As good as a rubber factory - if not better

Could heritage, beloved of the Welsh, yet stand in the way of the BBC Wales building society ? The Taffia have long dreamed of a new headquarters in Cardiff, to match that of the Scots at Pacific Quay. But money is tight, and they need to max the value of the site they want to leave, at Llandaff.

Now, the great and the good of Cadw ("protect", "guard", "save", "preserve") have been asked to list it - something that scares off developers. It was designed by Dale Owen (1924-1997) of the Percy Thomas Partnership, and opened in 1966. Dale studied in the States under Gropius, founder of the Bauhaus school, and is said to have taken pleasure in getting BBC penny-pinchers to buy real Mies van der Rohe chairs for the reception area.

Henrietta Billings of the Twentieth Century Society tells Building Design: “Broadcasting House is one of Wales’s most outstanding and important modernist buildings, and one of the best remaining examples of this highly significant Welsh architectural practice.”

Professor Judi Loach of Cardiff University chimes in: “This is the outstanding modernist building of the post-war era in Cardiff and indeed one of the very few in Wales that can stand comparison with first rate architecture abroad.

“This is the most significant 20th-century building to be threatened in Wales since the loss of the grade II* listed rubber factory in Brynmawr, south Wales built 1946-51, demolished in 2001.”