General Developments

Looks like work has started on this again in the bay, scaffolding going up

IMG_20160901_174713 by Stephen Anstiss, on Flickr

Excellent news. Has been mothballed since the credit crunch (2007/8) IIRC.

God I hope so! Such an eyesore - this is terrible direction to enter the Bay.

I hope they do put on the permanent external treatment. Although, what was approved?

Application No. is 05/00127/C. Cannot find drawings but the Committee Report states that the extension was to be 6 storeys tall, and was to be faced in "stone" on the ground first floors, and then coloured render above it. 22 apartments and a duplex (4 bed apartment) on the upper floors. Restaurant (up to 111 covers) on the ground floor.

Surely this permission would have lapsed? I can't find any extension to the planning permission. If that were the case might this just be work to stabilise it? Or do planning time limits no longer operate once permission has started to be implemented? (so once you start you can indefinitely delay).

Yeah you're right on the last point, they've very much commenced development so they can essentially continue whenever they want. But, in this state, the council do have powers to take action for them to compete.

That's quite an old application and various standards and design quality have altered since then, it might be a mistake to just carry on withiout applying for changes, but the how long can we wait. It doesn't look in good nick after years of water penetration!

Isn't that a for sale sign on the front?


Page here might be of interest but not sure how old: http://estatecreate.com/cadogan/en/page_96772.php

Isn't that a for sale sign on the front?


Page here might be of interest but not sure how old: http://estatecreate.com/cadogan/en/page_96772.php

At the bottom of the page at the link it says "Detail prepared September 2015"

So a year old.

I'm not a structural engineer, but Is that steelwork still safe? It's been exposed to coastal weather and air with no protection at all. There's clearly some rusting going on too. Surely they'll have to do some maintenance work...

I'm not a structural engineer, but Is that steelwork still safe? It's been exposed to coastal weather and air with no protection at all. There's clearly some rusting going on too. Surely they'll have to do some maintenance work...

All structural steelwork that's exposed to the elements in the permanent case is typically galvanised. All structural steelwork that becomes internal (i.e. covered by architectural finishes) is covered with some sort of paint, either for corrosion or fire protection (or both).

Coastal situations are tricky and a colleague of mine was recently involved in a dispute regarding paint specifications. In his case the steelwork had corroded because the contractor had left the structural frame exposed much longer than anticipated at the design stage. Consequently, the paint specification that was originally specified (based primiarily on internal conditions) was found inadequate as it was never intended to provide protection to steel that would be exposesd for several months.

Similar situation arise with concrete frames as well, as the protection to the reinforcement is dependent upon the cover of concrete to the bars. Again, this is usually specified assuming miminal exposure during construction.

I would suspect that this building has suffered much more corrosion that you would expect and the paint work is probably wrecked and no longer fit for purpose. The other difficulty now, is that I doubt the engineer who designed this building would warrant the design given what has happened with the construction stopping for this length of time.

Microsoft's UK data centres power up cloud services
The facilities are located in London, Durham and Cardiff.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-37285667

Where in Cardiff I thought?

Ah Newport, the new suburb of Cardiff that also hosted the Cardiff Nato summit!
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Nex ... 16b83eb92a

Still an impressive complex.

As Wales-on-Line b*ll**ks speak puts it.
"As the largest data centre in Europe, it has its own private connection to the National SuperGrid, with up to 180 megawatts of power (sufficient to power a city the size of Bristol) generated from 100% renewable sources"

Prospect place finally finished, looks nice with all the trees planted, especially along the waterfront

20160914_115601 by Stephen Anstiss, on Flickr