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Central Square

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Simon_SW17

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Re: Central Square

PostThu May 11, 2017 12:46 pm

RandomComment wrote:Regarding the developments in Brum, Leeds, MCR.

The Brum one is basically a curved version of the Cardiff one. Curves reduce the efficiency of space utilisation so not surprised a public sector occupier wasn't too keen on curves.

The Manchester one has a bit of fretwork on one facade but otherwise is fairly similar to the Cardiff building.

The Leeds one is more interesting, I admit. But again, if you are going for a large public sector occupier you're going to want an efficient design and stepped buildings like that (which require more height, core facilities taking up a higher share of overall space) don't deliver that.

Would Cardiff get better quality buildings with more prestigious private sector occupiers? Yes. But we lack the big HQ or large branch offices of the sort of tech, finance (and I'm not counting admiral here, which is mostly a call centre!), professional services etc, that are willing and able to pay for such buildings.

With this in mind, I think simple buildings (to maximise efficiency) with high quality materials is what we should be aiming for. Better than buildings that try too hard on design but are let down by poor materials.


Agreed, I don't see a massive difference between any of the examples and Central Square. If anything, ours is simpler and less likely to look terrible in years to come. The Mcr building looks pretty bad now IMO.

Jantra

Re: Central Square

PostThu May 11, 2017 1:19 pm

Karl wrote:I'm not seeing the huge difference in the buildings being built in Mcr, Leeds and Brum. They all seem to be a similar height, design and materials. The one in Mcr has the fancy trellis and the one in Leeds has a sloping roof, both of which have the potential to look horrendously dated in a few short years. Lets also remember that Mcr, Brum and Leeds are the biggest cities/office markets in England outside London.


^^^^this

they are all very much similar. As long as HMRC towers is built of a good quality, similar to Number 1 and Eversheds, then it will be a simple, elegant design that will stand the test of time. if its good quality stone/concrete facade then it will compliment the civil law courts
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Cardiff

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Re: Central Square

PostThu May 11, 2017 3:01 pm

3 posts saying how much more simple ours is, my point exactly, simplify more and it ends up with nondescript boxes (not far from what we have). Each has similarities to cardiff only in that they have large glass windows and white stone, where the others are better is that they have shape and style, you cant say Cardiffs has style, the other do. Why not a curved frontage to Wood street, why not a stepped roof, why not some trellace detail on the front? Cheap thats why, same as the bus station.

I dont have my thinking backward Randomcomment, you presume i do :) I am not suggesting building tall to prove we are a valuable place to invest, but that tall buildings of quality in the rest of the world DO symbolise wealth.
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Peiriannydd

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Re: Central Square

PostThu May 11, 2017 6:40 pm

I often discuss developments that have occured in Melbourne over the years as I've spent a number of years there and the city has played a pretty important part of my engineering education. So it was some interest that I read the article below around the same time as I saw some of comments here:
http://www.news.com.au/finance/real-est ... 5f0dbb1960

There are a number of people questioning the long-term effect of so many tall buildings and Melbourne is serious on tall buildings! See the link below for an idea of the construction trends, which only covers buildings above 100m!:
https://skyscrapercenter.com/city/melbourne

Cardiff won't get anywhere near that level, certainly not in my lifetime. But the same issues regarding urban densities, overshadowing, slums of the future / loss of quality space are just as relevant, only on a different scale.

Tall buildings are a statement of wealth and confidence in a city. There is always the "build it and they will come" arguement, but then there's always the risk of building a white elephant. Every time I go through Swindon on the train I can't help but think how ridiculous the David Murry John Tower looks. At only 75m-83m, it is totally out of balance with the surrounding area.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_t ... n_Tower_(1)_-_geograph.org.uk_-_339006.jpg
http://www.swindonweb.com/index.asp?m=8 ... 462&c=1168

Cardiff needs to build up the number of businesses who chose to locate themselves in the city. The height most of us love will come naturally as things progress. For the time being, I doubt many office buildings will go taller than JR Smart's proposed John St development with some residential buildings perhaps going to the 100m mark.
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Maxfli

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Re: Central Square

PostSat May 13, 2017 2:22 pm

RandomComment wrote:Regarding the developments in Brum, Leeds, MCR.

