Ponte City is a cylindrical residential skyscraper in the Berea district of Johannesburg, South Africa, completed in 1975 to a height of 173 meters across 55 stories. Its designers Mannie Feldman, Manfred Hermer, and Rodney Grosskopff drew inspiration from Bertrand Goldberg's Marina City in Chicago to create Africa's first cylindrical skyscraper, whose hollow central atrium admits natural light into wedge shaped apartments around its circumference. The tower held the title of Africa's tallest residential building for 48 years, until 2023, and its history traces an arc from modernist ambition through a period of urban decay and crime in the late 1980s and 1990s to later revitalization, making it a recurring subject in photography, film, and literature about post apartheid Johannesburg.
Facts
Building TypeSourced to the subject's own account LocationSourced to the subject's own accountJohannesburg, South Africa 2 Completed YearSourced to the subject's own account Height (m)Sourced to the subject's own account Classification
Standing StatusSourced to the subject's own account Building Type
Building Type (category)Sourced to the subject's own account Connections
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In Style
Source Ponte City Apartments (Wikipedia)
Source Ponte City Apartments (Wikipedia)
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Source Ponte City Apartments (Wikipedia)
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Source Ponte City Apartments (Wikipedia)tier 3
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1. Ponte City Apartments (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationLead section
Ponte City is a skyscraper in the Berea district of Johannesburg, South Africa, just next to Hillbrow. It was built in 1975 to a height of 173 m (567.6 ft).
Infobox: completion_date
1975
Infobox: building_type
Residential
- In Style: Brutalism, infobox architectural_style field: Brutalist, modernist
- In Style: Modernist Architecture, infobox architectural_style field: Brutalist, modernist
Uses Element: Concrete, Article text
The design-cylindrical shape and concrete material-and urban concept-a city within a city with services and shops on site-was borrowed from Chicago architect Bertrand Goldberg's Marina City (1964), at a time that architectural historian Clive Chipkin calls the "great apartheid building boom," when several Johannesburg firms were borrowing Chicago forms.
View the Source 2. Ponte City Apartments (Wikidata)
Wikimedia FoundationWikidata height (P2048) statement: 172.8
Wikidata item Q1812844, property P2048 (height): 172.8 m (converted to metres, preferred/normal rank, non-deprecated)
Wikidata located-in-admin-entity (P131) / country (P17) statement: Johannesburg, South Africa
Wikidata item Q1812844, property P131/P17 (location): Johannesburg, South Africa
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