The Civil Engineering Contractor October 2018 | Page 20

ON SITE
Student digs in Braam
By Eamonn Ryan
Due for completion in
February 2020, a 17-floor
building is currently rising
from its basement on the
corner of Jorissen Street
and Bertha Avenue in
downtown Braamfontein,
near the precinct of
the University of the
Witwatersrand.
18 - CEC October 2018
T
he building, with a
construction cost of R240-
million, will provide student
accommodation, a ground level of
retail for shops and restaurants, and
a parking basement. The client and
manager of the entire project is South
Point, which specialises in student
accommodation, particularly in
Braamfontein.
Over the past decade, Braamfontein
has evolved into South Africa’s
definitive new-generation student
precinct. It is home to Wits University
and surrounded by an eclectic mix
of coffee shops, galleries, local and
international retail brands, mom-and-
pop services and convenience stores,
hotels, markets, nightlife, clubs and
bars, restaurants, offices, apartments,
and dozens of student residences.
Braamfontein’s attraction is its ease
of access by both public and private
transportation, ranging from taxis,
Metrobus, Rea Vaya, and Metrorail,
to the Gautrain, freeway, and bike-
lane systems. It is appealing to students
for its pedestrian-friendly street
culture, where virtually everything
is within easy walking distance.
There you will find lively, student-
friendly streets lined with stores,
bars, galleries, and restaurants and
an ever-evolving nightlife and dining
scene. Its ongoing development is
being driven by a heady mix of youth
culture and creativity that has turned
it into South Africa’s ‘capital of cool’.
Much of this youth culture energy was
driven by the development of South
Point’s student residences, which are
home to nearly 5 000 students from
around South Africa, Africa, and the
world — providing students with
the perfect home-away-from-home in
which to live, work, study, and play.
Scope of work
The footprint of the building is
1 950m 2 , with 17 floors. Louis van
Dalen, senior structural foreman for