Architect and Builder February/March 2019 | Page 20

This proposal tried to use as much of the existing
infrastructure as possible and to reposition the
scheme in the market. This scheme was a minimum
45,000m 2 . What has finally been built in its
current form is closer to 80,000m 2 as a full mixed
use scheme.
None of the existing buildings of the old
Village Walk development were retained. What
was retained was the existing Balalaika Hotel and
Crown Court Hotel with the 2 basement parking
levels below the Crown Court. The new retail levels
have been designed to ensure that the original
connectivity between the retail and the hotel was
maintained and improved.
Jewel-like Towers
Most visibly, The MARC consists of two towers:
a dazzling 12-floor ovoid commercial tower with
a gold-and-black faceted façade, which extrudes
elegantly over the intersection and, set further
back from the corner, a 17-floor tower occupied by
a legal firm. Together they have become known as
‘The Jewel’ and ‘The Jewellery Box’ respectively
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and have created an entirely new identity for the
intersection. At the same time, they have also
transformed the character of the surrounding
neighbourhood on street level by activating a
vibrant pedestrian-friendly public domain.
The Site
One of the first questions the architects,
Boogertman + Partners led by director Bob van
Bebber, faced was how to create the visual impact
and engagement demanded by the prominence
of the site without competing to be the tallest
new building on the Sandton skyline. “We
went through a process of mapping the existing
aesthetics in Sandton, and found that one of the
few opportunities to make a statement on the
skyline was to use colour,” says Van Bebber.
So, the relatively diminutive but highly impactful
gold-and-black façade was born, articulating the
intersection like a glittering jewel cradled by the
neighbouring ‘boomerang shaped’ tower. The
tower’s added height in turn imparts visual identity,
even from a distance, from its position set back
from the corner.
The Marc