21 Aug, 2019
By, Wikipedia
Standard Bank Centre
The building was built from the top-down, meaning that after the central core was built, the floors were suspended from cantilevered arms with the top floors added first, followed by each lower floor.
Design
The challenge for the designers - the German architect Helmut Hentrich (1905–2001) and the Austrian architect Hubert Petschnigg (1913–1997), who planned the skyscraper in collaboration with the British-Danish-Norwegian engineer Ove Arup (1895–1988) - was to find a spacious square in the crowded Johannesburg CBD to anchor an office building. To keep space used to a minimum, they adopted the "hanging" design.
Apart from the concrete core tower, the Standard Bank Centre was built by Concor of precast reinforced concrete slabs, glass, and steel. The plastic molds in which the concrete slabs were cast gave them a distinctive shape. The steel girders used for the balustrades are 1.5 m high and 24.6 m long. A special slewing crane was designed for the project to lift and mount a quarter of each floor level. Concrete was delivered by night to the construction site to minimize traffic obstruction.
The office building stretches to 39 stories, of which five are underground. The lower two stories house the computer center, including the evaluation center with a staff of 300. The bank room offers access to the safe tower stretching through all the lower floors, with delivery access through the lower parking lot. The windows use tinted glass with laminated double glazing for sunlight protection. No special arrangements need to be made for window cleaning, since the 60-cm balustrades make cleaning the outer pane easy. Air vents are located in the corners of the facade. The office is 9.7 m wide. The hanging design eliminates the need for pillars.
References
Citations
- ^ Myburgh, Letitia (January 22, 2016). "The Famous Hanging Building at 78 Fox Street". theheritageportal.co.za. The Heritage Portal. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
- ^ "Standard Bank Centre". The Skyscraper Center. Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
- ^ "Standard Bank Centre". Emporis. Archived from the original on February 10, 2007. Retrieved April 1, 2008.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ^ "Standard Bank Centre". skyscraperpage.com. SkyscraperPage. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
- ^ "Standard Bank Centre Johannesburg". structurae.net. Structurae. Retrieved September 15, 2019.
- ^ "Standard Bank Towers Marshalls Town". heritageregister.org.za. The Heritage Register. Retrieved September 30, 2019.
- ^ "Standard Bank Centre". artefacts.co.za. Artefacts. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
- ^ Binder 2006, p. 105.
- ^ Binder 2006, p. 104.
Books
- Binder, Georges (2006). Tall Buildings of Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Mulgrave, Victoria, Australia: The Images Publishing Group. ISBN 1876907819. OCLC 966227928. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
Further reading
- Hentrich, Helmut (1970). Standard Bank Centre Johannesburg. Johannesburg: Standard Bank Investment Corporation Limited. ISBN 9781876907815. OCLC 42286308.
Records | ||
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Preceded by | Tallest building in Africa 139 m (456 ft) 1968 – 1970 |
Succeeded by |
Tallest building in South Africa 139 m (456 ft) 1968 – 1970 | ||
Tallest building in Johannesburg 139 m (456 ft) 1968 – 1970 | ||
Building in Africa with the most floors 34 1968 – 1970 |
Succeeded by |