South Africa is on its way to another record with Africa’s tallest building.



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A new superstructure is making its mark in Sandton in the
heart of Africa’s richest square mile. 



The $3 billion project is expected to be completed by the
end of 2019 and beat Carlton Centre’s reign as the tallest building in Africa
since 1973.



The 223-meter, 50-storey Carlton Centre in Johannesburg has
for 46 years stood the test of time as a skyscraper dominating the skyline in
South Africa and the continent. 



The new building coming up in Sandton will be a 55-storey, 234-meter classical Italian eponym paying homage to Leonardo da Vinci, the Italian artist of the Renaissance era. 



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It adds to the luxurious portfolio of hotels by the Legacy
Living property group. 



As The Leonardo rising from the bedrock and gradually etches
its presence on the skyline, Gijs Foden, Director of Retail Management in
Legacy Living, says it is a beacon that represents economic growth far beyond
the surface.



“From a development perspective, everyone knows about the
crisis in construction. There is light at the end of the tunnel, through a
tough economy. It is a tough market and we are working our way out of it. We
are going up. We are part of the beacon of hope through tough times,” he says. 



South Africa has nine out of 20 of the continent’s tallest
buildings, amounting to 1,277 meters in total and 5,000 steps up a staircase. 



While most of these buildings were erected in the 1900s and
early 2000s, records have stayed the same.



Johannesburg’s Ponte City Tower standing as the third
tallest building in Africa, coming in after Kenya’s Britam Tower at 200 meters.




The Leonardo was initially set out to be a mixed-use
building with 33 floors but has since escalated to dominating the South African
skyscraper inventory. 



Foden says the development will not only provide investment
opportunities for South Africa, but it will celebrate African authenticity. 



Set to be completed in the year of Leonardo Da Vinci’s 500th death anniversary, African art will be the center-piece of the tower. 



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">You look out of the window and that is your canvas. Internally, the art in the building is African art. </blockquote>



“We are supporting the African artist, it is what it is. The
art defines the building. Keeping the essence of the building and at the same
time the warmth and lifestyle will be an attraction, irrespective of the
Italian name,” Foden says.



By following due processes in getting the height approved,
overtaking Carlton Centre’s record, Foden says: “It [Carlton Centre] is still
an icon and no one has been able to beat it. It is different times and it is
also different generations. This is our generation which is going to be a
timeless building for many years to come. It is an urban flight.” 



However, the record by The Leonardo may be short-lived as
yet another African skyscraper may overshadow it by the end of 2021.



&nbsp;The Pinnacle,
currently being built in Nairobi’s financial hub, is set to be a 70-storey
mixed-use development.



According to a yearly study published by The Council on Tall
Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH), Beijing’s China Zun 528-meter skyscraper
was the tallest building completed in 2018, making it the eighth-tallest
building in the world.



&nbsp;The study reports
that 16 new buildings entered the 100 tallest lists in 2018; up from 14 in
2017, 76% of these were in Asia. 



Co-Arc Director, Francois Pienaar, says the influx of
skyscrapers in Africa is a way for property investors and developers to exploit
the options of sites. 



“Sites can become very valuable. There are a lot of things
to do with money – [for] better returns for the investment of the land, and
that is why people go up. It takes quite a lot of courage, to go 55 floors. 



You need to have a client who is inspired to do it.
Especially, with the volatility of Africa,” Pienaar says.&nbsp; 



Despite the competition for a piece of the sky, none of the
2019 projected top 30 tallest buildings will supersede the world’s tallest
building in Dubai at a towering 829.8 meters with 163 floors above the ground. 



The Burj Khalifa has boasted this record since its
completion in 2010.



According to Pienaar, the opportunity to build a structure
of this magnitude does not come by every day in Africa. 



Breaking his 30-storey skyscraping record, Pienaar, who is currently working on The Leonardo, adds:&nbsp; “It takes a lot more when it comes to delivering services and the kinds of aesthetics that take place.



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“The building has a skin outside which is imported from
Spain. It is a new invention from Spain that reduces the heat load on the
glass. We have produced a building that is responsible for the climate. We are
trying to keep the building energy-efficient,” he says. 



As the global economic outlook develops, there is fierce
competition for a piece of the sky. 



The taller the building, the more money it pulls in. 



