MXD is proud to announce that the Ekurhuleni Aerotropolis (Johannesburg, South Africa) Master Plan has won the first place award for ‘Best Private Sector Project’ at the biannual Planning Africa 2016 awards held on July 4th in Johannesburg, South Africa. The Ekurhuleni Aerotropolis Master Plan also tied for first place to win the ‘Best Public Sector Project’ award for the project’s client, Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality who also submitted the plan for consideration as part of a separate category.
The Ekurhuleni Aerotropolis Master Plan identified and defined economic and social development opportunities for Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality, a major city of 3.1 million people spanning 1,950 km2 located adjacent to Johannesburg and Pretoria. The Ekurhuleni Aerotropolis Master Plan gives strategic direction for the public and private investment of hundreds of billions of Rand in transportation infrastructure, real estate development, and social infrastructure and services, while leveraging OR Tambo (Johannesburg ‘JNB’) International Airport’s tremendous connectivity and economic impact to help alleviate poverty and unemployment.
MXD worked with an exceptionally talented team, including the LA-based planning and design studio of Callison-RTKL, with whom MXD also collaborated with to create the Tennessee APA award-winning Memphis Aerotropolis Master Plan, Pretoria-based Turner & Townsend, and the project was led by Pretoria-based Aurecon.