If there is a metaphor for a
dead Johannesburg, it is the old gasworks in Cottesloe with its
rusted steel and polluted ground. But now it is about to be
reinvented as one of the city's go-to places, complete with a
boutique hotel, loft apartments, offices, a parkland and lifestyle
shopping centre.
The three iconic gas tanks that
dominate this part of Johannesburg's skyline will become two. The
third will be knocked down and erected again -- in its present
circular shape -- as offices or loft apartments.
Ten years in the making, Egoli Gas is about to issue a tender for
a developer to pump R1-billion into the 14.8 hectare site to
transform a set of derelict buildings into a precinct that uniquely
combines a working gas plant with a niche shopping centre and
attached living and work components. It is reminiscent of the
Waterfront development in Cape Town with its working
harbour.
The site will continue to operate as a gasworks and, with gas on
tap, the street lights and appliances in the apartments and
restaurants will, of course, run on gas.
The revamp will include 1 000 underground parking bays for
shoppers. There will be 10 600m2 for retail therapy and 700 middle-
to upper-income apartments and 730 student units are planned. The
boutique hotel will be a new building with 100 rooms, built to fit
in with the red-brick and steel structures around it.
"It will be a modern aesthetic in a new way," said Barry Senior of
Gapp Architects, the firm responsible for the Waterfront. Gapp has
done the Apartheid Museum, Nelson Mandela Square and the Maropeng
visitor centre in the Cradle of Humankind.
Built in typical World War II style, the buildings date back to
1939 when the gasworks was constructed to operate as a coal-to-gas
plant. It was decommissioned in 1992 and has sat derelict since
then. Egoli Gas now gets its gas from Mozambique through Sasol and
distributes it to 7 500 households and businesses in the
city.
There has been no shortage over the years of parties interested in
rehabilitating the site and turning it into a chic post-industrial
living location, but there has been a problem: the plant had tar as
a toxic by-product that accumulated on the site.
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