THE Bloomfield Street Cleveland streetscape was 20 years old last month.
The $2.5m streetscape was built between June and October 1993 and most of the work was done at night to minimise the disruption to traders.
Designed by John Mongard Landscape Architects in conjunction with the Redland Shire Council's planning department, the streetscape set new standards in civic design and won several design awards.
The streetscape project aimed to bind together the structure of the main street with a series of community projects, including a children's playground, and a poetry trail.
Seven community arts projects were created to allow community participation, foster ownership, enrich the street and to build resistance to acts of vandalism and rejection.
The detailed elements of the streetscape went beyond the basics of paving, landscaping, furniture and built form
The design included a children's playground, and a poetry trail.
It included banners and windsocks designed by the local art students; street sculptures; a town map carved into the street pavers and a town logo designed by children.
The poetry trail l became a memoriam for the legendary local Aboriginal poet Oodegeroo Noonuccal (Kath Walker). This was the first poetry trail in Queensland.
And the streetscape project is credited as the catalyst for community arts in the Redlands.
No resources existed for the creation of community arts in the Shire prior to this Streetscape Project. No cultural or community development workers, no community arts budget or section; not even a policy regarding the arts.
After the project, the Redland Shire Council adopted a Cultural Policy and a Cultural Services Manager was appointed.
The Bloomfield Street Project has been recognised with an award of excellence from the Royal Australian Planners Institute in 1993 for Urban Design, and an Australia Day Award for cultural development.
At the town scale, the project has created an undeniable heart which is generating new growth in Cleveland. At the district scale, the project has created a civic living room - a place where festivals and cultural rituals have begun to foster
