New tower of glass opposit the golden cross

Who is Adrian Jones and what on earth is he talking about in this article?

This is him.

http://www.jonestheplanner.co.uk/

He has a point of view, which he argues well.

I disagree with him since he seems obsessed with tarting up the past and opposing anything new - but it's a valid arguement.

I think he's quite elderly and a lot of his views seem to be a reaction against the destruction of heritage buildings and the car-worship of the 1960s - which many of us would agree with. This was his hate-piece on Cardiff Bay in 2011.

http://www.jonestheplanner.co.uk/2011/03/cardiff-bay-blues.html

He laments -

"The trolley-bus ride down Bute St was exciting. It was lined with ethnic shops, dangerous looking pubs, mosques and exotic churches long before this was the norm for inner city high streets. In the summer the paddle steamer for Weston Super Mare or Ilfracombe left from the Pier Head across the tidal lagoon of the bay, past Penarth Head and out into the Bristol Channel."

But that had all gone thirty years before the Cardiff Bay development began. It wasn't the CBDC who demolished Tiger Bay. They inherited a wasteland.

I haven't got a clue what his point is? does he honestly think we have aspirations to be Dubai! New York!! One things for sure when I rent out that communal space at the top of 'hope tower' for coffee, cakes and beveridges (hic) and invite all you forumers along I will not invite this 'expert' to be our guest speaker!!
Tall buildings in Cardiff - If the quality is good BRING EM ON!! If the quality is good... then exactly what harm are they doing? Isn't it just a dislike of tall buildings? a personal opinion - which is fair enough I suppose. But it's not my opinion, and I want my city, our capital city, to excite its residents and visitors with a look of ambition and vibrancy which is personally what I feel that plenty of tall buildings of good quality will do. Really hoping this tower and the other one in Bridge street proceed in spring this year, they both look pretty good quality to me, and it would seem to a fair few of the people who have somewhat more of a say in this actually happening than I do!

“He added: “I can’t see what the overall strategy is. It should be helping them become a distinctive place but that is being eroded by everything done at present. They should be focussing on cities like Copenhagen and Edinburgh, not the tall buildings of New York and Dubai.”

This planning “expert” may want to consider that Copenhagen become Denmark’s capital in 15th Century. The royal burgh in Edinburgh was founded in the early 12th century. Both cities have benefitted from centuries of development and were home to architects who benefitted from royal patronage and developed local styles. There are hundreds, if not thousands of old building of brick, stone and timber of the kind that are simply not built any more.

In contrast, Cardiff has only been a city since 1905 and its only significant benefactor was the Crichton-Stuart family. Like Swansea, it has suffered from economic decline and was badly damaged during the Blitz. Basically, (let’s be honest) it’s a big town with a few nice buildings still standing. What distinct characteristics are there that we can build upon? I would truly love if Cardiff was more like Edinburgh or Dublin, but it never will be.

“Cardiff is never going to be Dubai, so what’s the point in these pathetic attempts to reach for the skies? It doesn’t really add up to anything for me.”

True, Cardiff won’t be Dubai (thankfully), but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t attempt to build to proper modern capital city around the historic centre and bay. Let’s show some ambition and take a lead in the construction of tall buildings in the UK. Let’s preserve our green belt and built taller, using less space (and energy).

Personally, I love tall buildings and I'm very happy that Cardiff is considering buildings of such nature.

Dubai is littered with badly designed tall buildings (as well as some good ones) and is actually a good example in some ways of making a point for not allowing crap tall buildings to be built. Why not just comment on quality and use big cities that build tall and make mistakes as a reference point. Instead he just seems to want to whinge about height in general.

Dubai is littered with badly designed tall buildings (as well as some good ones) and is actually a good example in some ways of making a point for not allowing crap tall buildings to be built. Why not just comment on quality and use big cities that build tall and make mistakes as a reference point. Instead he just seems to want to whinge about height in general.

The reason Dubai is so fatuous is that the tall buildings are unnecessary. There's no land shortage so they built tall purely as a statement and ended up with a cluster of penile buildings lacking any overall coherence.

In Cardiff's case the city centre (excluding the bay) is quite small and has clear boundaries on all four sides in the form of railways, the river and parkland. The pressure to build higher is market-led and sensible. What's important is the quality of the buildings - not their height and the ones currently planned look pretty good to me.

When driving from the Bay over the central link fly - over towards Cardiff prison you are elevated. From here you can see the whole of the city centre and to be fair it looks very impressive.

You can look at this view on Google maps or make the journey yourself, looks good by day or night.

I don't think Cardiff should look like Dubai or Edinburgh, Cardiff should do its own thing... Yes, at the moment we are a small City. However, we are growing rapidly and any international City has tall buildings.

A mix of office, Hotel and living space is a must for the survival of a City centre, especially in the current climate of Internet shopping and people not venturing towards the Centre of Cities as much as they used to.

I think Cardiff could do with a few 40 plus high true skyscrapers to add to the skyline.

When I have spoke to people who have come to Cardiff for the first time, they are always impressed saying they did not think Cardiff would have had that built up feel of a large City because it is so small.

We are a small City and will have no choice other than to build high anyway, so may as well do it well and big

What I would say is that tall buildings in cities usually reflect economic status. I know it's not s good comparison but the City of London, Weatminster etc are filled with tall buildings, good and bad, which reflect this competition. Cardiff's tall buildings in the other hand are going to be filled with student accommodation. Not quite the same.

What people are forgetting is that the experience at GROUND FLOOR level is probably the most important element. Tall buildings may look good to some from a distance but if the ground floor presents a wall, high level windows or an office with frosted glass then the experience for passers by isn't going to be good. Just look at The British Gas building on Vhurchill Way - looks pretty good I'd say but it does nothing for the street, same with The Big Sleep and others.

The tower proposed at the corner of hope street currently has hoardings that have been there pretty much forever! and isn't a cafe proposed for ground floor. In the planning app a point is raised that at the moment this is a part of town where it's crying out for some interaction with the street as it's just dead at the moment, even though it's actually pretty central. Also surely for the sake of 'reclaiming' so many houses for family use in the likes of Cathays there's a reasonable justification for this particular tower. Yes personally I feel it would be great if Cardiff was full of shiny glass and Steel office towers, but if the quality is good enough then towers like the ones currently proposed - in my opinion, still give the impression of a city 'on the up' so's to speak. I would much rather have these located in the city centre where perhaps the quality is forced to be superior than awkwardly popping up all over suburbs.

In M/cr the two tallest buildings are apartments/hotel and student accommodation.

just saying

Britain needs to build more skyscrapers. It's not as if we've got much land to play with, especially since there's a housing shortage and we want to preserve our green spaces.