Grand plans for historic warehouse on Bree Street

CITY approval this month – after more than a decade – of the redevelopment of a Bree Street building containing traces of an historic 18th century warehouse has been welcomed as an example of consensus between heritage and urban revitalisation.

Work on the site is expected to start this year.

The redevelopment proposal, the first version of which was submitted more than 10 years ago, in 2005, has the support of the provincial heritage authority Heritage Western Cape and the national South African Heritage Resources Agency and has been endorsed by the city and the Central City Improvement District as a contribution to revitalising Cape Town’s business precinct.

The approval brings to an end a protracted process of refinements, under the guidance of pre-eminent restoration architect Gawie Fagan, intended to make the most of salvageable historic elements, by making them accessible to the public and ensuring the sustainability of the building in its modern setting.

Portions of the building date back to the Dutch colony of the 1760s when Martin Melck, one of the wealthiest landowners in the region, built a warehouse on the site. Over the long period since, the property was subdivided and altered considerably.

The present owners, the Augoustides family, bought into the building in 2001 and consolidated their ownership of the whole unit by 2005.

After almost two- and- half centuries of incremental changes, however, it was clear that, as the Augoustides put it in their final presentation, “a classical restoration” was not possible “as there is too little of the original warehouse left”.

In the redevelopment proposal crafted by Fagan, however, “the existing buildings will be reconstructed to best reflect the historic form of the simple utilitarian warehouse” and “all authentic heritage fabric will be retained, restored and showcased”. A contemporary addition to the building – in effect, to pay for the restoration of the older form beneath it – will be “carefully positioned, set back and separated to allow the historic buildings to be the dominant impression”.

“The interior will be much improved with the opening up of spaces and the relocation of services outside of the historic areas,” according to the Augoustides presentation.

The owners said the Grade 3 property has “substantial development rights”, and is located in an area “which is undergoing massive large-scale development”, but that by retaining the “modest” scale of the original warehouse profile at street level there was an opportunity to preserve a sense of the heritage of the site. But it had to be paid for. “Without the additional bulk no reconstruction and restoration of the property will take place as it is not economically viable.”

Casey Augoustides this week welcomed the “consensus” and said he looked forward to “the positive contribution this can make to the city”.

One of the conditions is that archaeological monitoring must take place throughout the development.

michael.morris@inl.co.za