Cardiff rising up the ranks of UK cities’ towering skylines...
Cardiff is climbing up the ranks for UK cities with the tallest buildings with a “lofty elevation” of fourth place.
A new analysis of tallest buildings in the UK, by property advisory firm GVA, puts Cardiff behind only London, Manchester and Liverpool.
The criteria is based on buildings already built, but also includes projects with planning consent and those yet to be completed.
Cardiff is ranked fourth for the 132m, 42-storey student accommodation tower in the city centre by property development firm Watkin Jones. The project, on Customhouse Street, was given planning consent last year and is due for completion next summer. It will be home to around 450 students.
There are, of course, far more buildings in London, lncluding the BT Tower and HSBC’s corporate HQ in Canary Wharf, that are significantly higher than Cardiff’s new student tower block.
However, the ranking is based on taking the tallest building in each city. The top five cities are: London – 310m-high Shard. Manchester – 169m Beetham Tower. Liverpool – 140m West Tower. Cardiff – 132m student tower. Birmingham – 130m 10 Holloway Circus.
The new student tower in Cardiff will be far higher than the capital’s existing highest building, the 80m-high Capital Tower, and the current highest completed building in Wales, Swansea’s 107m Meridian Tower.
Owain Griffiths of GVA, said: “There has been a clear political appetite for tall buildings in Cardiff.
“Cardiff council’s newly elected members of the planning committee appear to have the same appetite, having just granted planning permission for a 32-storey (97m-high) student accommodation development at Hallinans House on Newport Road, an application by Boardroom Properties and Howells Properties.
“Positively, the council’s supplementary planning guidance (SPG) on tall buildings provides support and guidance for such proposals.
“It identifies examples of appropriate locations for tall buildings such as along railway corridors, urban corner sites in the core of the city centre, and sites that form part of existing clusters of tall buildings.”
Together with the Watkin Jones development, the other tall buildings granted consent since July 2016 in Cardiff are:
JR Smart’s office/retail development on John Street at 86m.
Watkin Jones’ student-led mixeduse development on Charles Street at 82m, as well as a student development of the same height on Herbert Street from the Bangor-based developer.
In terms of comparably-sized cities, the 42-storey Watkin Jones development will also surpass Leeds, Brighton, Sheffield and Belfast’s highest buildings.
Across the bridge in Bristol, the local authority recently granted planning permission for what will be the city’s tallest building in its Redcliff Quarter development, standing at 82.7m.