You can really let your creative energy loose for public safety!

The Balfour Park Transit Precinct Development - the Johannesburg Development Agency keeps creating high-quality public spaces for the City of Johannesburg - Balfour Public Environment Upgrade is one of the news. 

The latest public environment upgrade undertakings by the JDA are the Balfour Park Student Promenade along Athol Street in Region E of Johannesburg. 

The Balfour Park Student Promenade forms part of the Balfour Park Transit Precinct Development in line with the Growth and Development Strategy 2040 based on the corridor Transit-oriented Development (TOD). 

The precinct plan falls under the Louis Botha Development Corrido to facilitate a visibly improved public environment and develop non-motorised transport facilities to create an integral precinct.

The kickstart zone to implement this plan was Balfour Park Student Promenade which extends along Athol Street, starting from St Mary’s High School and ending at Campbell Street before Louis Botha Avenue.

The safety of pedestrians has specifically been an issue along Athol Street. Many learners use this street to reach Louis Botha Avenue, where taxi drop-off and pick-up points are, and the schools are west and east of the main road. 

The scope of work for the Balfour Park Student Promenade project included:

•         Public Environment Upgrades

•         Hard & Soft Landscaping

•         Kerbing and channelling

•         Sidewalks and paving

•         Traffic calming measures

•         Public Art

The Johannesburg Development Agency has a strong track record of sustainable inner-city regeneration and environmentally friendly development across the City. This project is in line with the objective of the Agency to regenerate decaying areas of Johannesburg to enhance its ability to contribute to the economic development of the City and the quality of life of its residents, said MMC for Development Planning, Cllr Belinda Echeozonjoku.

ARTMYJOZI ADDS TO THE APPEAL OF THE STUDENT PROMENADE

The appeal in Balfour Park brings in safety without a doubt. When developing public space JDA aligns feeling safe with an appreciation for developing a colourful City. 

The continued rollout of its Public Art Programme, ArtMyJozi, a place-making through art initiative implemented along the transit-oriented development corridors, undertook the beautification of the Balfour Park Student Promenade with the installation of public art.

The ArtMyJozi team began work on the Student Promenade on this site in March 2022, focusing on the student promenade. Within this scope, the team installed a series of murals and mosaics on urban furniture and artworks on lighting features.

In 2018 the ArtMyJozi team conducted workshops with St Mary’s Junior and Senior School, Waverly Girls, and Northview High School. The themes of pedestrian safety and visibility, social connectivity, identity, vernacular visual language, and multifunctional spaces. 

This year the ArtMyJozi also held workshops around similar themes with Atholton Pre-Primary School and St Mary’s School. The outcomes from these workshops have gone through a graphic design translation process and applied to the various urban elements defining the Student Promenade upgrade. 

The creative workshops in 2018 with Waverly Girls, St Mary’s and Northview High School were learners' responses to visibility, safety, and accessibility. 

The creative design workshops had remarkable performative qualities, and it was fantastic to see the learners embracing some of these themes through their collective and collaborative work. 

The large mural on the boundary wall of the new Flex development represents a distillation of the learners' embodiment of those ideas. The murals are a marker and record of the conceptual work done in 2018 as it is an enlivening intervention on that stretch of the upgrade area.

The Balfour Park Student Promenade supplements the various developments that have been taking place in the Louis Botha Corridor, including Orchards Clinic, the Rea Vaya Phase 1C rollout and the recently completed Paterson Park Multipurpose Centre.