52
Katherine Street
52 KATHERINE STREET Sandton
DEVELOPER & PROJECT MANAGERS Alchemy
ARCHITECT Paragon Architects South Africa
QUANTITY SURVEYOR RLB Pentad
CIVIL & STRUCTURAL ENGINEERS Sotiralis Consulting Engineers
ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS MNS Consulting
MECHANICAL ENGINEERS Adaptive Resource Engineers
WET SERVICES Jazzman Plumbing
FIRE ENGINEERS Plantech Associates
HEALTH & SAFETY CONSULTANTS Cairnmead Industrial Consultants
TIME MANAGEMENT Orion Project Managers
MAIN CONTRACTOR Trencon Construction
PHOTOGRAPHY Franz Rabe Courtesy of Ngage
The small land parcel on the corner of Katherine Street and Albertyn Road in Sandton has been transformed into a P-grade office development by Alchemy . Designed by Paragon Architects , the building , known as 52 Katherine Street , completes the so-called Sasol precinct with a strong street-facing presence . Alchemy are also the co-owners of neighbouring SASOL building and had the vision to convert the corner site to a new premium office building which is independent of Sasol .
The design brief was to maximise the permissible floor area ratio , coverage and height as far as possible on what was a complicated site . Standing at a total of four storeys above ground and over 5,000m 2 , the building consists of 3.5 basement parking levels . Paragon Architects was responsible for completing Stages 1 through 6 of the works , explains Associate Warren Wesson .
Following bulk earthworks , which took about three months to complete , the main contact commenced in October 2019 . The project was scheduled to be completed in December 2020 , but was halted due to the Covid-19 lockdown in March 2020 .
Having Sasol ’ s basement right up against the boundary required delicate excavation so as not to disturb them . Due to lockdown both locally and internationally , many exports and local manufacturers stopped work for a few months which resulted in shortages and delays in procurement . The resulting effect was some items needed to be respecified and some changes in design needed to be made to help make up for some
SITE PLAN 42 52 Katherine Street