History Electrical ; Turbine Square Citichat 18 April 2008

CITICHAT 15/2008 - 18 April 2008

History Electrical;Turbine Square


The ‘Phenomenal’ Turbine Square Development


This past Monday I received an invitation to join a tour of the Turbine Hall development which was to take place this morning, which it did, and which provided the motivation to divert me from my planned Citichat programme for today. We’ll get back to Joburg’s early vices next week! In the meantime, some background and updating on this great inner city development which provides a spectacular example of sympathetic blending of old and new and much, much more. The invitation provided sufficient motivation to also break my hitherto rigid schedule of writing Citichats on a Thursday night! So, the first section on the History of Turbine Hall was written very early on Wednesday morning, ironically by the light of a battery powered lamp as we were experiencing ‘load shedding’ (!) and the balance was written after this morning’s tour.

The expert in regard to the history and significance of not just the building but also of the whole issue of electrical power in Johannesburg, is historian Sue Krige whose 2005 “Report on the History of Jeppe Street Power Station and Turbine Square Precinct, Newtown, 1905 – 2005” makes fascinating reading. It is actually more than fascinating when one reads it against the background of the current electricity supply debacle – it gave me a distinct sense of déjà vu. My thanks to Sue for letting me use her work as the basis for this Citichat.

By 1892, six years after the discovery of gold, Johannesburg had a small power plant built in President Street which, via two gas-engine dynamos, provided power for street lighting. A steam engine was added in 1893 and the system continually expanded up to 1899.

As is the case today, the installations were just not able to meet growing demand especially after the South African War ended. The British administration in Joburg under Lord Milner was determined to develop an efficient transport infrastructure but this would include an electric tramway system so more power was desperately needed.

The British consultants appointed to review the city’s needs recommended a gas engine approach, more expensive than steam but providing supposed savings in fuel consumption. The gaseous fuel was generated on site from charcoal or coal using special gas producers. A new building to house the plant was built on President Street in 1906 – it later became known as the Electric Workshop and now houses the Sci Bono science and technology centre. Unfortunately, no-one had checked the suitability of local coal nor the quality of imported materials and the project ‘ran into serious problems’ which culminated in an explosion in the Boiler House in March 1907 leading to the whole installation being shut down shortly thereafter. Maybe the coal was ‘too damp’ as is the current excuse! The power needed in Johannesburg at that time was about 10 MW. (We evidently now use about 3 700 MW - in his ‘State of the City’ address in February this year, Executive Mayor Amos Masondo advised that Eskom generates approximately 37 000 MW of electricity and that Johannesburg consumes 10% of this.)

Certain of the gold mines produced their own supply together with a company floated in 1906 to deliver ‘electric current and compressed air’ to the mining industry. This was the Victoria Falls & Transvaal Power Company known as the VFP. A new building was erected to the east of the Electric Workshop on the site which is now the SAB World of Beer, this became the second President Street Power Station. In 1910, 13 reciprocating steam engine-driven generators were installed in the new building producing just over 6MW and, later that year, three turbo alternator condensing sets were installed. By 1913 sufficient power, 13 MW, was being generated to supply the City’s needs.

Also by 1910, the VFP had already established a ‘near monopoly’ with a generating capacity of almost 100 MW. The City however determined that it would remain responsible for supplying electricity to its citizens and that the profits generated would be used to reduce rates. In the aftermath of the First World War, secondary industrialisation surged and, with it, the demand for power. Capacity was increased in 1921 and 1922 against the background of continuous pressure from VFP for the City to buy its power. Sue provides a wonderfully appropriate quote, given our current problems, dated April 9, 1925 from the General Manager of the Gas and Electric Supply Department of the Johannesburg Municipality: “The Council would be seriously jeopardizing the supply of electric energy to its consumers if it decided to take power from an outside source. Reliability of service is essential to a city of the size and importance of Johannesburg. A state of chaos would arise in Johannesburg if a reliable service could not be given, in fact it would be repeating the troubles experienced by Johannesburg some time ago when the gas engine plant proved unsuitable.” Ja, nee, 83 years later and those words are as apt now as I am sure they were then!

