PROJECT NO 1 AND 3 BRIDGEWAY Century City PROPERTY DEVELOPERS & PROJECT MANAGERS Rabie Property Group ARCHITECTS & PRINCIPAL AGENTS Vivid Architects QUANTITY SURVEYORS B&L Quantity Surveyors CIVIL & STRUCTURAL ENGINEERS S&T Consulting Engineers ELECTRICAL & MECHANICAL SolutionStation BUILDING RATING CONSULTANTS P J Carew Consulting HEALTH & SAFETY CONSULTANT Safe Working Practice INTERIOR DESIGNERS Source IBA LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS Planning Partners MAIN CONTRACTOR Aveng Grinaker-LTA No 1 and 3 Bridgeway Each building has 4,000m 2 of rentable area, encompassing good passive design principles, having both been awarded a Green Star 4 star rating PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOHANN LOURENS www.johannlourensphotography.com Vivid Architects were appointed by Rabie Property Group as the lead Urban Designers for the new Bridgeway Precinct in Century City. The site occupies a strategic position, and is a gateway site on the corner of Ratanga Road and Century Boulevard. ARCHITECT S REPORT The need to create legible street edge was the starting point for the urban response, with permeability and scale as important factors. The aesthetic design used real materials and human proportions, aiming to instill an architecture of quality and longevity for the future designs of the precinct. These factors, along with the brief for an efficient commercial office building, informed an appropriate design of built form. 50 Bridgeway
Below: The elevation presenting to the Ratanga Road approach allows views through to the iconic Crystal Towers and the future Bridgeway s urban precinct beyond Each building has 4,000m 2 of commercial office rentable area, encompassing good passive design principles, having both been awarded a Greenstar 4 star rating. The built forms hold the street edge firmly, with a central parked courtyard, which enables both wind free access and amenity spaces for both buildings. The elevation presenting to the Ratanga Road approach (below) allows views through to the iconic Crystal Towers and the future Bridgeway s urban precinct beyond, while informing the visitor of the entrance location and parking amenities. The importance of the Ratanga Road corner gateway presence meant the building warranted a taller scale. Five levels provided this appropriate response, with the major façade presenting on Century Boulevard. The built form decreases in scale on the return to Century Way, while keeping a dominant built street edge, and breaks slightly Bridgeway 51
The architecture is hoping to set a benchmark for the architectural language of this precinct for the impression of a collection of buildings. Twenty four hour public pedestrian permeability is maintained through the heart of the site, through a collection of urban steps, canopies, planters and other urban landscape responses, bringing the pedestrian directly to a front door address. The site is accessed by vehicle from Kinetic Way with parking allocations on surface grade; 1m up to a raised parking deck; and 2m down to a full sub-basement level. The building entrance is on the raised parking deck, accessible from the street level directly at all hours, which has been conceived as an urban square in feeling and scale. The floorplate of the building has been carefully considered to maximise commercial efficiency, while satisfying the urban responses discussed above. The façades have been articulated to enhance the gateway stature; they give measured visual complexity while addressing appropriate 52 Bridgeway
Both buildings have achieved a Green Star SA Office Design V1 rating from the Green Building Council of South Africa pedestrian scale. The architecture is hoping to set a benchmark for the architectural language of this precinct, providing a fresh contemporary aesthetic and continuing the resurgence in fresh and modern buildings within greater Century City. DEVELOPER S COMMENT The Bridgeways precinct in Century City, being developed by the Rabie Property Group and which will eventually comprise around 150,000m 2 of prime commercial space, is being planned as an entire green precinct. The first two office buildings both around 4,000m 2 have been completed and are home to The Business Centre and Philip Morris South Africa respectively. Both buildings have achieved a Green Star SA Office Design V1 rating from the Green Building Council of South Africa, and are applying for a second Green Star rating in the As Built category. Bridgeway 53
Each building has 4,000m 2 of commercial office rentable area, encompassing good passive design principles The Business Centre The Business Centre s first serviced offices in Cape Town have opened on a gateway site in Century City. The R85 million green Business Centre is filling a gap in the market offering luxurious yet cost effective office accommodation on flexible leases with all conceivable back up services and facilities readily on hand. The Centre offers 115 purpose built offices with 370 workstations, meeting rooms, video conferencing facilities and an on-site cafe. The additional range of services offered include 24-hour access seven days a week; secure, modern, air-conditioned space; comprehensive reception services, a postal service and SMS/email notification; fully equipped kitchen facilities; daily office cleaning services and full-time centre managers. Ceri James, Sales and Marketing Director, said, because it is fully serviced, tenants were able to start running their businesses as soon as they moved in, making it ideal for any startup business, SME, or national business looking to avoid massive start up and operational costs, while expanding their operating footprint. Flexible leases of three, six or 12 months allow customers to manage their business needs through both prosperous and challenging times. 54 Bridgeway
