CASE STUDY Constitution Hill Precinct Government and philanthropic partners redeveloped this infamous site of persecution to preserve history, house South Africa’s Constitutional Court, and spur urban regeneration in Johannesburg. Executive Summary Organization Johannesburg Development Agency Location Johannesburg, South Africa Construction Type Renovation and new construction Opening Date South Africa 2004 Project Area 10.5 hectares (26 acres) Total Budget ZAR65 million The Atlantic Philanthropies Investment ZAR25 million ($4.4 million) The redeveloped Old Fort Prison in the Constitution Hill precinct Despite inexperience with heritage place-making and facing preserves one of the oldest places of incarceration and human rights significant financial barriers, project leaders worked to attain this abuses in South Africa. Before the heritage site opened in 2004, it transformation of Constitution Hill. Crowds exceeded expectations was a derelict and neglected former prison complex overlooking in the first two years after museum exhibits opened, subsequently Johannesburg. Today, it is home to the Constitutional Court and a followed by lower attendance levels. In addition to lower attendance, collection of museum spaces, symbolizing the country’s successful new private investment has not yet occurred, limiting the fight for democracy and serving to honor the nation’s triumph over achievement of goals for the site and causing financial challenges. A oppression. The goal of the precinct was to create a link between the member of the project team offered perspective on this reality, saying, past and the future through three interrelated missions: connect the “The things that went wrong were because the team took on an new Constitutional Court to historic sites of pain; preserve, conserve, innovative and high-risk idea for the development of the site. But we and restore history on the site; and use the site to spur urban had to do it.” regeneration. The project has in many ways already achieved lasting social impact From 1998 to 2004, several organizations and governing bodies by preserving important narratives, redefining national heritage, planned, managed, and implemented a series of heritage-driven and laying the groundwork for urban and cultural renewal. The capital and programmatic interventions on the site. The Atlantic Constitution Hill precinct allowed the vision for South Africa’s Philanthropies played a crucial role in providing seed funding for national court to be anchored in a symbolic, powerful moral history the renovation of the Old Fort Prison and a supportive role in other and catalyzed a center of redevelopment in Johannesburg. However, aspects of redeveloping the precinct. the precinct’s potential for impact has yet to be fully realized due to The project team rejected traditional curation techniques, redefining the demands of accomplishing different missions of varying scales the language of memorialization through architectural and under multiple governing bodies, as well as the immense challenge of exhibition design that engages visitors in an intimate, post-apartheid restituting the legacies of apartheid. reconciliatory experience via exposure to a multitude of voices and This case study is based on project research conducted by perspectives. According to one museum curator, the undertaking MASS Design Group in August 2015. Funded by The Atlantic was “one of the first heritage projects which aimed to tell histories Philanthropies, this case illustrates how a capital project can that had been neglected.” The completed precinct respects a place achieve significant public benefit, in this instance reclaiming a of national trauma while pointing toward the future of a revitalized site of oppression to reflect and advance a nation’s progress. It Johannesburg, embodying the image of a society in transition from a also illuminates the opportunities as well as challenges inherent in dark history to a bright future. complex public and philanthropic partnerships. 2 Purpose Built Series Capital projects often bring lasting benefits to nonprofit organizations and the people they serve. Given this opportunity, foundations grant more than $3 billion annually to construct or improve buildings in the United States alone.i Each capital project affects an organization’s ability to achieve its mission—signaling its values, shaping interaction with its constituents, influencing its work processes and culture, and creating new financial realities. While many projects succeed in fulfilling their purpose, others fall short of their potential. In most instances, organizations fail to capture and share lessons learned that can improve practice. To help funders and their nonprofit partners make the most of capital projects, The Atlantic Philanthropies and the S. D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation commissioned Purpose Built—a multi- faceted study by MASS Design Group, a nonprofit architecture and research firm. In 2015 and 2016, MASS conducted interviews, reviewed literature, and examined a diverse set of completed projects around the world; each project was supported by one of the above funders. The study generated a set of core principles as well as tools for those considering or conducting capital projects: Introducing the Purpose Built Series is an overview of the study and its core principles. Making Capital Projects Work more fully describes the Purpose Built principles, illustrating each with examples. Planning for Impact is a practical, comprehensive tool for those initiating capital projects. Charting Capital Results is a step-by-step guide for those evaluating completed projects. Purpose Built Case Studies report on 15 projects to illustrate a range of intents, approaches, and outcomes. See the full Purpose Built series online at www.massdesigngroup.org/purposebuilt. i Foundation Center, Foundation Maps data based on grants made in the United States, 2006-2015. 3 The goal of the precinct was to create a link between the past and the future through three interrelated missions: connect the Constitutional Court to historic sites of pain; preserve, conserve, and restore history on the site; and use the site to spur urban regeneration. Above. The museum’s exhibits juxtapose heroic anti-apartheid narratives with the experiences of ordinary people. This exhibit depicts female political prisoners who returned to the site to share their experience in the Women’s Jail. Cover. A view of the Old Fort Prison from its surrounding ramparts. should be reclaimed. Former Justice Sachs described the group’s Introduction conviction: We chose that site because of the intensity of the memory When South Africa’s apartheid regime ended in 1994, the country and the meaning of constitutional justice for fundamental created a democratic constitution to protect the rights of all South human rights. We fiercely resisted the idea . of just Africans and ensure that the horrors would never be repeated. South getting rid of the site. [Others] were saying, ‘It’s a site of Africa appointed 11 Constitutional Court Justices to uphold its pain, it’s horrible, it’s a vicious nightmare of memories new Constitution and Bill of Rights. The Justices had the additional of the past—get rid of it.’ And we said, ‘No.’ We need to responsibility of selecting a site that would serve the functional and tell the story of the journey from darkness to light . to symbolic needs of a new Constitutional Court. In 1996, after visiting capture that vicious energy and turn it into positivity . several locations, Justices Johann Kriegler and Albert “Albie” Sachs to convert swords into ploughshares. settled on the site of a deteriorating prison complex in the middle of As the project team moved toward the opening of Constitution Johannesburg with the hope that its poignant history would enable Hill, its members knew that making a physical and psychological South Africa’s future to be in dialogue with its past. connection between the site’s past, present, and future required The Court initiative led to larger ambitions for the entire site, which transforming the deteriorating prison complex into a heritage site. soon became known as the Constitution Hill precinct. This site had But there was no funding for such a project. been hollowed out during the apartheid era, as people left the area Heritage—particularly post-colonial heritage—was not a political in the 1980s due to apartheid policies and growing poverty. The priority at the time. As one member of the National Monuments complex included five infamous structures integral to the country’s Council of South Africa recalled, the Council realized that “the long experience of oppression spanning colonialism to apartheid: the building of the Court could be a catalyst for the caring of the heritage Old Fort Prison, the Number Four and Five Prisons, the Awaiting of this site.” In addition, investment in the redevelopment of this Trial Block, and the Women’s Jail. area of Johannesburg held regenerative economic potential for the While many wanted to demolish this place of terrible injustice and post-apartheid city. suffering, the Constitutional Court Justices insisted that its history 4 Left. The Constitution PARKTOWN Hill precinct was once considered a “black hole” that community Women’s Hospital members tried to Amphitheaters avoid. Today, it houses the Constitutional Nurses’ Home Open ground Court as well as UNIVERSITY OF Number Four and Five Prisons museum, heritage, and organizational THE WITWATERSRAND Underground parking office spaces. structures