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'Planning needs to be done by people with design/planning expertise coupled
with sufficient experience to remain objective about their proposals'; we should
look to France, Brazil, the US and China for examples of what is possible. A
reader responds to Neil Fraser.
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About Citichat
NEIL Fraser is a partner in 'Neil Fraser & Associates trading as Urban Inc', an urban consultancy dedicated to the revitalisation and regeneration of cities and of the inner city of Johannesburg in particular. He can be contacted on 083 456 0242 or 011 444 4895 or by e-mail at
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IN Citichat 33,
State, statues and smart transportation , I wrote:
"In the meantime, the buildings bought by the provincial government five
years ago have been empty and left to disintegrate, thus creating an added
eyesore in the city centre. Surely it is incumbent on the provincial government,
particularly given the premier's and the MEC's comments way back at the start of
the project, to advise the citizens of the city just what it is now planning.
"Surely it is incumbent on the provincial government as one of the custodians
of the built heritage and as the owner of these crumbling structures, to tell us
what it is planning to do with the heritage (and other) buildings that daily
degenerate?"
Here is a reply I received:
Repay taxpayer
"One assumes also that 'Surely it is incumbent
on the [Gauteng] provincial government (GPG) to repay the taxpayer the lost
interest/opportunity costs on the money wasted here to date and to reimburse the
City of Johannesburg for lost rates on these properties'.
"Perhaps the City should sue the GPG for damages and reduced amenity on
behalf of its citizens; perhaps it should come from the GPG salary packages.
"Surely there is some legal route to force a property owner to take
appropriate measures (maintenance, for instance) to prevent this
even if it is
as lowly as a simple clause in the by-laws. Oops, sorry, I temporarily forgot
that provinces and politicians and such don't pay much attention to the rules
and regulations that we all have to live by, that were mostly made by
politicians using our money, to ensure rational development of our cities.
"I have great concerns about this problem but, like most others who also do,
I don't have the time and resources to do anything about it - I'm too busy
trying to stay alive under the load of paying my share of these buildings and
the politicians and law-making expenses.
"I used to be a very charitable person, giving others the benefit of the
doubt when listening to their ideas. Forty years of practice, marvelling at the
schemes that come and go (starting with, in my 1960s Pretoria architecture
student days, the 'Ring Road' elevated highway proposal to put a noose on the
city) and I am perhaps more idealistic than I was then about where the future
should be, and somewhat less idealistic (leaning dangerously to cynical) about
the performance of the team partners needed to get there.
Design and planning expertise
"Planning needs to be done by
people with design/planning expertise coupled with sufficient experience to
remain objective about their proposals. The rest of the team need to learn how
to resist the urge to be
'wannabe-designers-cos-it's-so-seductive-and-I-have-the-money'.
"What we are missing most in this country is mass awareness education (remind
the politicians they also are members of the masses) on the need to socially
coexist in self-and-mutual-respect and concern for each other's wellbeing and
tax dollars. Cities are not bunches of buildings grouped around some hole in the
street-grid for some politically correct concept devised by a few politicians as
a personal legacy project, where they secretly hope that some future generation
will place a bronze edifice of the conceptualiser.
"Concepts without vision and resources should remain concepts, that vanish
like mist when the sun of reason comes out from behind the dark clouds of some
hazy, likely-alcohol-facilitated adrenaline-rush delusion that real power is at
hand and its destiny is a project in the city.
"A plantation is not a forest. We need some serious vision with serious clout
behind it, like Hausmann (1) (who made Paris the undisputed 'most beautiful
city'), with Napoleon for power, for Joburg to even have a slice of a chance to
be a 'world-class African city.' We need a Rudy Giuliani of New York, or a Jaime
Lerner of Curitiba, Brazil.
"Someone (anyone - even) with enough depth to know how shallow the current
thinking is in these grandiose schemes. Haven't found any candidates yet, have
we?
Solving transport needs
"Lerner solved the Curitiba transport
needs (2) with a few hundred million US dollars - a city not much smaller today
than Joburg. He did it with buses and IQ. R3-billion each for Jozi and Tshwane
ought to do it, with another R2-billion for intercity buses and there'll be
plenty of change left over.
"Any consultant in private enterprise who crafts a budget for a project that
balloons from R2-billion (the original Gautrain estimates, as I remember them)
by even so little as 100 percent (!) should lose his job and client.
"Any client that allows the budget to balloon the way it has (rivalling
Zimbabwean inflation rates) should lose his job too. And after the Gautrain, the
plan still needs the buses.
"The GPG precinct buildings are rotting away, probably until the contract for
refurbishing them mushrooms into something one can really sink one's teeth into
- something that can take a lot of gravy.
"Remember Hassan Fathy's (3) experience in Egypt pre-world war two?
Politicians don't want to know that you can build a school for one third of the
current cost, and thus have enough to build three schools. A tight budget has no
room for fiddling 'adjustments'.
