New County Hall – Cardiff Council
Cardiff Council’s new County Hall have revealed the proposed look of their new HQ amid plans to demolish the current County Hall building. The council plans to knock down their current base and built a smaller office nearby.
The development forms part of the wider regeneration of Atlantic Wharf, which extends over 30 acres, with plans for restaurants and bars, leisure, office, residential, hotel and cultural spaces, opposite a new 15,000-capacity indoor arena. The announcement comes after the leader of Cardiff Council, Huw Thomas, stated that the cost of refurbishing the Council’s current building at Atlantic Wharf would have cost in excess of £100m.
He added that the maintenance and running costs of the original building, which has a maximum capacity of about 3,000 people but only has an average of about 400 people using it daily, are significant. Last year, fixing a leak at the front of the building cost the local authority £105,000.
The new County Hall will sit on the land in front of the present County Hall and will cover 100,000 square feet (9,000 sqm); much smaller than the current 277,000 square ft (26,000 sqm) office building. The building will provide more public “green space” and development opportunities around the location. It will also include shared spaces available for the community to use for meetings, as well as events, studio and production space for the Wales Millennium Centre.
Cardiff’s new County Hall is set to change the cultural landscape of Cardiff Bay(Image: Goldbeck UK)
Goldbeck have entered into a Pre-Contract Service Agreement (PCSA) with the local authority to fix the design and cost before entering a Development Agreement later this summer. The Cardiff development marks Goldbeck UK’s largest project in the country to date.
Craig Davies, Managing Director at Goldbeck UK, said: “The new County Hall to be built by Goldbeck UK for Cardiff Council at Atlantic Wharf will use our industry-leading construction model to deliver an operationally zero-carbon building. The new office space will provide a modern working environment more closely tailored to the council’s needs and have significantly lower operating costs than the current building it replaces.
“Because we manage all aspects of the project from architectural design to the manufacture of materials and assembly on-site, we ensure tight cost control, which is a top priority for Cardiff Council and vital to the success of the Atlantic Wharf area redevelopment as a future working and cultural hub for the city.”
Cardiff Council will continue to use the current County Hall, which will not be demolished until the new office is completed and ready for people to move into. The demolition of the original County Hall will create space for about five plots, opening up opportunities for the land to be used for social housing and private offices.
