Coventry University | Engineering & Computing Building | Gulson Road | 7fl | Comp.

55078 Views 347 Replies 32 Participants Last post by Dr Pepper, Mar 17, 2018

skybluecity

Discussion Starter · Jul 3, 2009

Work has now started on the £30m Arup-designed engineering and computing building for Coventry University.

To be built on Gulson Road just outside the city centre, the 14,000m2 building will have a sedum roof and photovoltaic panels in its facade. Construction by Balfour Beatty will be completed in May 2011.

61 - 80 of 348 Posts

CovAD

· #61 · Oct 15, 2009 (Edited)

stig1982 said:
For a while now I have been wanting to have a tinker rond with a CAD programme that allows you to create mock up small scale masterplans or even artists impressions.

Does anyone know of a programme which is fairly user friendly and relatively inexpensive? I seem to remember that one of you guys did a CAD style plan for the New Union Street / Greyfriars Church area of Coventry, showing how you would open up the street towards Fords Hospital.

I think that was sleslie and it was in Google SketchUp I think, which has a free version. I used it to create my masterplan of the Broadgate/Cathedral area.

http://sketchup.google.com/download/

It's decent for simple stuff - it just doesn't do rendering very well. As long as you're not bothered about it looking ultra-realistic it'll do the job. You can also import pics from google earth so you can use it as a template for an area without having to measure it all out

Here's the thread http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=581976&highlight=sketchup Post 113

CovAD

· #62 · Oct 15, 2009

sjs239 said:
I hope they build a skyscraper. IMHO far gosford street still looks shit, even after the "masterplan" regeneration. I know it isnt finished but it will always look grotty down there!! I just hope they replace the tyre place with some that looks good! And not build from bloody red bricks.

Afraid I don't agree - it'd look really weird and out of place, and highlight the split down the middle of the road leading into town.

I prefer stig's plan of similar buildings to those on the road to make it more continous leading into the city centre.

FGS still needs work, especially the bit backing onto Sky Blue Way, but it is improving slowly but surely.

sjs239

· #63 · Oct 15, 2009

CovAD said:
Afraid I don't agree - it'd look really weird and out of place, and highlight the split down the middle of the road leading into town.

I prefer stig's plan of similar buildings to those on the road to make it more continous leading into the city centre.

FGS still needs work, especially the bit backing onto Sky Blue Way, but it is improving slowly but surely.

lol I was only joking about the skyscraper.

But if you look at what it will actually be next to, a modern building would actually fit in better. It has the student residence on the other side of the "river" and fingers crossed the hotel opposite. Nothing ultra modern like some of the projects the uni are building though. Something 6 - 8 storeys would probably fit nicely.

Dr Pepper

· #64 · Oct 16, 2009

We-Are-Borg-1987

· #65 · Oct 16, 2009

Its looking great, thanks for putting up the pictures.

If only that pub was renovated! If it was marketed as a student pub I'm sure it would do really well as its virtually 'on campus'.

NewTroll

· #66 · Oct 16, 2009

We-Are-Borg-1987 said:
Its looking great, thanks for putting up the pictures.

If only that pub was renovated! If it was marketed as a student pub I'm sure it would do really well as its virtually 'on campus'.

The Peacock was a great pub when I was a student. Used to drink there often. It turned into a very, very bad restaurants and then into some sort of club/bar thing. Then death.

In fact the Campbell, Oak, Courtyard were all great pubs when I was a student. The Campbell turned into some vile "It's a Scream" brand shortly after I finished and the Courtyard went through various names.

Where do students drink these days?

Dr Pepper

· #67 · Oct 16, 2009

NewTroll said:

I think the pub is going. The view in the second render is only possible with the removal of the pub in the first. Or is it just me.

morestoreysplease

· #68 · Oct 16, 2009

Artistic licence I think. I'm sure the pub will be bought and done up soon.

NewTroll

· #69 · Oct 16, 2009

I can't see it opening up as a pub again - bearing in mind how many other pubs have closed down over the last few years and are sitting empty in what used to be prime locations. It's a contracting industry.

It's a shame, really - Cov used to have a fairly decent pub scene when I was a student.

I just hope they fill in the ugly gap soon to a) hide the car park and b) the library that looks like a prison.

