END STREET PARK

The redesign of End Street Park formed part of the final phase of the upgrading of the Ellis Park Sports Precinct. This Park played a significant role in an ambitious undertaking to rejuvenate the inner city of Johannesburg prior to the Confederation Cup and FIFA World Cup 2010. End Street Park is part of a network of squares, streetscapes, sporting facilities and parks, each entity requiring its own unique design language, yet forming part of the envisioned ‘green web’.

Johannesburg Development Agency (JDA) targeted three dilapidated parks as an “open space retreat” that could make a positive impact on the community, with the area envisioned to be bold but suitable, colourful but durable, inviting but hardy and aligned with the urban fabric. The original park was completely neglected, deteriorated and perilous but showed promise with regard to its location, as it would service Joubert Park, Marshall Town, Ferreirasdorp, Jeppe, Troyville and Betrams, to name but a few.

This area is the only play area for the schools in Nugget and End Streets, and required a new vision to add value to its intended users - a park with challenging bureaucratic paradigms within the urban context.

End Street Park, with its rounded play beacons, five aside soccer fields and idiosyncratic details, challenges the notions of archetypal play parks and invites a different stance on how a city play park is perceived. The result is a sequence of unique solutions with an individual and surprising enigmatic aesthetic.