Andrew Boraine | Category Archive

Archive | Urban Development RSS feed for this section

Jay Walking in Cape Town

I spent an enjoyable two hours yesterday walking the streets of the city and talking about the history of Cape Town and South Africa with Lucie Pagé, an award-winning French-Canadian writer and journalist. Impatient with many travel guides to South Africa that still persist in starting with “In 1652, Jan …

Why Cape Town is bidding for World Design Capital 2014

05 September 10 4 Comments

For an overview as to why Cape Town is currently bidding for the title of World Design Capital 2014, and changing the name of the design game in the process, read the excellent article by my colleague, Lorelle Bell, followed by the editorial by the Cape Argus, which gets it spot on. …

Cape Town’s Integrated Rapid Transit System takes shape

26 August 10 1 Comment

The City of Cape Town announced deadlines for the implementation of phase one of the Integrated Rapid Transit System (IRTS) at a meeting of the Cape Town Partnership’s Central City Partners Forum this week.

The West Coast trunk route between Bayside Shopping Centre and the CBD/ Waterfront will be up and running …

Whoops! Did someone perhaps jump the gun?

22 August 10 1 Comment

Sunday, 22 August. We had been waiting for about two hours at the Clyde-Pinelands sports fields, along with a good crowd of about 5 000 people, to watch the demolition of the Athlone Towers. Finally, three minutes to go. Nearly time for the big event. A stir of anticipation began …

Athlone Towers – a giant new opportunity for a different approach to city building?

22 August 10 2 Comments

When our boys were small, their name for the Athlone cooling towers was the ‘giant’s coffee cups’. Located near the N2 highway out of Cape Town, the ‘coffee cups’ usually signified the start of a holiday weekend out of town, or the end of a long tiring journey home.

For …

The ‘unhappy compromise’ shows signs of coming of age

07 August 10 5 Comments

The Cape Town Foreshore has been described as an ‘unhappy compromise’ resulting in series of ‘wind-blown stretches of asphalt and concrete, filled with car parks and roaring traffic, inaccessible to pedestrians.’* Yet on a still winter’s morning, in the early dawn light, on foot, the Foreshore can almost be beautiful.…

Post 2010 paradigm shifts create opportunities for new city development

30 July 10 8 Comments

In 2008, the City of Cape Town and the Cape Town Partnership published the Central City Development Strategy – a framework to guide change and manage growth over the next ten years. We are currently reviewing and updating the strategy in light of the 2010 World Cup experience.

The 2010 …

Cape Town Squared (or how some of our most valuable public assets are not being properly used)

20 July 10 5 Comments

Do you remember the popular zebra artworks dotted around public spaces in Cape Town during the World Cup? Well, they’ve now migrated to the Artscape Piazza on the Foreshore.

The 33 zebras form an exhibition entitled ‘Not all is Black and White’, by the World for All Foundation, which …

Storming the ramparts: How the Castle of Good Hope can become part of city life

12 July 10 2 Comments

One of the good things about hosting a large global event like the 2010 World Cup is the way we were able do things that previously seemed impossible. Like regular road closures to create safe pedestrian spaces, reliable public transport, dressing the city in bright colours, colourful wall murals and outdoor advertisements, …

Cape Town Station – on track for 2010, but a lot more still needs to be done

23 May 10 2 Comments

The CT Station has been receiving its first major overhaul since it was built as an apartheid station in the early 1960s. I walked around the site a few days ago with colleagues from Intersite and the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) to look at the progress that has been

…

Siyajikeleza, Laat Wiel, Going Places

19 May 10 3 Comments

At the invitation of the City of Cape Town, I went for a ride on one of the new Integrated Rapid Transit (IRT) buses today to view three of the stations that have recently been completed: Civic Centre, CT Airport and Cape Town Stadium. It was exciting experience, as it is now possible to …

The infrastructural benefit of South Africa’s World Cup

18 May 10 0 Comments

A useful article by Nate Berg, who argues that the main benefit of South Africa’s World Cup is the urban infrastructure investments, particularly with regard to public transport, but that the real test will be in the country being able to maintain momentum after the World Cup. Read here

Nate Berg is …

« Newer Entries

Older Entries »