MASTERPLAN | Bella Quarter

[Hafnia]

BELLA CITY
The Bella Center want to develop a new city and to develop and extend its position as the leading conference and exhibition center in Scandinavia.

The vision is to create a dense various city district in various height and with housings carrés, row houses and a few larger constructions up to 12 floors.
The plan is to replace the current enormous parking spaces with parking houses, and to create urban spaces that will refurbish this worn out area, but also to connect the Bella Center with the Ørestad City.
The Masterminds behind behind the project is the Swedish based development company Solstra Capital that recently took over the mangement of Bella Center, and for the architect masterplan the COBE ARCHITECTS
Time line Construction start in 2015.

[seffren]

Shouldn't the thread be titled 'Bella Kvarter ...'?

[Hafnia]

Originally Posted by seffren

Shouldn't the thread be titled 'Bella Kvarter ...'?

Maybe, only thought it sounded a little bit more sexy

[bongo-anders]

Bellakvarteret to be more specific.

[Hafnia]

Originally Posted by bongo-anders

Bellakvarteret to be more specific.

I think it's time to step up the influence of Ssc, and actually I have already named the Horisonten in Ørestad City in a name competition some years ago.
And not to forget.. the developers can keep it for free

I'll return with photos later on just in case you all have forgetten how forgetable this area is.

[Knudsen]

Looks great, but I am skeptical.

First of there are 3 stages where local nimbys can go nutso and complain like crazy. First the amendment to the general plan for Copenhagen needs to go through and then not only 1, but 2 local plans.

I can vividly imagine how current residents along CF Møllers Alle will whine about developing the city in their neighboorhood


Secondly, as I understand it, Soelstra owns the entire area. Nothing is mentioned about the types of housings. But the current majority in City Hall are pretty gung ho about not developing areas without social housing. So the developer and the left wing needs to find some common ground on that subject - which is far from a given. Will Solstra devalue their project by allowing eg 30% social housings?

Sorry for being a buzzkill, but I want to see this go through the ultra left winged City Hall before I start uncorking the Cristals.

[kmester]

From what I hear local residents are already complaining about the removal of parking spots. Bella Center is apparently cheaper than equivalent options from monopoly parking spot provider By og Havn... I don't expect those complaints to do much in terms of hindering the project, though (thankfully)

[Knudsen]

The good news is that we are almost 4 years away from local elections. That should put a damper on the nimby influence on City Hall

[ramblersen]

Originally Posted by Knudsen

Looks great, but I am skeptical.

First of there are 3 stages where local nimbys can go nutso and complain like crazy. First the amendment to the general plan for Copenhagen needs to go through and then not only 1, but 2 local plans.

I can vividly imagine how current residents along CF Møllers Alle will whine about developing the city in their neighboorhood

Secondly, as I understand it, Soelstra owns the entire area. Nothing is mentioned about the types of housings. But the current majority in City Hall are pretty gung ho about not developing areas without social housing. So the developer and the left wing needs to find some common ground on that subject - which is far from a given. Will Solstra devalue their project by allowing eg 30% social housings?

Sorry for being a buzzkill, but I want to see this go through the ultra left winged City Hall before I start uncorking the Cristals.

Just trying to be positive here: It doesn't really matter if there are one, twom three or seven stages where nimbys can go nutso. It all comes Down to wheather or not the politicians want to see this go through. One stage can stop it and seven stages can not stop it. And hasn't these plans been developed in collaboration with City Hall? Plus Ørestad hasn't exactly got a lot of fans in Borgerrepræsentationen and this plan has a lot of the opposite qualities. Sure they may try to squese in some social housing but where aren't they? Sure some Building heights may be adjusted a few Places but nothing new there either (cf. Carlsberg etc). At the end of the day this plan is a huge improvement to the area and I simply cannot imagine that a political majority won't recognize that.