CovAD

· #70 · Oct 17, 2009

NewTroll said:
I can't see it opening up as a pub again - bearing in mind how many other pubs have closed down over the last few years and are sitting empty in what used to be prime locations. It's a contracting industry.

It's a shame, really - Cov used to have a fairly decent pub scene when I was a student.

I just hope they fill in the ugly gap soon to a) hide the car park and b) the library that looks like a prison.

I agree about hiding the car park and completing the street, but I think that library is an interesting feature of the city skyline. It's something different but not ultra-modern so it won't date badly. I really like it (although I can see the prison reference)

With the government trying to crack down on alcohol abuse it's hardly surprising so many are shutting, but I feel it was a vastly over-saturated market anyway. The incredibly cheap prices were brought about pretty much because of the huge amount of competition, which in turn have led to the massive social problems associated with it. It needed thinning out for the good of society in general

We-Are-Borg-1987

· #71 · Oct 18, 2009

Alot of Cov students go to the Campbell and the Oak. I like the Campbell, although when I was a student at Cov my fav pub was (and is) the Golden Cross.

I like the library too, its stylish.

True, the ridiculously cheap drink prices have to end. The Tories want to raise tax on alcohol, so when they get in next year that will probably do some good.

NewTroll

· #72 · Oct 18, 2009

We-Are-Borg-1987 said:
Alot of Cov students go to the Campbell and the Oak. I like the Campbell, although when I was a student at Cov my fav pub was (and is) the Golden Cross.

I like the library too, its stylish.

True, the ridiculously cheap drink prices have to end. The Tories want to raise tax on alcohol, so when they get in next year that will probably do some good.

I used to drink in the Windmill, the Campbell, Peacock, Hand & Heart, Courtyard, Rising Sun when I was a student. Windmill had good beer. Student pubs tend to be poor on the beer stakes, mainly going for cheap lagers & bitters.

The SUPERMARKETS are the ones who should be stopped - they offer NOTHING culturally or socially, yet pubs always have done in the past - they are being killed off by supermarkets. When they're all gone we'll wonder why we let it happen - just like we'll wonder how we let supermarkets stamp over everything else.

The country will be nothing but supermarkets selling a narrow range of goods that they screw suppliers to get!

CovAD

· #73 · Oct 19, 2009

NewTroll said:
I used to drink in the Windmill, the Campbell, Peacock, Hand & Heart, Courtyard, Rising Sun when I was a student. Windmill had good beer. Student pubs tend to be poor on the beer stakes, mainly going for cheap lagers & bitters.

The SUPERMARKETS are the ones who should be stopped - they offer NOTHING culturally or socially, yet pubs always have done in the past - they are being killed off by supermarkets. When they're all gone we'll wonder why we let it happen - just like we'll wonder how we let supermarkets stamp over everything else.

The country will be nothing but supermarkets selling a narrow range of goods that they screw suppliers to get!

Without doubt the supermarkets don't help the problem and need to be reined in, but there are a hell of a lot of pubs and clubs that add nothing socially or culturally. They just aim to pour as much booze down people's necks as possible then complain they have to pay massive amounts for policing etc.

If the pub industry wants to survive long term it has to consider itself primarily as a community meeting place rather than an alcohol establishment.

sjs239

· #74 · Oct 19, 2009

We-Are-Borg-1987 said:
Alot of Cov students go to the Campbell and the Oak. I like the Campbell, although when I was a student at Cov my fav pub was (and is) the Golden Cross.

I like the library too, its stylish.

True, the ridiculously cheap drink prices have to end. The Tories want to raise tax on alcohol, so when they get in next year that will probably do some good.

The campbell aint bad. the oak is a dump though, full of tramps. I think the library looks brilliant. always used to wonder what it was when i was a kid, lol i wanted to live in one of the "guard towers" :nuts:

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skybluecity

Discussion Starter · #75 · Oct 19, 2009

Never brought into the argument about the pricing of alcohol. It's much more of a cultural issue. The price argument is a very simplistic answer to a very complex problem.

We should ask why it is that on the continent alcohol is equally as cheap and yet there are nothing like the social problems that binge drinking causes. I can buy a half decent bottle of wine in spain for under two euros, or buy a pint of beer in a bar for 1.50€. The hotel I run offers Cruz Campo at 1€ a pint 4 nights a week. I can buy alcohol anywhere, including petrol stations and if I wanted to in Macdonalds, at the cinema, just about anywhere in fact; and yet you won't find the locals vomiting in the street or urinating up walls.

