Centre . The bridge has also been refurbished and redecorated with finishes representing Diamond Walk ; pause areas have been added on the bridge with comfortable furniture and crystal chandeliers suspended over coffee tables .
MDS Architecture originally designed Sandton City and has been involved with the centre over the years . “ There ’ s an intuition that has evolved along with the evolution of Sandton City and we have learned how to create understated elegance , a skill which has served Diamond Walk well ,” he concludes .
MAIN CONTRACTOR ’ S COMMENT The client brief entailed the reconfiguration of level 6 in the Sandton City shopping centre spanning from the fountain court to the hotel , with the scope of works comprising : the stripping out of the existing mall , shops , toilet and banqueting areas and the conversion of this space into a new shopping mall , line shops and mall toilets . Further upgrades included the construction of new hotel toilets , meeting rooms , retail mechanical plant and the Convention Centre bridge link .
Construction Challenges The site was located in the existing Sandton Sun and the adjacent mall , meeting rooms and Convention Centre bridge link .
Working within a live site , particularly in a fully operational retail and hotel environment , remains , at best , a challenge with regards to public safety and minimal disruption to tenants and shoppers . The management of noise and dust pollution , as well as keeping construction personnel isolated from end-users were key considerations in the team ’ s construction methodology and planning .
The project ’ s location adjacent to a 5 Star hotel and in the midst of a high profile shopping centre heightened the role of “ invisible contractor ”, whilst limiting the construction working hours which had to take hotel guests and shoppers into account . Added to this , the restricted site access required careful planning of the logistics of construction deliveries and rubble removal ; the latter was scheduled for the early hours of the morning . Within this scenario , the removal of building rubble in excess of 12,000m 3 from this restricted site is a considerable feat .
HVAC and Plumbing HVAC plant rooms were reconfigured to cope with the new mall layout and new plant rooms were constructed to accommodate new stores and mall common areas .
Once again , the challenge of accommodating shoppers and hotel guests placed pressure on the planning and sequencing of works , culminating in a fair amount of co-ordination between the various service disciplines , main contractor and hotel management .
The complexity of the plumbing , entailing the identification of existing lines and removal of redundant lines , was attributed to the age of the pipes ( some 30 years or older ) and the re-routing and removal of pipes with minimal public disruption .
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