28 August 2006
By Neil Fraser
ARCHITECT/developer Jonathan Gimple has put together some quite special urban renewal projects in the city. Some years back, the development of the Media Mill in Milpark was followed by the Atlas Studios refurbishment, also in Milpark. Atlas Studios saw the retro-furbishment of an industrial building whose previous lives encompassed both a Coca Cola bottling plant and the Atlas Bakery into state-of- the-art film and TV studios with all the relevant support facilities and services.
Now Jonathan has teamed up with Steven and Justin Blend in an exciting renewal project in Braamfontein.
Good news for lower Braamies
The R20-million project, the Bridge Precinct - named because of its proximity to the Nelson Mandela Bridge - encompasses five interlinked sites bound by De Beer, Smit and Melle streets and aims to provide "modern, sophisticated office and retail space". The completion of the first phase of the project was celebrated last week.
The first phase was the refurbishment of a building originally known as the "New Braamfontein Hotel", which dates back to 1898 although it was subsequently extensively altered and added to. More recent alterations such as ceilings and partitions totally disguised the earlier structures and resulted in virtually having to gut the building. It was then refurbished to accommodate Ayanda Solutions, a black-empowered office furniture company.
I wasn't able to go to the launch as I was in Cape Town, but my business partner, Katherine Cox, provided me with the following comments:
- Lots of natural light, with clean, whitewashed walls giving the building a spacey, fresh feeling.
- Double volume ceilings add to the atmosphere of space.
- Wonderfully restored arched wooden windows.
- Old, but beautifully cleaned and restored pressed ceilings.
- Spectacular views from the top floor (especially at night) looking south over the city.
- What is, I think, very special about it is that it has a corner entrance, a wonderful double volume door leading in straight off the pavement. Windows are open onto the pavement at pedestrian level too and are open, that is, you can see through them and thus the building does not alienate the street.
- The interior reminded me of old Cape buildings, right in the middle of Jozi.
The project is good news for lower Braamfontein, traditionally a fairly gritty area that has been overshadowed by the northern area which is well-endowed with corporates such as Sappi, Liberty, the JD Group, and so on.
Developer Adam Levy recognised the potential of the area some time ago with his spectacular refurbishment of Stirling House in Smit Street. This project also has stunning views of the city and of the Nelson Mandela Bridge.
I understand that the Central Johannesburg Partnership, a non-profit company dedicated to the revitalisation of the inner city, will establish a voluntary City Improvement District providing cleaning and security services in the area covered by the new developments prior to the establishment of a full-blown CID over a broader area in the not too distant future.
This is an area of high visibility and excellent location, all adding up to great potential. It will link across the city with the planned ICDS (Inner City Distribution System) - which will be operational before 2010 - and is well situated relative to the Gautrain Station extension at Park Station.
Watch lower Braamies really shine over the next few years.
Consultation?
Remember the days leading up to 1994 when the buzzwords were "transparency", "participation", "consultation" and so on?
The business sector was impatiently complaining that they were tired of talking and wanted some action, while the community sector refused to support issues on which they hadn't been thoroughly consulted, thus totally frustrating local government. Everything seemed to take far too long but issues were generally well thrashed out - a good learning period for all of us.
Some cracks started to appear as various levels of 'new' government reduced or ignored the consultation process because they were "the elected face of the people" and knew what was required. Old tricks of the previous regime started emerging like limited advertising for comments/objections (usually just before Christmas with a return date of early January) and access to information made difficult.
In the case of the Gauteng Provincial Government Precinct, this was exactly the case.
In addition, all comments and suggestions made by a group of "interested and affected parties" were totally ignored throughout the process. In fact, that group recorded that "each comment made is countered by a stonewall defence or the answers seem to evade the issues raised. Thus one is left wondering whether any future meeting will be worth attending".
In my opinion, the process was incredibly flawed, and appears to have been deliberately skewed by political imperatives - but you've heard me on that ad nauseum, so let's move on.
Well, the Constitutional Court has handed down two judgments that make it clear that "public involvement was a material part of the law-making process and failure to do so could render legislation invalid".
A recent Sunday Independent report on the issue quotes a joint statement from two of parliament's presiding officers as stating that the rulings would "often require parliament and the provincial legislatures to provide citizens with the meaningful opportunity to be heard in the making of laws".
I would suggest that the approach required by the Constitutional Court should be adopted for much more than just the making of laws but that everything in the public's interest should require that citizens are provided with a meaningful opportunity to be heard. Surely good governance requires a participatory process of decision-making?
The Grand Parade project
So, while in Cape Town last week, I was impressed to read of the process that the Cape Town Council together with the Cape Town Partnership has adopted for their joint Grand Parade Revitalisation Project.
The historic space, one of the city's most symbolic public spaces, has deteriorated over the years and is quite run-down. Revitalisation has been on the agenda for some years, but the new initiative really took off at the beginning of 2006.
In January/February of this year a series of 30-plus interviews took place with key stakeholders, some individuals, but mostly organisations. The fact that organisations were interviewed, of course dramatically leverages up the number of people introduced to the scheme. The outcome of these interviews was collected and published in an Initial Stakeholder Consultation Report that is available on the Cape Town Partnership's website.
A random public opinion survey of some 282 people in the streets of Cape Town was undertaken over 2 and 3 February and, again, the results of this public survey were compiled and published and are available on the website.
A public workshop was then held in March this year "to identify elements of a vision for the future of the Grand Parade" and what emerged was the following: "The Grand Parade and its surroundings will be a place where the people of Cape Town and beyond honour and celebrate our memories and traditions both ancient and new, where we come together and unwind, enjoy the company of friends and strangers and trade in goods and produce from near and far, and where we feel proud to share and connect with the life, flow and heartbeat of our city."
From this vision and the numerous issues raised by stakeholders, the City prepared a draft spatial development framework and invited written comment as well as participation in a workshop. The framework was again available on websites and the workshop was held last week to seek agreement on the proposals and to consider implementation steps.
The input received will now influence a more refined spatial development framework that will be submitted to council for final approval probably early next year. A management framework will also be prepared.
Without knowing the finer details, the process followed strikes me as being highly participative with a real attempt made to address the concerns of a very broad range of stakeholders. That's how it should be for an important public space.
And the latest on the Gauteng Provincial Government Precinct?
Well, according to a fax that I received last week, the results of the appeal hearing will be advised to us on 29 August.
In the meantime, the joint City and provincial committee that was established to deal with the City's concerns (established as a quid pro quo for the City's withdrawal of their appeal) is meeting but, I gather, making little headway in the face of the same intransigence that the private sector met with during the "consultation" process.
Regards, Neil
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