Bridge Mall at dusk - imagery by Larry Vila Pouca, commissioned 2021
the bridge mall redevelopment
It’s a destination in the centre of our city - changing shape over generations and playing host to different retailers, traders and experiences over nearly 150 years. It has been the main artery into a busy growing town. It has been a bridge over flooding waters. And prior to white settlement it was a significant cultural landscape for Indigenous people - dominated by woodland and wetlands. Today Bridge Mall is sometimes fiercely loved, and sometimes fiercely ignored, as our city changes shape, grows and evolves.
Bridge Mall, or originally Bridge Street, is a place of layered and complex history - as well as being a creative and energetic hub for many. We are working on retaining these layers, while planning and creating a bold future.
The City of Ballarat is investing into the rejuvenation and evolution of Bridge Mall, seeking to once again restore this location as a destination it always has been.
Bridge mall and the creative city
With the City of Ballarat agreeing to implement the Creative City Strategy and Masterplan in 2019, this committed our community to explore the idea of co-design, taking active consideration of our creative strengths and hold ourselves to accountable to bold design-led thinking.
As we enter the Community Design stages for Bridge Mall, the Creative City Strategy comes into action - and that means you do too.
Creating a Destination - Episode 2
Join us on a trip down nostalgia lane as our short video series looks at the history of trade and retail in this important precinct.
Stage 1: you told us
You told us that there were some major things that needed to change in Bridge Mall.
1. A strong appetite for change within the precinct: You asked to encourage more foot traffic, and create a nighttime economy alongside a whole lot of other suggestions.
2. A stronger connection and celebration of the precinct’s history and story: Re-establishing a connection to the Yarrowee River and a more active connection to Ballarat’s Indigenous Heritage. Combined with restoration and maintenance of Ballarat’s historical buildings and architecture
3. The need to return to its role as a destination: More diverse retail and experiences. It also meant increased greening and inclusive public open spaces.
4. Facilitating movement within the Bridge Mall itself: This included the opening up to slow-moving traffic which was agreed to by Council.
Stage 2: into the flow
The first real design work was focusing on traffic flow and the functionality of Bridge Mall. In response to the feedback from community and ongoing extensive consultation, a plan was put in place to restructure the traffic flow from west to east.
This was implemented as part of the intention to reveal Bridge Mall as a destination again - encouraging flow of people and movement from the CBD into the Mall, rather than thinking of the Mall as just another thoroughfare.
stage 3: make it real
Alongside the development of the form and function of Bridge Mall is the need to ensure the space reflects and responds to how our community wants to use it. As we all know Bridge Mall has it’s own identity, it’s own vibe. You’ve asked for the Mall to be reinstated as a destination - and now we’re in the crucial phase of reinterpreting everything you’ve told us to shape the future identity of Bridge Mall.
We’re in the co-design phase, supported by the Creative City Masterplan and guided by creative thinking.
Photo by Larry Vila Pouca, 2021
what is community design?
Community Design is the truly local phase of design - where ideas become reality. There’s a quite a few steps to developing a co-designed environment. We’re working with the architects and design teams to make sure we create a space that truly reflects the needs of Ballarat and the current and future users of Bridge Mall. This will include linking people and groups who are connected to the Mall into the design process. Taking the next steps on from consultation we’re welcoming people into the future visions and have them help create and enhance the new designs.
HOW IS THE CREATIVE AND WIDER COMMUNITY INVOLVED?
The co-design program includes a series of co-creation interviews with identified individuals and groups from across the city. These are small and intimate discussions with targeted people who will help to test the ideas of how we use the spaces today and tomorrow, how technology might be integrated into the Mall, and what great design will look like, amongst a wealth of other things. We’’ll be interviewing the visionaries, the creatives, the historians, the retailers - those who’ve loved the Mall of yesterday, those who are passionate about it today and those who want to see it honoured into the future.
There will be co-creation workshops alongside the architects that will explore proposed ideas, and looping in with experts who can help translate wish lists into reality. This might include how the design can integrate with the landscape or how we might include important artefacts or celebrate moments in time. We’ve included digital creatives, heritage storytellers, retailers and traders, urban designers, First Nations peoples, civic space making specialists and others.
There will also be a series of ‘sense checks’ with implementation reviewers - people within our community who represent wider groups of diverse interests. The ‘sense checks’ will consider issues like accessibility for those who are very young or very old, infirm or disabled. These checks will consider transport and movement, climate change and issues around sustainability. It will look at the changing face of retail and prepare us for a better tomorrow.
Bold thinking + good design = a better bridge mall
We’re working in with the architects and designers as they coordinate the flow and use of spaces - and the co-design phase has been integrated into their timings. At the close of the Community Design phase the architects and designers will be a stronger position to finish their designs and present their thinking back to the City, and back to you.
Creating a Destination - Episode 1
As part of the Design development phase, we have spent time examining the characters, the notable moments, the history of Bridge Mall. Take a trip down recent memory lane and hear how ‘doing laps’ of Sturt Street and Bridge Street in the 1960s and 1970s might have secured you a date.
Creating a Destination - Episode 3
We go back even further in time to learn about the importance of the Bridge in the formation of Ballarat when gold fever first hit. From fights to floods, the Bridge very much brought together the divides of West and East Ballarat.
want to know more?
If you want to review the full consultation and see the process of the program from the very beginning, you can see all the progress and check in on the next stages of development.