African project
Greenacres Shopping Centre – South Africa
A
s SVA International nears the
completion of the mammoth
two-year, R420-million upgrade
of one of South Africa’s iconic
retail nodes, Greenacres
Shopping Centre, the project
team has outlined the immense
architectural and logistical
challenges they have managed
to overcome.
The massive transformation of Port Elizabeth’s
retail icon is set to wrap up in mid-2017, with
the cherry on top being the opening of a state-
of-the-art Virgin Active gym adjoining the
centre in July.
The upgrade is one of the many transformations
undertaken by the architectural firm, which
has had a long relationship with Greenacres,
having been at the helm since the design of the
original building for OK Bazaars (now Shoprite/
Checkers), which opened in October 1981.
Since the building of OK Bazaars on the
grounds of the former Fairview Race Course,
Greenacres has grown into a 46 500m² shopping
centre, being joined over the years by Shoprite,
Woolworths and The Bridge. Although the
four entities are separately owned, they boast a
combined gross lettable area (GLA) of about
90 000m².
According to Jannie Wagenaar, one of the SVA architects heading the project, the re
contemporary attraction with floating cantilevered roofs at its various imposing ent
“When Greenacres opened its doors, the in-vogue shopping centre design was very
passages,” said Wagenaar. “Over the years, shopping centres have developed into v
communities with wide, flowing walkways, high ceilings and lots of natural light. T
A 35-year-old centre came with many logistical and architectural challenges, includ
well as connecting various buildings, which were added on over the years, into one
retail, with increased equipment and machinery needs – all of which is stored on th
roof areas and decide which equipment was redundant. We also created concrete g
constant need with major retail centres for renovation and upgrading of equipment
involved in the project, working 24/7 – all the while allowing for the centre to rema
renovation. A stage represented a length of mall, which had to be completed in a ce
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