In fact it was the national government of the time that set us irrevocably onto the path that has led us into our current crisis (whoops, did I say ‘crisis’?) The British consultants employed by national government recommended that ownership of transmission systems should be flexible and all possible forms of ownership considered. They therefore proposed that ownership of the distribution system be shared among ‘private enterprise’ and local municipal bodies and that any overarching body established similar to the British ‘Electricity Supply Commissioners’ be regulatory only. Governments, as we know to our ongoing cost, always know better and when the Electricity Supply Act No. 42 of 1922 was promulgated it established Escom to “create a national power generating and transmission network”. All proposals for new power stations would have to now be sanctioned by the Administrator. The larger cities immediately objected and our own city minuted that “the Bill should be opposed in every respect where the Council’s present rights are infringed.” In 1923 the city received a consultant’s study of its future power needs and accepted its proposal for a new power station to be built in Jeppe Street next to the existing President Street installation. Of course, the proposal took a number of years and serious argument with the Administrator before it was accepted. In September 1927, the first section of the Jeppe Street Power Station came into operation utilising a 10 MW turbo generator. The physical development included the turbine hall, the north boiler house and three concrete cooling towers. The second section was completed three years later with two more 10 MW turbo generators that required extensions to be made to both the turbine hall and the boiler house and the construction of three more cooling towers, this time in timber. The President Street facility was gradually phased out until it was only used for peak demand and ultimately decommissioned and converted to a sub-station in 1937.

Demand grew, new applications to the Administrator were made for extending the system, they were refused and the City was ultimately forced to buy from VFP during peak demands. Eventually further extensions were sanctioned which involved overhauling the existing boilers, extending the turbine hall, providing a new boiler house (south) and a new boiler. Further extensions were made during 1935-8 and final extensions made in 1939. By this stage the building had 4X10 MW sets; 2X17 MW sets and 2X20 MW sets - that’s a total capacity of 114 MW. In 1939 permission was obtained to build the Orlando Power Station as a state-of-the-art facility. Delayed by the Second World War, it became the City’s main power plant in 1945 and Jeppe Street became a standby station.

In 1948 Escom bought out VFP and from then on, all power would be supplied increasingly by Escom. The private sector, and eventually the municipalities, were effectively shut out. However, Kelvin A was completed in 1959 and Kelvin B in 1970. Jeppe Street was shut down in October 1961. Later, in 1967, 22 MW aero-jet gas turbines were commissioned to act as back-up supply and various alterations made to the building to accommodate the technological changes.

In 1969 the Administrator finally totally rejected calls from various cities to build their own power plants although it was proved on factual evidence that the cities’ electrical generation would be cheaper than that of Escom. The City was now forced to take bulk supply from Escom. Between 1970 and 1972 the Jeppe Street Power Station was cleared of non-operational equipment, some cooling towers were demolished and the buildings used for workshops and offices – the gas turbines of course were kept operational as back-up. Major alterations were made with a view to still being able to operate the turbines if necessary whilst allowing for the possibility of some form of development of the balance of the site. The concrete cooling towers were imploded in 1985.

The City went out on a proposal call envisaging a retail and entertainment complex to be built on the site. In November 1990 the project was awarded to developers and the City announced that completion of the new project was anticipated for 1992. There was a great deal of controversy regarding the proposed development. The Council of the time awarded the project to the highest tenderer who, it transpired, did not have tenants in place and later evidently ran into major financial difficulties. Lower tenderers were not considered even though they had secured major tenants and finance. The award was perceived to be a typical short-sighted Council decision ‘looking for the biggest bang for the buck’ and ending with no buck and no bang, nor even a whimper! They certainly made a great deal of noise declaring that this was to be the start of the inner city’s regeneration and of investment returning to the city. It sure didn’t happen then! The site was left derelict and decaying. Turbine Hall and the boiler houses were invaded by squatters and in 2001 it was described as “one of the harshest living spaces in Johannesburg where the filth alone could drive away the most incessant compassion.”

Behind the scenes however, the developer had started talks with AngloGold Ashanti as to the building, or part of it, being redeveloped as their corporate headquarters. At the time, AngloGold Ashanti were accommodated in 11 Diagonal Street and known to be not particularly happy with their working environment. Isn’t it interesting to note that such talks were held over ten years ago, in fact before the Nelson Mandela Bridge was built? Big, meaningful projects such as this are never spur of the moment decisions. As I so often say, urban decay is rapid – urban regeneration takes a lot of time and patience. That such patience has been justified in what has been done is actually quite an understatement. If ever there was a brilliant example of not just old and new being blended together but also the past, with all its many blemishes, being interwoven with a vision of the future, it is in this development.

