthouse!

Well if you don't ask!!

Quality mock-ups Nick

Pictures of the inside of Steak of the Art below, definitely adds some variety to the chains

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/whats-on/f ... rt-8503697

http://432parkavenue.com/?state=home

http://www.steakoftheart.co.uk/

Is it just me or have websites become so arty that its now impossible to get any information out of them.
All designed for tablets so people can "finger" the lovely bright pictures on the train rather than find out the important stuff, like where the hell is Steak of the Art! I see the Bristol one but not the Cardiff version.

PS I guess the food will be the last thing that was thought about judging by the picture of the burnt chicken.
More important things to a restaurant are décor, lighting, cocktail offers, 2 for 1 days, weird toilets, and what phrase your server has to say*


* Hi I'm becky what's your name?, have you been to the steak of the art before, just to remind you all food is cooked fresh and will arrive at random times and in random order and we will add 20% goodwill to all bills.

Zach and Karl are by far the funniest posters on here.

Brilliant stuff

Who writes this guff?

"Located in Helmont House on Churchill Way, the 4,200 sq ft restaurant is the second Steak of the Art and follows a similar venue which opened in Bristol 15 months ago and is based on the simple steak restaurants of Paris and London but set within an artistically inspired environment that might be found in Barcelona."

Why is anything vaguely artistic, or different, always referenced as something that might be "found in" or "inspired by" Barcelona. You know, Lloyd George Avenue was meant to be an avenue linking the city and the bay "like Las Ramblas in Barcelona" (of course its nothing of the sort). It shows a complete lack of imagination. And having been to Barcelona its nothing like what you'd get in Barcelona. Its much more London (Shoreditch perhaps) or New York.