The Brum one is basically a curved version of the Cardiff one. Curves reduce the efficiency of space utilisation so not surprised a public sector occupier wasn't too keen on curves.

The Manchester one has a bit of fretwork on one facade but otherwise is fairly similar to the Cardiff building.

The Leeds one is more interesting, I admit. But again, if you are going for a large public sector occupier you're going to want an efficient design and stepped buildings like that (which require more height, core facilities taking up a higher share of overall space) don't deliver that.

Would Cardiff get better quality buildings with more prestigious private sector occupiers? Yes. But we lack the big HQ or large branch offices of the sort of tech, finance (and I'm not counting admiral here, which is mostly a call centre!), professional services etc, that are willing and able to pay for such buildings.

With this in mind, I think simple buildings (to maximise efficiency) with high quality materials is what we should be aiming for. Better than buildings that try too hard on design but are let down by poor materials.



If you think Admiral in Cardiff is mostly a call centre then you are very wrong. It's a HQ of a FTSE 100 company which has operations in 6 countries including the US. :roll:
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Peiriannydd

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Re: Central Square

PostSat May 13, 2017 3:23 pm

Maxfli wrote:If you think Admiral in Cardiff is mostly a call centre then you are very wrong. It's a HQ of a FTSE 100 company which has operations in 6 countries including the US. :roll:


What I don't quite understand (perhaps you can help me) is why Admiral went through the trouble of procuring a purpose-built HQ in Cardiff, with the intent of bring its scattered staff under one roof, but then take a lease out on a building by Newport Station? Surely they could have put a few extra floors on their building in Cardiff and made it look a little less dumpy?

Someone did suggest that the work done in Newport was different from Cardiff and had to be serparated under financial regulations. I'm not sure how accurate that is or how other major institutions seem to get around that with the big London HQs.
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Adar Glas

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Re: Central Square

PostSun May 14, 2017 9:46 pm

I quite like the simplicity of the design and think it will complement the area well. Sure I would love for the building to be taller and more prominent however considering the value engineering to the Interchange building I wasn't expecting much.

We need to realise that this area is slowly taking shape and once tenants move in and the footfall increases this will spur on further development around this area and a few tall buildings in the future.
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Maxfli

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Re: Central Square

PostMon May 15, 2017 9:08 pm

Peiriannydd wrote:
Maxfli wrote:If you think Admiral in Cardiff is mostly a call centre then you are very wrong. It's a HQ of a FTSE 100 company which has operations in 6 countries including the US. :roll:


What I don't quite understand (perhaps you can help me) is why Admiral went through the trouble of procuring a purpose-built HQ in Cardiff, with the intent of bring its scattered staff under one roof, but then take a lease out on a building by Newport Station? Surely they could have put a few extra floors on their building in Cardiff and made it look a little less dumpy?

Someone did suggest that the work done in Newport was different from Cardiff and had to be serparated under financial regulations. I'm not sure how accurate that is or how other major institutions seem to get around that with the big London HQs.


They actually struggle to fill all of the roles available in Cardiff as they have saturated the talent pool, hence the opening of bases in Swansea and then in Newport. Most of the high paid central jobs are in the Cardiff HQ however and more of the call centre type roles are in the Swansea/ Newport branches.

Admiral HQ in Cardiff was actually full before they finished it as they under-estimated the growth of the business, hence Admiral still have leases on offices outside of the HQ even in Cardiff. For example their legal arm has two floors in Brunel House whereas Confused.com is in Greyfrairs House. They'll probably need to let more space in Cardiff as the business continues to grow.
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moyceyyy

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Re: Central Square

PostTue May 16, 2017 1:04 am

Maxfli wrote:They'll probably need to let more space in Cardiff as the business continues to grow.


Either that or they will move to London in the next 25-30 years.
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Neil

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Re: Central Square

PostFri Jun 23, 2017 11:21 am

Do we know if anything is going to be done to freshen up Southgate House? I know recladding may be a sensitive topic right now, but the more that new buildings spring up in Central Square the more that building looks really dreadful! It's the colour of a pub ceiling pre-2007!
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