Neil Fraser
August 4, 2003
ANOTHER speciality precinct in the making and of all places in overlooked, often forgotten and traditionally neglected Milpark! Literally condemned to extinction when the somewhat fated flyover connecting Empire and Barry Hertzog stood for two years because of suspected structural problems, the area literally rolled over and turned up its toes.
However, a two-hour tour yesterday of the precinct revealed an area far from dead and in fact pulsing with incredibly exciting developments. And it's all happening right here on the doorstep of the CBD.
Talk about location, location and location! Milpark is only minutes from the heart of the city, and also equally close to Wits and Rau universities, Wits Technikon's west campus, the Milpark and Helen Joseph Memorial hospitals, the Garden City Clinic, trendy suburbs such as Melville and, of course the SABC complex in Auckland Park.
Some 25 thousand square metres are under reconstruction having generally been lying empty and rotting for years under the ownership of some of the biggest property companies in the country.
Three young entrepreneurs who have the ability to look beyond what some would dismiss as "industrial schlock" are working independently on three different projects yet developing a wonderful synergy that will see the area become one of the funkiest and grooviest places in the inner city to work, live and play.
Brian Green, cameraman and creator of facility companies The Cameraman and Gasworks Post Production, is blending a number of disparate, dilapidated industrial type buildings, collectively known as 44 Stanley Avenue, into an exciting, eclectic neighbourhood.
Emerging from the confusion of construction activity is a mini precinct offering small office spaces and entertainment facilities targeted at the media and lifestyle markets.
Courtyards, internal roads, bridges connecting the various buildings and great roof terraces provide a unique environment for the pubs, restaurants, coffee bars and 150 seat open-air cinema and, of course, for the business spaces which will service the communications and media industry.
Complementing 44 Stanley is Atlas Studios, the brainchild of architects/developers Jonathan and Lorien Gimpel. From the outside Atlas Studios still looks like any one of hundreds of large shabby industrial buildings but the inside knocks your socks off.
Once the home of the Atlas Bakery, it has unusually high floor-to-ceiling heights, enabling one to drive large trucks down its central 'mall' and is crowned with a concrete vaulted roof to provide column free floors that come together to offer what I can only describe as a series of 'like wow' spaces.
The floors are still covered with the original stainless steel industrial floor tiles and bathrooms have been cleverly retro-furbished in the industrial style prevalent in the era when it was built. So what does one do with such a facility? Well, the area is not new to the media industry.
The SABC studios are just down the road, there are numerous film and media companies already established in the area, the Mail and Guardian offices are in the Media Mill (a project put together by the Gimpels a few years back) so the natural use for the building with its specific qualities is the film, TV production and media industry.
The building now boasts two 500 square metre studios complete with 'floating' floors and walls to prevent vibration or noise, air conditioning, sophisticated lighting, control rooms, back-up offices, production offices, cavernous areas for set storage, coffee bars and a restaurant.
Everything that could possibly be required for shooting a full film down to a two minute TV commercial. The studios and support spaces have already been utilised for shooting the new Franz Marx and Anant Singh television series called "The Res".
There is also a fantastic function space that has already been used for major launches and fashion shows - and the whole project is still under construction!
The third component is the loft apartments being developed by Ricci Polack, just over the road from Atlas Studios and wedged between the Media Mill and 44 Stanley. Again, distinctly industrial buildings surround courtyards complete with lawns and pools providing that wonderful spaciousness that characterizes lofts.
Duplex and triplex studio flats are being fashioned out of the concrete framed buildings and are just so cool and funky. Whilst one thinks of lofts as covering large single storey floor areas, most of those under construction appear to be large, cleverly interconnected multistorey spaces which still retain the industrial chic and provide dramatic spaces.
But the general area has other surprises. Behind Atlas Studios is the 'gasworks' with their three huge gas storage tanks that tower over the surrounding buildings like a Mad Max movie set, on ground sloping down to the Braamfontein Spruit - I kid you not! I really didn't realise that the Braamfontein Spruit was so far west, but it is.
In the early days of the city's history, washing of clothes was specifically banned in such watercourses. But the exception was here and the AmaWasha probably operated from this very site. (The Amawasha were Zulus who copied the example set by Indian dhobis in Natal by providing a washing service but with the establishment of laundries in late 1895 they gradually disappeared.) The potential for the upgrading of the public environment around this part of the Spruit is enormous with great knock-on effects.
What I find fascinating is that all these properties have been in the ownership of some of our biggest property companies for years and their potential has either been ignored or just not recognised. There is clearly a critical difference in the intellectual processes that govern the outputs of corporate bureaucrats as compared to entrepreneurs. As Rich Bradley is wont to say, "Dinosaurs and gazelles can't dance together".
Happy August!