And if they want more metro, at some point they'll have to realize that it will take densification near the stations to make it economically profitable. I've posted this opinion piece from Dagbladet Information before but will do it Again - this may nnot be on the Circle Line but the line of thinking is still relevant:

Cityringen bør være motor for byudvikling

Alle ved, at det er der, i hånden, man kan læse om fremtiden – eller man kan skabe den selv.

http://www.information.dk/447554

PS I have to agree with Steffen, Bellakvarteret (alternatively Bella Quarter or Bella Development) is a better title. A Development like this wouldn't be called a 'City' in English.

[Knudsen]

Ramblersen

Its still 3 stages where the project can be changed and watered down as a result of local pressure

Its just been too many awesome projects, that has been proposed here in Cph and ended up being watered down significanly or taken off the board entirely. Unlike you I have zero faith in the politicians ability to make sound rational decisions.

I hope it goes through, I think its awesome for orestad & Copenhagen. But I want to see it go through before I start celebrating

Regarding the link to the article in Information.

Great read, and the logic is not lost on me. But dont matter if the logic about densifying the city around the stations is sound and basic for us. In the end the politicians have shown an epic ability to make retarded decisions that have swayed as a result of local pressure and news spin more than of what is smart, rational and in the common good.

Democracy is also 2 wolves and 1 sheep voting about what to eat. I dont trust the wolves to make the good decision

Anyway, sorry for the derail and sorry for the buzzkill. Its def an awesome project!

Btw. Regarding the name. If we insist on being an english speaking forum any name that is not english is just dumb. Bellakvarteret is obv not working on that account. Any none danish speaking reader will have no idea what it means - just like the "Nordhavn" thread

[ramblersen]

Well it is pretty normal not to translate toponyms, more so than doing it if it involves too much creativity. I could give you a lot of links to English or American articles about Copenhagen that refer to 'Kødbyen' rather than 'The Meatpacking District' (let alone 'The Meat City') for instance. Bella City just looks very odd to me and no more English than Bellakvarteret. But never mind, its a matter of little importance of couse.

[Knudsen]

With the obvious exception that places such as Kødbyen, Rådhuspladsen, Nyhavn and Kgs Nytorv are historic and well known places, that a non danish speaker can find by simple googling.

"Bellakvarteret" on the other hand is none of that

I agree that Bella City sounds odd. How about calling it "Bella Center development" untill the developers come up with an offical name? I am sure we will see some official name for it soon enough

[moveteam]

KING'S NEW SQUARE!

• Bella City
• Bellakvarteret
• Bella Center development
• The Bella Quarter

Cast your vote! I don't care much. We don't use the word quarter enough on this forum though...

[ramblersen]

I think they should call it Bellalav as opposed to Bellahøj where the Bella Center was originally situated and where it got its name from! Hmm...sounds like an ezxuse for cutting Down the height of the highrises...perhaps Bellahøjere...or Bellahøjest.

Okay I'll go with the Bella Quarter option.

EDIT: Bellakvarteret is just as fine with me, though.

[seffren]

The use of the word 'city' has definitely been overused in Denmark so I'll go with 'Bellakvarteret' and the 'The Bella Quarter' as a close second :-)

[bongo-anders]

Even though we have an international forum I think its very important to keep the original names.

So my vote goes for Bellakvarteret, If the developer on a later stage then change the name to a more "English" name then we can change it here aswell.

But that is just my 2 cent.

[Knudsen]

My vote goes to Bella Quarter.

But I assume the developers will give it some official name soon enough.

[JayniX]

A new areal of the Bella kvarter:

[Silkebaronen]

Just a thought.

When this plan is realized, there's little room for expanding Bella Centeret. Isn't that a bit stupid? What about when all the competing conference centers expand?

[seffren]

Originally Posted by Silkebaronen

Just a thought.

When this plan is realized, there's little room for expanding Bella Centeret. Isn't that a bit stupid? What about when all the competing conference centers expand?

I've had the same thought. Maybe that is why there is talk of three stages of development so they are able to plan and build more facilities for the conference center if needed?

Edit: And it's not 100% clear to me how much of the existing plan has been reserved for Bella Center. Or has that been disclosed already?