Two heritage plaques greet one at the main entrance to the building, one briefly recording the history of Turbine Hall and the other that of the Jeppe Street Power Station itself. Eric Itzkin, the City’s Deputy Director of Immovable Heritage, described the development as the “flagship” project of Newtown that hopefully will attract other investors to pursue further development in Newtown. He emphasised how history can be celebrated through new structures whilst retaining what was once a ‘magnificent ruin’ thus demonstrating the capacity of historic buildings to take on new lives and functions and for us to witness rebirth in the life of places and in the life of the city.

Sue Krige made a inciteful comment as to the fact that many people today cannot understand Newtown as ‘the industrial area of the city’ because it has, been designated from the late 1980s as the city’s ‘cultural precinct’. She pointed out that the Market Theatre and Kippies had in fact ‘held the line’ against the decay of Newtown for many, many years and that their action in doing so enabled people to envisage the area as a cultural precinct. In fact, standing in Newtown today, does make it difficult for those without knowledge of its history to believe that it was once a very busy industrial area. “It is probably easier”, she said, “to imagine the market precinct, to the north of Mary Fitzgerald Square being an industrial area rather than to imagine the south-eastern section being the electrical heartland of the city which it of course was until 1961. The Market precinct had resulted from the need to supply the city with fresh produce following the Anglo Boer War. “It’s hard to believe”, she commented, “that as late as 1938 there were still cattle in kraals in Newtown”. Sue paid tribute to Herbert Prins, the heritage consultant for the project, for his vision in recognising that the important essence of the complex could in fact be retained even if the North Boiler House had to be demolished, which was what the development team wished to do, but which was strongly challenged at the time.

Guy Steenekamp from the project architects TPC Architects, outlined their design philosophy and approach to the development: “Having demolished the north boiler house” and committed that particular ‘crime’ ” he said, “we tried very hard not to commit any others in regard to the existing fabric so our approach was two pronged. One, to reincorporate the underlying element of the existing structures which was to create hard street edges to Jeppe Street and secondly to create the ‘soft inner sanctum’ which is described as a set of pavilions. As opposed to wall structures and well defined streets and squares what we have is an almost random collection of objects accidentally describing interesting spaces and form. Our approach to creating this inner space was thus, rather than using a homogenous language in the architecture, to use several languages borrowing fairly freely from some of the existing structures and the detail you can see on the outside. The approach to the South Boiler House and the Turbine Hall was to touch them as lightly as possible and applying the test whether the intervention could be reversed if it had to be.”

The design team has maintained the patina of the buildings and the integrity of the interior spaces and yet expressed the unity of the original buildings and the cohesion with the new structures through the flow of the spaces. “It’s about promoting and obtaining the transparency of the public spaces within the three buildings and yet always having that sense of space beyond. “For me”, he said, “that was the most striking aspect of the composition of the original buildings - more so than the exterior architecture.”

Statistically AngloGold Ashanti takes up 14 000 m2 of space with another 4000 m2 in the Boiler House and the Turbine Hall for other occupancy. The developers, Tiber Bonvic, only developed the site to a fifth of its potential which in itself required great discipline in not wishing to maximise the development but rather to optimise it “The retention of the Turbine Hall has embraced a concept of a box within a box, the new structure sitting freely within the original shell and again maintaining the integrity of the space.”

This development is a success because, as was pointed out to us, it fulfils three basic requirements. A tenant who wants the space and is prepared to commit to it (AngloGold Ashanti demonstrated their commitment by being prepared to negotiate over a decade and then commit to a 15 year lease); secondly, an investor willing to work with and follow the spirit set by the heritage authorities and, thirdly, a site. The three elements combined with a very consultative process and working closely with City, who supported them fully, enabled the professional team to deliver what is a superb project.

AngloGold Ashanti undertook an interesting intervention to prepare their staff for the move. Working on the premise that ‘buildings are for people’ they spent over two years in ensuring that their staff would accept a move from cellular offices on small floors where communication was difficult to an open plan layout where people can communicate and connect freely. In this, the vision and leadership of their previous Chief Executive, Bobby Godsell, was critical.

For me where this development has been singularly successful is in the way in which the memory of the old buildings has been retained – as many of the elements from the demolished sections as possible were saved and built into the new structures, whilst new work was painted, the old was left as it was and every threshold or transition between old and new was emphasised with diagonal elements that makes a story of the buildings that is very legible and easy to understand.

Someone in the group remarked at some stage of our tour - “Phenomenal!”, and that is what this development is. A real tonic, a renewed optimism for the future of the city and a renewed confidence and respect for the design profession.

Regards, neil