General Developments

I thought this was already approved but it looks like it’s back up for permission!

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/developers-want-build-huge-27-18424625

Just don't read the Walesonline comments! Parking blah blah, eyesore blah blah, brown envelopes, social housing, student accommodation blah blah blah. I just have to keep telling myself that Walesonline commenters don't represent the wider society!

So the curran rd tower seems to have gone up a few floors and is named Gramercy Tower - and if constructed would be our tallest at 84metes (only inches higher than the interchange tower). The new one ie Kingfisher Quarter is pretty enormous and it'll be good to see more renders of this one which would rise to 16 floors at tallest. Then in between is the Dumballs rd development - where piling has been completed? but the site was inactive last time I passed (fairly recently). If these all come to fruition then Urbancentric will have four pretty major development almost next to each other and transform this area! I wonder if they will then have further developments to the south which has for a long time been waiting for residential developments?

Urban Centric and Portabella are sister companies. Portabella also have the Laundry Quarter at the edge of Canton towards Pontcanna. That site has been flattened and had permission granted recently. Brickworks went really well for them, they seem to be on a mission to build, build and build!

I love the way that Wails Online describe every proposed new building as "huge', regardless of size. But this one is a good height and will be a welcome addition to the skyline. Incidentally, Gramercy is apparently a trendy neighbourhood in New York.

I love the way that Wails Online describe every proposed new building as "huge', regardless of size. But this one is a good height and will be a welcome addition to the skyline. Incidentally, Gramercy is apparently a trendy neighbourhood in New York.

Home to the Gramercy Riffs, for all you The Warriors lovers out there.

I love the way that Wails Online describe every proposed new building as "huge', regardless of size. But this one is a good height and will be a welcome addition to the skyline. Incidentally, Gramercy is apparently a trendy neighbourhood in New York.

Home to the Gramercy Riffs, for all you The Warriors lovers out there.

And the Gramercy Tavern, one of the first restaurants by the guy who then founded Shake Shack (just listened to a podcast with him yesterday!)

Hopefully without sounding like a Wales Online commenter, isn't naming a development in Cardiff after a NY neighbourhood a little bit silly?

I don't feel that strongly about it, but it seems there's an odd legal loophole where street names are decided by the council while building names are chosen by the developer, even if they form part of the postal address.

Personally, I believe names should give someone a sense of place as a name like Brickworks does rather than being just random like Altolusso or Zenith.

Don't worry, you've got a long way to go before you reach the soul-crushing negativity of Wails Online.

I don't really mind who names a building or street as long as it is something interesting and/or distinctive. Councils sometimes have an unfortunate habit of naming streets after obscure former councillors and officials. But full marks to whoever, in Victorian times, decided the names of the streets in Adamsdown. There are streets named after gemstones, metals, and best of all Constellation Street, Planet Street and Eclipse Street.

The street names in Adamsdown are great but it's always amused me that the streets built first have glamorous names like Pearl Street, Ruby Street and Gold Street while the later ones are named after metals like zinc and lead. Those last two always bring a smile to my face!

Any idea how the policy on Welsh street names has evolved, with certain parts of the city using Welsh language addresses? It doesn't seem related to era; loads of relatively old locations in Whitchurch have Welsh language addresses. I get that Whitchurch was once a village in itself, but it's still pretty much a stonethrow away.