Portman to plan BSD's central business district
Portman to plan BSD's central business district
JAKARTA (JP): PT Bumi Serpong Damai (BSD) has selected John Portman & Associates of Atlanta to help master plan the new city to be developed 30 kilometers west of Jakarta.
The ambitious, privately funded, project entails the development of a 6,000-hectare site with a projected population of 600,000 people, Portman said in a statement made available to The Jakarta Post on Saturday.
Working with Doxiadis Associates, planning consultants from Athens, Greece, and PT Encona Engineering of Jakarta, Portman will be responsible for the master plan of the 300-hectare Central Business District, a site equal to the size of downtown Atlanta.
According to Walter Miller, architect and project coordinator for BSD's new town, "The Central Business District is a critical element in the success of the new city."
"To draw major corporations from Jakarta and elsewhere, BSD's new town must demonstrate that it has created an environment far superior to the over-burdened conditions people experience in the older cities. It must be able to respond to future growth and the changes brought by new technology," he said.
"We looked to Portman to plan our Central Business District Center because the firm has demonstrated visionary thinking that has had a catalytic effect on successful developments in other cities such as Atlanta, San Francisco and New York," Ken D'Angelo, a senior executive of BSD, said.
PT BSD began development of their new town in 1989 and, to date, has completed the construction of the first 5,500 dwellings for low, middle and upper income levels, an 18-hole Jack Nicklaus golf course, schools, shops and medical facilities.
They stated that strong interest in the master planned community concept of BSD's new town makes it one of the fastest growing real estate developments in Indonesia. The BSD commercial core is the next phase planned for release.
Free enterprise and market forces, not governmental mandate, are the driving force behind the development. BSD's new town is the first project of this size in Indonesia to be undertaken by private developers. The current populations of the BSD new town is over 30,000 residents after only six years and the uptake of new houses averages around 225 monthly.
John Portman & Associates is an international architectural and engineering firm, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia and recognized for urban design excellence and innovative design concepts. They have worked extensively in the Far East since early 1980s and have major projects in Singapore, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Shanghai, Hangzhou and Jinan. (hhr)