The R85 million green Business Centre is filling a gap in the market offering luxurious yet cost effective office accommodation The Business Centre has an eight-year track record of providing serviced office solutions to the business community in Gauteng and KwaZulu Natal and, according to James, they had strategically chosen Century City as its first Cape Town location due to its central location and the high demand for offices in the precinct. In addition, technology underpins the backbone of The Business Centre and supports our expanding customer base and through Century City Connect, Century City s carrier neutral, open access, fibre optic network, we are able to offer the fastest broadband speeds and packages in Africa, in fact only seen elsewhere in Europe. Philip Morris South Africa Philip Morris South Africa (PMSA) has relocated its Southern and Central Africa Head Office to a new green building, No 3 Bridgeways, at Century City, which has been developed by the Rabie Property Group. PMSA, part of the largest international tobacco company in the world, Philip Morris International, was set up in 2003 and first moved to Century City in November 2008 where it initially took 1,400m 2 offices in The Estuaries office park in the north eastern section of Century City. Within a few years, the company took additional space to meet its growing Bridgeway 55
Giles Balmer of Rabie Property Group said they intended developing the entire Bridgeways precinct, which will eventually comprise around 150,000m 2 of prime commercial space, as a green precinct which they believed would make it the largest of its kind in the country GROUND FLOOR needs. However, further growth in recent years has now necessitated its moving to larger premises to accommodate its current staff complement of around 600, says Chad Limbert, Area Director Southern Africa. Limbert said PMSA had located to Century City due to its central location, its ease of access, high standards of infrastructure, security and services not to mention the wide variety of world class facilities including Canal Walk right on the doorstep. It has lived up to all its expectations and, in fact, what it has to offer as a corporate destination keeps getting better and better, he said. No 3 Bridgeways, which has achieved a Green Star SA Office Design V1 rating from the Green Building Council of South Africa, is located on a highly visible site fronting on to Ratanga Road. It is situated near to a station for the MyCiti bus rapid transit system which extended its services to Century City late last year. The building comprises just under 4,000m 2 of prime A grade office space over four storeys and 124 parking bays. Other Century City Developments The third office block currently under construction in the Bridgeways precinct is 9,600m 2 offices for Chevron. Giles Balmer of Rabie Property Group said they intended developing the entire Bridgeways precinct, which will eventually comprise around 150,000m 2 of prime commercial space, as a green precinct which they believed would make it the largest of its kind in the country. The total development cost of the Business Centre and No 3 Bridgeways was R165 million with exciting plans for a further R1 billion of commercial and leisure projects in the precinct well advanced. We hope to be in a position to announce details of at least some of these shortly, he said. 56 Bridgeway
ADVERTISERS ON THIS PROJECT: Aveng Grinaker-LTA Main Contractor B & L Quantity Surveyors Quantity Surveyors PJ Carew Consulting Building Rating Consultants Rabie Property Group Property Developers & Project Managers S&T Consulting Engineers Consulting Civil & Structural Engineers SolutionStation Consulting Mechanical & Electrical Engineers Source Interior Brand Architects Interior Designers VIVID Architects Architects FIRST FLOOR In addition, work has now started on a R1 billion mixed use development, The Square, which will comprise a 900 seat Conference Centre with 12 meeting rooms and a business class lounge with a total capacity of 1,900 over 20 venues; a 125 bedroom business hotel, showrooms with residential apartments above; a 8,800m 2 office block with ground floor restaurant and service retail and a structured parking garage. Anchoring the development will be a bustling, multi-functional square onto which restaurants and the other hospitality elements will flow. According to Vivid Architects, every city should have at least one public square that offers a dynamic, vibrant and safe environment for the public to enjoy. Century City Conference Centre is one of three buildings that will form the focal point of the Square, a beautifully proportioned space that will offer users the opportunity to socialise, relax, dine and be entertained. It has been designed as the hub and pivotal node of this precinct that will influence and generate future planning of its surrounds. The strong architectural form and aesthetic of the conference centre has been taken through to the Century City Hotel, to form an L shaped footprint that is then offset by the more sculptural and whimsical sheer glass façades of the 7 storey freestanding office building that forms the balance of the Square. This environment is further enhanced by the introduction of the extended canal system of Century City and bold landscaping themes. The Square is the largest development undertaken to date by the Rabie Property Group at Century City and, together with other projects recently completed, under construction or in the pipeline, brings to more than R21 billion the value of development which has taken place in the 250ha mixed use precinct since the first sods were turned in 1997. Bridgeway 57