Architect and Builder Magazine South Africa March/April 2015 | Page 22

PROJECTVIEW
R200MN HALLMARK HOUSE
TO ENHANCE MABONENG

Hallmark House in Johannesburg’s
Maboneng Precinct is being transformed into a stunning tower of
expansive residential apartments,
an all-suite luxury hotel, and a
vibrant mix of health, entertainment
and leisure facilities.
Residential sales opened recently,
with Hallmark House offering
a curated lifestyle experience,
merging art, design, culture and
architecture to appeal to a variety
of lifestyle needs. Central to the
African aesthetic, is the overall
minimalist feel, with interiors
reflecting the lines and silhouettes of
the surrounding urban metropolis.
Apartments feature floor-to-ceiling
views of the city and surrounds,
situated above a secure, accesscontrolled
multilevel
parking
garage and ground-floor retail.
The 66m high modular structure
was
originally
designed
by
Greg Cohen in the early 1970s
to house a growing diamondpolishing industry.
David Adjaye, who oversees a
global architectural practice with
offices in London, New York and
Accra, is leading the team to
transform Hallmark House. Adjaye
says that Johannesburg’s Eastern
CBD regeneration is in line with
what is happening globally and
points to Hackney in London’s East
End and New York’s Meatpacking
District as examples.
The Hallmark House project is
being managed by consulting
engineers, ARUP, with MACE Group
appointed as project managers
and is scheduled for completion in
May 2016.

22

GROWTHPOINT TO COMPLETE A CITY BLOCK OF GREEN
BUILDINGS IN UMHLANGA
Growthpoint Properties is investing
R117.3 million in a new green office
development, dubbed The Boulevard,
in its latest investment in the Parkside
precinct of Umhlanga New Town Centre.
Construction on phase one of the
building, which represents 5,441m2 of
GLA, began in November 2014 and is
targeted to be complete in March 2016.
The potential bulk on the entire site for
The Boulevard phase one and two is
9,756m2. When it is fully developed, the
Boulevard will result in the completion
of a city block of green buildings in the
precinct, providing A Grade office space
of 22,000m2.
Growthpoint was involved in the
development and owns the landmark
Lincoln on the Lake and Mayfair on the
Lake office buildings in Parkside. Both of
these buildings have 4-Star As-Built Green
Star SA ratings from the Green Building
Council of South Africa (GBCSA). In fact,
Lincoln on the Lake was the first 4-Star
As-Built Green Star rating for a multi
tenanted office building in the country
back in 2012.
The Boulevard is also targeting 4-Star
Design and As-Built Green Star SA ratings
from the GBCSA. It is one of two new green
office developments that Growthpoint
has underway in Umhlanga Ridge, north
of the Durban city centre. The other is the
6,680m2 Ridgeview development in the
Ridgeside precinct of Umhlanga Ridge,
which is also earmarked to be a 4-Star
Green Star SA rated office building.
Growthpoint has secured international
engineering consultancy firm, Royal
HaskoningDHV, to lease almost half of the
space in phase one of the development.
Its business relationship with the
firm goes beyond the lease. Royal
HaskoningDHV are the environmental
consultants and consulting engineers
on the development. The Boulevard is

the fifth Growthpoint green building
development on which it has partnered
with Royal HaskoningDHV.
In order to comply with the rating
certification of the GBCSA, the consultants
have built the following elements into the
design and construction of the building:
environmental management, construction
and operational waste management,
indoor environment quality, energy efficiency, reduction of water consumption by
harvesting rain water, the structural frame
has been opitimised and storm water
attenuation reduces peak flows.
“We have incorporated ‘Green
Mobility’ into the design as we prepare the
building for a 4-Star GBCSA design rating.
Not only are these offices easily accessible
to public t