Filed under: Design, etc, Architecture, News & Trends
The Nelson Mandela Bridge with a banner portrait of the former President flying over head. Gianluigi Guercia, Getty Images/AFP
In 2004, when South Africa won the bid to host the World Cup Soccer Tournament in 2010, property developers with their sights set on gentrifying Johannesburg's Central Business District (downtown area) were determined to ensure that the event expedited the process. "City officials hope that by the time the world's gaze rests on Johannesburg in 2010, squats will have been replaced by up market loft apartments, smart delis and trendy boutiques," reported the local Sunday Independent newspaper while also highlighting the many social and political challenges that the city had yet to face.
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Downtown Johannesburg has been through numerous incarnations. Under apartheid it was classified as a "whites only" area and black South Africans were bused in to work there. But come nightfall, the law dictated that they return to the townships like Alexandra and Soweto. Skyscrapers, including the the Carlton Center (still the tallest building in Africa) were built during the economic boom in the 1960s and 1970s. But as apartheid started to crumble in the late 1980s, previously disadvantaged black people and many illegal immigrants from neighboring African countries streamed into the city center, some squatting in the abandoned buildings. Meanwhile, middle class white people fled to the surrounding suburbs and many businesses followed (a second business district has developed in Sandton, an area north of downtown Johannesburg). By the late 1990s, downtown Johannesburg was bustling with informal industry during the day but it was also crime-ridden. At night, it was deserted. (For a biography of the city, seen through its architecture and planning, look out for the recently published Johannesburg Transition: Architecture and Society from 1950).
In the past decade, ongoing efforts by the Johannesburg Development Agency as well as private developers have slowly worked to make certain areas usable (if not entirely livable) once more -- an unusual path for gentrification, which should happen more organically as communities shift and change. "In terms of the inner city, the early nodes like Newtown and around Marshalltown [the center of downtown Johannesburg] have maintained what was done [a few years ago], but they have not realized the 'million dollar inner city lofts everyone will want to live in' dream just yet. I think these might still be coming," Nechama Brodie, author of Inside Jo'burg: 101 Things To See And Do tells Shelterpop.
Still, Brodie agrees that over the past two years, even with the recession slowing certain projects, there have been successes. "One area where good things are happening is Braamfontein [an area to the North of Newtown]. And this is partly because of the reintroduction of inner city nightlife at places like the Alex, a new concert and party venue. People can finally walk the streets at night again. It's so liberating," she says. "But also I think it's about residential apartments. Because it's so close to Wits [the University of the Witwatersrand], Braamfontein doesn't just have office workers."
Many developments were fast-tracked for the World Cup. Nikki Temkin, the author of Chic Jozi: The savvy style companion [to Johannesburg] highlights the nearby Arts on Main and Main Street Life as must-visits for anyone attending the soccer tournament. The two newly developed areas are down the street from one another on the east side of the city in an area known as the Maboneng Precinct. The Arts on Main complex is made up of an old construction company's offices and five warehouses converted late last year to art galleries and artist studios (William Kentridge has his studio there), an art bookstore, a restaurant and a fashion boutique. Main Street Life, which has opened just in time for the World Cup, houses a boutique hotel, penthouse suites, shops, restaurants, an independent cinema and dedicated common areas for creative collaboration and exhibitions. Both are developments by property company Propertuity who believe that by bringing artists into the area, gentrification will follow like it has done in areas like SoHo or the Lower East Side in New York. During the World Cup, the Goodman Gallery space at Arts on Main is well worth a visit to see work by local and international artists who are participating in the In Context project.
For the duration of the tournament (June 11 to July 11), according to the official web site of the City of Johannesburg, Newtown, with its famous Market Theater, bars, restaurants, museums, galleries and nightlife, will operate as the larger cultural hub. On match days, 22, 000 people are expected to watch the game from the public viewing area at Mary Fitzgerald Square, an open air area which is equipped with a large screen. On match days there will also be live performances by South African artists, deejays, multi-cultural dances, poetry, food festivals, arts and crafts and comedians.
The development has also brought public art into the streets. When the Johannesburg Development Agency transformed the nearby Ellis Park sports precinct and refurbished the stadium, a R2 billion project (about $257 billion) which hosted soccer fans for the Confederations Cup last year, they also restored the outer facades of three 1920 miner's homes nearby. And at the foot of the Queen Elizabeth Bridge, as you head from Braamfontein to Marshalltown, is a 36 ft. high metal sculpture by artists William Kentridge and Gerhard Marx. The Fire Walker, as she is called, is inspired by the Shangaan women who walk through the area carrying a burning brazier [metal bin] on their heads. The women set up their braziers at street corners to roast mielies (corn on the cob) to sell.
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