Penalising those who drink responsibly is not the answer, and the only people that benefit are the treasury and bootleggers. We'd be just opening up new income streams for the organised criminals.

The problem is more to do with a complete lack of stigma. Act like a drunken idiot in most European countries and it simply would not be tolerated. The police would certainly not allow it, and the public would treat you with disgust. In the UK there is no disincentive, all you will get is a stern word, maybe a pathetic fixed penalty notice (what a joke) or at the very worst a night in the cells to sleep it off - and then off you're sent on your merry way.

We have this problem in the UK simply because we tolerate it, and not because of price. How many of those silly police documentaries on Bravo have we seen, where at the end they list the penalties dished out to those who have misbehaved. And what happens to them? Nothing, the penalties are a joke; and until we address this issue and start stigmatising such behaviour nothing will ever change.

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CovAD

· #76 · Oct 19, 2009

skybluecity said:
Never brought into the argument about the pricing of alcohol. It's much more of a cultural issue. The price argument is a very simplistic answer to a very complex problem.

We should ask why it is that on the continent alcohol is equally as cheap and yet there are nothing like the social problems that binge drinking causes. I can buy a half decent bottle of wine in spain for under two euros, or buy a pint of beer in a bar for 1.50€. The hotel I run offers Cruz Campo at 1€ a pint 4 nights a week. I can buy alcohol anywhere, including petrol stations and if I wanted to in Macdonalds, at the cinema, just about anywhere in fact; and yet you won't find the locals vomiting in the street or urinating up walls.

Penalising those who drink responsibly is not the answer, and the only people that benefit are the treasury and bootleggers. We'd be just opening up new income streams for the organised criminals.

The problem is more to do with a complete lack of stigma. Act like a drunken idiot in most European countries and it simply would not be tolerated. The police would certainly not allow it, and the public would treat you with disgust. In the UK there is no disincentive, all you will get is a stern word, maybe a pathetic fixed penalty notice (what a joke) or at the very worst a night in the cells to sleep it off - and then off you're sent on your merry way.

We have this problem in the UK simply because we tolerate it, and not because of price. How many of those silly police documentaries on Bravo have we seen, where at the end they list the penalties dished out to those who have misbehaved. And what happens to them? Nothing, the penalties are a joke; and until we address this issue and start stigmatising such behaviour nothing will ever change.

I totally agree with you that the cultural issue is a big reason and would sort out the problem but it'll take time to sort that out. Parents especially need to be harder on their kids rather than molly-coddling them. Mind you the do-gooders with the Human Rights Act for every little thing really don't help.

In the meantime drinks pricing is a decent short-term stop gap solution. The price of soft drinks is ridiculous in comparison to alcohol so there's no incentive whatsoever to keep off the hard stuff.

IMO those drunk and disorderly (confirmed via a breath test) should be taken to a holding cell overnight then given a pink jacket early the following morning and told to clean up the shit and carnage they've left behind. If you've got a hangover tough.

stig1982

· #77 · Oct 19, 2009

CovAD said:
I think that was sleslie and it was in Google SketchUp I think, which has a free version. I used it to create my masterplan of the Broadgate/Cathedral area.

http://sketchup.google.com/download/

It's decent for simple stuff - it just doesn't do rendering very well. As long as you're not bothered about it looking ultra-realistic it'll do the job. You can also import pics from google earth so you can use it as a template for an area without having to measure it all out

Here's the thread http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=581976&highlight=sketchup Post 113

Cheers bud - I haven't had chance to download it yet and tinker round, but I will at some point, much appreciated.

Dr Pepper

· #78 · Oct 25, 2009

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Biosonic

· #79 · Oct 25, 2009

NewTroll said:
Stig, here's the planning app:

http://planning.coventry.gov.uk/portal/servlets/ApplicationSearchServlet?PKID=692271

I took a fews images from the design statement:

Enjoy! It's a big one, isn't it?

That looks really smart.

We-Are-Borg-1987

· #80 · Oct 26, 2009

Yea, I love how its stylish but functional. Coventry usually has buildings that are functional, but look bland and date badly. I think this will age pretty well.

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