Architect and Builder Offices Retrospective | Page 80

MOTOROLA & ORACLE

MOTOROLA & ORACLE HEAD OFFICES Woodmead Office Park
DEVELOPER Zenprop Property Holdings
ARCHITECT Paragon Architects
PROJECT MANAGERS @ Hart Property Development Turner & Townsend
QUANTITY SURVEYOR Schoombie Hartmann
STRUCTURAL ENGINEER Sotiralis Consulting
MECHANICAL ENGINEER VMG Consulting
ELECTRICAL ENGINEER Standard Electrical
FIRE CONSULTANT Dorling & Associates
INTERIOR DESIGN Infinitude ( Motorola ) Paragon Interface ( Oracle )
IT SPECIALIST DCS
LANDSCAPE DESIGN Insite Landscape Architects
LAND SURVEYOR Charley Crowther Surveys
MAIN CONTRACTOR Duncanrig Construction
PHOTOGRAPHY Tristan McLaren

Woodmead is mostly a commercial suburb in the northern part of Johannesburg . Four highways meet here , the N1 Western Bypass , N1 Ben Schoeman , N3 Eastern Bypass , and the M1 . Access is off the Woodmead off-ramp to the M1 . Several large businesses are located in Woodmead , including 3M , General Motors and Nashua .

MOTOROLA HEAD OFFICE This new building is situated in Woodmead Office Park , which is close to the N1 north near Midrand . Seen from the M1 highway north of Johannesburg , the new Motorola head office building is an impressive advertising tool . The developers , Zenprop Property Developers , had already built three other projects , designed by Paragon Architects ( namely General Motors , featured in the August / September 2007 issue of Architect & Builder , Nashua and Group Five buildings ). Each of which had its own unique aspect .
It is on closer inspection that the quality of the construction reveals itself to be the true measure of achievement of this building . The planning and spatial concept is a logical answer to site and programme . The composition is split into two independent buildings to allow for flexibility in tenant leases .
Motorola was especially interested in the high visibility from the highway , with a building that would showcase their image and support their brand architecture
80 Motorola & Oracle