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.
More information from www.paragon.co.za or www.growthpoint.co.za
