New tower of glass opposit the golden cross

I wonder of it'll get through planning at that height though? Is it a ploy to at least get something through above 30 floors?

Read page 22 of the Design and Access Statement: "There was an excitment by both WJG and Cardiff COuncil at this stage to develop the tallest building in Wales on this site."

Thanks for pointing out that, quite a positive thing isn't it? I didn't get time to read it last night, only looked at the pretty pictures

we were told (I can't remember who by) that when they submitted the plans for a 30+ tower they were told to go higher. I really do hope this that is indicative of what we can expect in this little corner of town. If HMRC need 300,000 sqft then that would be a 30 storey office block covering the entire corner that JR smart have just acquired in Callaghan Square. Coupled with the apartments next to the dock feeder that would be some cluster.

I agree, that part of town will look quite impressive if everything gets built. It's a shame though that the Unison building is located where it is, another tall next to this potential tower would have been great to continue the tall theme along customhouse street.

we were told (I can't remember who by) that when they submitted the plans for a 30+ tower they were told to go higher. I really do hope this that is indicative of what we can expect in this little corner of town. If HMRC need 300,000 sqft then that would be a 30 storey office block covering the entire corner that JR smart have just acquired in Callaghan Square. Coupled with the apartments next to the dock feeder that would be some cluster.

It wouldn't be anything like that. That site is actually quite big - a building covering it all could easily have floorplates of 40,000 square feet, even including internal courtyards. So it would only need to be 8 storeys high to be 320,000 square feet. A 30 storey building would need floor plates of 10,000 square feet - which would look pretty bulky, but still leave lots of space in that site for further development.

Now I don't think HMRC wil go for a building quite that big - I think they will try to cram their staff in -, and I doubt they would want another high rise. I think something more like circa 200,000 - 250,000 square feet (max), with at most 10 storeys. Could that be the public transport hub? Or a new building on the South Side of Callaghan Square? I think its too big for Capital Quarter.

I think you are spot on with that one, so maybe similar to the Admiral building size wise.

You'd think we'll have some news on all this in the new year wouldn't you? All I know is we seem to have loads in the pipeline in terms of organisations requiring space and no public announcements for where they've chosen as yet. 2016 is going to be quite busy between all these offices going up and hopefully this tower, the JR Smart apartments and maybe the other Watkins Jones development.

I don't think it would go to capital quarter either. I was referring to the plot of land next to raddison blu on bute street.

You would also be surprised just how big 10,000 sqft is. That plot isn't going to be big enough or 10 storeys.

Well, it’s going to be solid and serious looking, rather than light and slender, but as others have said it will provide a contrast to the predominantly pale buildings on the skyline currently. And the small footprint contrasting with the substantial height should hopefully prevent it seeming to ‘heavy’. Also worth considering the Capital Quarter apartments will likely be a similar hue, so it won’t be alone in being somewhat darker than is currently usual for Cardiff.

The most dubious aspect to my mind is that the view from some angles contains a lot of windowless wall. This makes it more important than ever that the materials should be decent – the D&A statement is promising here as the favoured material is fibre glass reinforced concrete rather than any hideous plastic-looking zinc cladding or similar. And I like the overall simplicity of the form. Actually looks like quite a grown-up building, rather than something that’s trying too hard. Cautiously optimistic, for a student tower it has the potential to be really very good indeed.

As an aside, pleased to see a Cardiff based architect responsible, especially one that seems to consider things like appropriateness of materials to be important!

As another aside, from some angles, if your squint, with its big black box at the top, it has shades of Tower 42 about it. Appropriately enough, given the floor count.

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/business/business-news/wales-tallest-residential-building-433ft-10469787

It's on the Walesonline website

and the BBC

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-34868569

As an aside, pleased to see a Cardiff based architect responsible, especially one that seems to consider things like appropriateness of materials to be important!

As another aside, from some angles, if your squint, with its big black box at the top, it has shades of Tower 42 about it. Appropriately enough, given the floor count.

I knew it reminded me of something else, it is a little like Tower 42.

It is good to see Rio pick up more work, I like some of the stuff they are doing (number 1 Central Square for example).
It's nice for what will be Wales' tallest building to have both a Welsh developer and architect.

Looks fantastic.. looking on BBC Cardiff news shows views from different areas of the City and it looks impressive from all angles

If Cardiff is serious about becoming an international city, then these type of structures give an international feel.

Time for Cardiff to lose that large town feeling and join true City status

I don't think it would go to capital quarter either. I was referring to the plot of land next to raddison blu on bute street.

You would also be surprised just how big 10,000 sqft is. That plot isn't going to be big enough or 10 storeys.

It is! I measured it on googlemaps. It is something over100m by 40m at its narrowest, and 70m at its widest. Take the lower figures. Thats 4000 sq meters, or about 44,000 square feet. add in some courtyards and service features and you could get 30,000 square feet pretty easily.