New designs for Little Bridge Street

Concept art of the Little Bridge project (via CoB)

As part of its wider revamp of the Bridge Mall area, the City of Ballarat has released some new designs for Little Bridge Street, including the bus interchange. Let's take a look, starting with the stuff I think is a bit more contentious. 

Detailed designs for Bridge Mall

Illustrative concept plan for reopening Bridge Mall (via City of Ballarat)

Design firm Hassell has put forward detailed designs for reopening Bridge Mall and redesigning Grenville Street, which will be considered by Ballarat Council this Wednesday. So what's in store? 

Designs for the new Bridge Mall

Renders for the new Bridge Mall design (via CoB)

The City of Ballarat's chosen design firm, Hassell, has come back with a preferred design option for the Bridge Mall. It's going before Council for approval tonight, so let's take a look. 

Re-trafficking Bridge Mall

So! The saga of the Bridge Mall continues. In my last post on the topic, I pointed out that there was a lot to like about the City of Ballarat's draft Bakery Hill and Bridge Mall Urban Renewal Plan, but that there was one very retrograde step proposed - reopening Bridge Mall to cars. Unfortunately they not only went ahead with this idea in the final plan, but have progressed it much faster than all the good stuff - they announced the designer in May, and have now narrowed the project down to three options which have been put out to consultation.

Revitalising Bakery Hill

About 18 months ago I did a post on how to revitalise Bridge Mall, which was intended mostly as a starting point and contained some pretty modest suggestions. The City of Ballarat recently released their draft Bakery Hill and Bridge Mall Urban Renewal Plan which looks at the Mall itself and the wider Bakery Hill area - and I'm pleased to say they've been much more ambitious than me. However they've let themselves down by including something that would be a real backwards step for the area.

Reviving Bridge Mall

There's been a lot of talk in Ballarat circles lately about how to revitalise Bridge Mall - and (somewhat coincidentally) it's happening around the same time there's been a lot of debate about the effects of various street-shaping projects on Sturt and Mair Streets. Many people are concerned about how desolate Bridge Mall can get, and worried that the same sort of thing could happen on surrounding streets - so it's worth discussing the kinds of things that help or hinder the vitality of a street.

Bridge Mall in 2016