The 35 000 m2 premium-grade 144 Oxford Road office development in Rosebank, Johannesburg for Growthpoint Properties is Paragon Group’s largest project at present.
Developed to capitalise on the demand for P-grade office space in the central Rosebank precinct, which currently exceeds even that of nearby Sandton and Melrose, the premium project has been refined over an eight-year period. The Tiber WBHO Joint Venture has been on-site as main contractor since November 2017. The project is aiming for a 5-Star Green Star Design Certification from the Green Building Council of South Africa (GBCSA).
Located on the arterial Oxford Road, the nine-storey development features two elongated office towers interlinked by a central atrium along the north-south axis. Spanning over the entire nine floors, the atrium offers a visual link to the outside, while allowing light deeper into the floor plate and encouraging user activity.
The west façades are shaped towards a curved glass pinnacle that cantilevers outwards towards the road. The main façade consists of double-glazed unitised façades, incorporating a dark grey glass. The outermost façade of the northern building features a secondary offset glazed ‘skin’ with raking sides, a nod to the fast-paced vehicular movement on Oxford Road.
The building mass is eroded along ground level on both the eastern and western edges which, together with landscaped pockets and water features, offer users sheltered spill-out spaces under and around the building. Sitting proud of the surrounding canopy line, the building offers spectacular views across the city from the ground floor podium upwards. The landscaping on the ground floor slopes gently towards both Oxford Road and Tottenham Avenue, softening the interface between passers-by and the building.
The iconic development acts as a gateway to the Rosebank precinct, while taking cognizance of the leafy residential suburbs that surround it. “We introduced upper floor terraces at the back of the building, as well as the landscaped berm, in acknowledgement of the low-rise residential fabric bordering the eastern edge of the site,” Paragon Group Architect Laura Strydom reveals.
The site’s desirable location on Oxford Road, a short walk from the Rosebank Gautrain Station, posed particular construction challenges. The Gautrain servitude cuts through the site, which restricted the allowable construction methodology to be used.
Further to this, Oxford Road sits within the site boundary. All these factors contributed to a long and intensive design process that took into account site-specific parameters, together with stakeholders’ particular needs and requirements. “In addition, we future-proofed the building by allowing for multi-tenancy,” Strydom highlights.
Building Information Modelling (BIM) software such as Revit and Navisworks were deployed from the outset, with virtual co-ordination and clash detection carried out on an ongoing basis. An eight-person Paragon Group team has been dedicated to the project, with each person assigned to specific ‘packages’, including brickwork, façades, service coordination, finishes, and joinery.
Strydom concludes that the project has been an exciting challenge to date, morphing through various iterations.
Professional team
Client: Growthpoint Properties
Development Manager: Growthpoint Management Services
Architect: Paragon Group
Civil & Structural Engineer: Sutherland Engineers
Quantity Surveyor: RLB Pentad, Farrow Laing Quantity Surveyors
Electrical Engineer: Conscius Electrical Engineers, Claassen & Auret Consulting Engineers
Mechanical Engineer: Aurecon Group
Wet Services Engineer: MG Building Services
Fire Engineer: Specialised Fire Technology
Lift Consultant: Solutions for Elevating
Main Contractor: Tiber WBHO Joint Venture
Project Manager and Principal Agent: Origina Project Management
Green Building Consultant: Aurecon
Landscape Architect: Ochre Office