Portside Tower

Portside Tower

The Completed Portside Tower in 2014.
General information
Type Commercial
Address 5 Buitengracht Street
Town or city Cape Town
Country South Africa
Coordinates 33°55′00″S 18°25′19″E / 33.91667°S 18.42194°E / -33.91667; 18.42194
Completed 2014
Cost R1.6 Billion (estimated)[1]
Owner Old Mutual Investment Group Property Investments and FirstRand Bank Ltd, each owning a separate sectional title unit
Height 139 metres[2]
Technical details
Floor count 32[2]
Floor area over 52,000 m2[2]
Design and construction
Architecture firm dhk Architects; Louis Karol Architects[2]
Civil engineer WSP Structures
Nadeson
Quantity surveyor Aecom Davis Langdon
De Leeuw Group
Main contractor Murray & Roberts

Portside is a 139 metre[2] tall building in Cape Town, South Africa. Completed in 2014, it is the city's tallest building[3][4] and is Cape Town's first significant skyscraper developed in the central business district (CBD) in 15 years.[5] The building is jointly owned by FirstRand Bank (FNB, RMB, Wesbank and Ashburton) and Old Mutual. The bank will self-occupy while Old Mutual will be renting office space to premium customers.

Conception

In 2008 it was initially proposed that the building include a hotel and be 147.6m above sea level. However due to the Late-2000s recession and difficulties around securing a hotel management contact the project was put on hold for almost three years and the design was altered.[6]

During the design and planning phase, and after extensive public participation, it was decided to keep the building below a certain height so as not to obscure the view of Table Mountain. The tower will have over 51,500 m2 of office space with remaining space being used for over 1,382 parking bays[7] and retail outlets.

The building was designed to use low energy technology throughout and is the first large building in South Africa to use almost exclusively LED Lighting. The building has been awarded a five star Green Star rating from the Green Building Council of South Africa as compliant technologies have been specified throughout.[8]

Construction

The Portside Tower under construction in June 2012. The picture is taken from the South facing side of the building.

Construction work on the tower began on the 12 August 2011.[6] In late March 2013 construction was temporarily halted by the City of Cape Town's disaster response unit due to strong gale force winds making the scaffolding unstable.[7]

References

  1. ↑ "At The Portside". Land Mark Properties. Retrieved April 21, 2011.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 The Building Portside
  3. ↑ http://www.emporis.com/statistics/tallest-buildings-capetown-southafrica
  4. ↑ http://www.iolproperty.co.za/roller/news/entry/cape_town_s_tallest_building
  5. ↑ "Portside Tower Cape Town". e-architect. 20 Apr 2009. Retrieved April 21, 2011.
  6. 1 2 Williams, Murray (August 4, 2011). "Cape Town to get new tallest building". Cape Argus. Retrieved March 31, 2013.
  7. 1 2 March 31, 2013. "Winds make Cape skyscraper unstable". SAPA. Retrieved March 31, 2013.
  8. ↑ "Portside Ahoy In Cape Town". Skyscrapernews.com. 2009-06-19. Retrieved April 21, 2011.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Portside Tower.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Saturday, March 26, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.