Tall Buildings in Swansea?
Well, I’m not sure I’m crazy about that idea. Coming from an area that decided it would be a swell idea to block out all views of the ocean unless you paid an arm and several legs to inhabit/work/visit the buildings that had the views, I would hate to see a beautiful city such as Swansea ruin their waterfront areas with the construction of a bunch of bae-side high-rises. Much of the natural beauty of Bae Abertawe and the city itself comes from its location. So why ruin a good thing?
The City is considering a “Tall buildings strategy”, however, and this week’s Council meeting should decide whether the Council will approve the strategy and take it to the public for comment. A large focus of the strategy will be on the City Centre, Maritime Quarter, SA1 and University areas.
Well, as a soon-to-be student at University, I can tell you that some of the reasons I chose that school were the location, setting and Swansea - a city I’ve quite fallen in love with. I sure hope that magnificent prominade will not be ruined.
I look forward to the revelation of the strategy and understanding what they have in mind.
Pertinent City and County of Swansea Website
April 19th, 2007 at 8:07 am
Thanks, Arwen. I was in Swansea on Saturday for the Welsh Media Conference (Cyfrwng) and the physical beauty of Swansea is captivating!
As a long time resident of Miami Beach, I attended rallies in the 1980s to protect our Art Deco Architecture, and we ended up with the largest preservatin district in the world.
This also attracted big money, and the glass and steel ‘wall of buildings’ threatened to create a concrete ‘bathtub’ around our ‘quaint’ historic district.
What the developers missed was, our ‘quaint’ historic district (along with a natural coastline of parks and beachs and proteced dunes) was the driving force to make MB the world class attraction to tourists and businesses.
I must admit mixed feelings about it all, because the high rise explosion also dragged our lovingly renovated 1940s jewel boxes into the real estate stratosphere.
In the case of Swansea, there are some blighted areas which need economic development, so why not put the high rises there? The coast is too precious to throw away.