Ponte City: 'Back To The Future'

A COLOURFULL HISTORY (1)

Ponte City, originally called the Strydom Tower, was built in 1975 to a height of 173m, making it the tallest residential skyscraper in Africa. It was an extremely desirable address for its views of Johannesburg and its surroundings, but after the end of apartheid, many immigrants and gangs moved into the building.

Original architect of Ponte City in Johannesburg, Rodney GrosskopfThe original architect, Rodney Grosskopf, says that the original idea was to do two buildings to form the entrance to Johannesburg. “We were going to do one where Ponte is now, and the other at the site over the road, but we didn't end up building the other building. We wanted to do a round building as there had never been a round building in Johannesburg,” he says.

”We were never going to build so many floors. At one stage we were only going to build 35 floors, but the developer started to get worried and we had to do 54 floors to make the return. I was glad to build higher – I love heights,” he says.

With regards to the core, at the time, there was a law that said all kitchens and bathrooms had to have a window. “A lot of guys would put in little square light-wells to comply. We couldn't imagine anything like that and were determined to sneak some light in by hook or by crook. So we came up with the idea to let in light through the core,” Grosskopf explains.