As the South African economy picks itself up, the lingering
shadow of the Leonardo will represent a symbol of growth and a new dawn.

leonardo

A Statement On The Skyline

It stands like a giant anthill in the city. In its shadow thousands of commuters swarm around street vendors under yellow and blue canvas to the hoots of hundreds of taxis that crawl through the streets like beetles. On level 50, you can see for miles on a crisp day, so long as the smog isn’t too thick.
The 223-meter-tall Carlton Centre, in the heart of Johannesburg, has stood for 42 years.
An army of construction workers built it and for years it was the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere. One of them was Englishman Eddy Warehan, a contracted steel fixer for Roberts Contraction (now Murray &amp; Roberts) from Southampton, who arrived with tools in hand in 1967. This year, he made his first trip back to South Africa in 47 years.
“Health and safety was quite different then. It was interesting. If you got caught without a hardhat on, you were in trouble. You couldn’t tread on a nail without a hardhat on… There were a few accidents but you don’t take any notice of it. We were more interested in getting the job done,” he says.
Danger lurked around every corner.
“The first work we did on the site was a spiral staircase. It went four or five floors underground in darkness. You had towers and a lift shaft going up, but they were open. If they put a gate over the entrance somebody would move it and take the scaffolding away for somewhere else. An African gentleman one day wanted to go to the toilet, stepped into this dark corner and went down 10 floors.”
Another time, a crane was the killer.
“A crane was lifting a corner strong back shutter. They were swinging it around and there were two African gentlemen on the next corner and they got swept off. They got caught in the safety net but they didn’t survive.”
With the bad memories came good. Warehan recalls climbing to the 30th floor to see Pretoria 67 kilometers away.  Unafraid, he would pause for photos hanging over the steel bars at a giddy height.
Warehan, a former Royal Marine, came to Africa on the cruise ship the S.A. Vaal, sailing from Southampton to Durban, as a utility steward. Like many Europeans, he came to Africa by chance.
“If someone falls sick you do [their job]. You can do anything. I was a jack of all trades and a master of none. After the fifth trip we were going back [to England] and there were three gentlemen who had been working in Johannesburg and were passengers. We met in the bar, having a talk and they asked what I did before. I was a Royal Marine and before that I was a steel fixer. They said they were looking for steel fixers at the Carlton Centre, and I said where the hell is that? He said in Johannesburg. He told me what the wages were and I said that sounds crazy,” says Warehan.
Working in Johannesburg was a far cry from working in England.
“It was like adding a nought onto your money. I was earning £25 a week now it was £250. I gave it a try. The first week’s money I sent home was £300. My wife said you can’t get £300 from £250. I said they made a mistake it was actually £350.”
It took seven years to build the Carlton Centre. In 1973, it became the $7.92-million mecca for African socialites. Down the years, the Carlton Hotel opened its doors to the likes of Henry Kissinger, Francois Mitterrand, Hillary Clinton, Margaret Thatcher, Whitney Houston and Mick Jagger.
“It was quite a city. I was impressed. We stayed in Harley Street. Just out of Hillbrow; near the freeway and a park. My first accommodation was in a digs, under the careful watch of an Afrikaans woman named Marsh. We were mostly construction workers from the Carlton.”
“We would go to a bar across the road at the end of the day, the Casa Mia. It was on the way back to the digs. That way you could get halfway back from where you wanted to spend the night before you have too many to get lost. Most of us drank Lion Lager.”
“My wife couldn’t believe it when she came over to Johannesburg. The prices were half the cost you would pay in the UK and you were doubling your money. The cost of living in Africa was cheap.”
“A gold Omega watch I bought in Johannesburg cost £250 at that time. Six years ago, I sent it back to get it serviced; its current value was £7,000.”
These days, the aging skyscraper is more a museum than a mecca. Where thousands of shoppers once walked are the shells of dusty stores, epitomized by the Sky Rink, the building’s abandoned ice rink. The 50th floor of the Carlton Centre, called the Top of Africa, still offers a panorama of the city and beyond, provided the windows are clean and you can find the lift in the basement.
The building is showing signs of coming back to life, claims the City of Johannesburg. The basement shopping center has come back from being almost empty to 93% capacity. They say that the Carlton Centre is again a bustling shopping precinct with shops like Soviet, Aca Joe, Totalsports, Levison and Pick n Pay.
Maybe, like Warehan’s gold Omega, it will appreciate in value.

Tag: Carlton Centre

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A Statement On The Skyline

I Built The Top Of Africa