Identified as one of 35 priority development areas in greater Johannesburg, with the focus on improved service delivery and infrastructure, recent projects have included Rosebank Towers and the Rosebank Firestation, and additional work at the Rosebank Galleria and The Mews.
Paragon’s scope of work at Rosebank Link focused on the design and documentation for all five stages of the project. The building has a total rentable area of 18 744 m2 of office area and 1 553 m2 of ground floor retail area. There are two basement parking levels, a ground floor public/retail level, five parkade levels, and nine storeys of offices from the podium level.
“As a building standing foremost in the centre of a developing cosmopolitan area, it was important to have a unique design that served the needs of the client and its neighbours, as well as the public, in a new, exciting, and smart way,” Paragon Senior Project Architectural Technologist Warren Wesson comments.
The east and west façades consist of a composite aluminium-clad shell with articulated strip windows to allow light and views to filter into every office module. These faceted façades have a visual quality emphasised by the articulated strip windows, which transform from day to night. The flush-glazed north and south façades allow for uninterrupted views over greater Rosebank.
The backdrop to these façades is a smooth and glossy flat finish that transforms itself into the underbelly of the building. The organic vaulting architecture of the underbelly raises the building from the ground, affording users an unimpeded thoroughfare between the Gautrain Station and the shopping area.
At the heart of the building is a multi-storey enclosed, north-facing atrium fashioned to capture the sunlight filtering down into a unique fluid underbelly of the ground-floor thoroughfare. This creates a conduit for a combination of green walls and indigenous planting brought to life in executive roof gardens, podium-level gardens, and parkade-wall gardens that result in a tranquil oasis within the bustling Rosebank precinct.
Paragon team
Directors: Anthony Orelowitz and Duanne Render
Senior Project Architectural Technologist: Warren Wesson
Project Architect: Alex Slaviero
Candidate Architects: Francois Mercer, Marli Swanepoel, and Katy Harris
Architectural Technologists: Aneesh Parbhoo and Michael Botha
Professional team
Contractor: WBHO
Project manager: Betts Townsend
Quantity surveyor: MLC
Structural and façade engineer: Sutherland Engineers
Electrical and wet services engineer: CKR
Mechanical engineer: Adaptive Resource
Fire engineer: SFT
Green building consultant: WSP