"And if at the end of the term of office, there are not enough schools, it's
the incoming's problem, who can call it an inherited problem, justifying a
bigger budget call.
Greater vision
"Fortunately for us, our politicians can see
beyond all that - they have the greater vision, don't they?
"But who can blame me for thinking that the GPG precinct and the Gautrain are
just 'me-too' projects that arose from the inner-room after-dinner
cognac-and-cigar-smoke haze of discussions on the political survivability of the
arms contracts of the late 1990s - great redistribution mechanisms.
"And having twice been the focus of attention of armed robbery in
Johannesburg, I lost a little blood and plenty of money and income in the
process (the most recent by Zimbabweans with guns poked in my face and spine -
the ones we should embrace with compassion but without recognising the
consequences), I have rapidly waning attention for these inventors of
cart-before-the-horse schemes.
"Democracy is missing a 'money-back guarantee' plan."
(1) For a good read about cities and an excellent account of Hausman's Paris,
see James Kuntzler's The City in Mind. (2) See entry in Massive
Change by Bruce Mau and The Institute without Boundaries (Exclusive
Books). (3) See Architecture for the Poor by Hassan Fathy.
A later addition
"As if to underline what I had written about
the value of design-experienced-and-minded persons in positions of power, after
posting the email to you, I read in the current issue of Wallpaper
magazine about another architect rising to the challenge after being appointed
deputy mayor of Qinpu in China.
"He made the city a landmark in the new China development surge (which makes
our boom look like a ripple on a pond - I saw a statistic some few years ago
that put over half the world population of high-rise construction cranes in
Shanghai alone!) and an architectural talking point. Then they made him mayor of
Jiading, another large developing region of Shanghai.
"I skimmed through your 24 October 2005
Farewell to Old Buildings. The Rand Water Board Building is something I
should go and have a look at.
"I have recently been photographing some downtown structures - not
necessarily with a specific purpose, but just to see what comes up, perhaps just
for my archives, perhaps because I have a growing obsession of a personal vision
of 'The City'.
"I had occasion late last year to go to the current Rand Water Board offices
on Impala Drive on the edge of the Klipriviersberg Nature Reserve. At the time I
wondered at the wisdom of locating an office building in that environment - even
though the area south of Impala is not technically reserve, it probably should
be.
"Again - parastatal privilege to ignore and override as they see fit. I
wonder if Rand Water Board had a good look at the possibility of refurbishment
of the CBD building before deciding to move. The most energy-conservative option
in the process of new building, is not to build at all.
"It's a question that requires a lot of courage to ask at a boardroom table -
'Do we really need a new building?'. This goes for the GPG precinct, too.
Tokyo
"I am currently reading a 1999 article on Tokyo, some
quotes:
"In Japan, buildings are designed in the expectation not that they will stand
the test of time but that they will be torn down sooner rather that later and
replaced by something more appropriate to the economic and technological demands
of the future." John Thackara
"The city changes at dizzying pace, defying every attempt at control and
planning. This internal, seemingly wilful force of change defines Tokyo." Judith
Connor Greer
"In Tokyo, they demolish 12 339m2 of buildings and newly construct 62 861m2
daily, while 455 units of new housing start every day." Tokyo Metropolis: facts
and figures (1993)
"The idea of a city that becomes like a museum, where you cannot pull down
buildings simply because they are old is questionable
In that sense Tokyo is
more liberated (than Western cities)." Sir Norman Foster
"Land in Tokyo commercial areas is usually 10 times more valuable than the
building on it. That I agree with these thoughts may appear to be in conflict
with my email but, in fact, it is not - I don't side either way with the
demolition gang or the heritage hugger. Everything on its merits.
"It's the ill-conceived and wasteful stop-start that is the problem. In the
case in point now of Joburg - it ends in limbo and strangulation of resources.
In these heritage buildings as well as the 'more modern, meaningless buildings',
is it the facade or the interior or the utility of the building that either
needs protection or is expendable?
"Is it possible to separate these? Do the planning first, take options if you
need to, get the decision, then spend the money. That looks like a logical plan
order to me.
"At least an office building can be given new services to bring it up to
current functionality. Last year I sat in on the Department of Public Works
internal workshop on heritage buildings preservation, which case studied the
Palace of Justice, the Old Synagogue in Paul Kruger Street, Pretoria (location
of the Mandela Treason Trial) and the Capitol Theatre - the former restored and
functional, the latter two rapidly decaying.
"The biggest question without an answer - to what function can these be
restored and adapted, that will be viable, self-supporting and justifiable
today? So far, no answers. The Capitol Theatre - once the largest, most
magnificent cinema in the southern hemisphere, the suit-and-tie dress-up
Saturday night Movietone news and movie magic of my childhood - is in the age of
television a parking garage for less than 50 cars by day, useless by night."
Hmm - lots to ponder; thank you for the input.
Cheers, Neil
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