Ponte City

Manfred Hermer · Johannesburg, South Africa · 1975

Key featuresCylindrical 54-storey apartment tower wrapped around an open, hollow core.

Void
Geometry
Exposed concrete

Architect: Manfred Hermer
Place: Johannesburg, South Africa
Year: 1975
Typology: Housing
Movement: Brutalism
Region: Africa

See it on the wall

About Ponte City

Ponte City is a skyscraper in the Berea district of Johannesburg, South Africa, just next to Hillbrow. It was built in 1975 to a height of 173 m (567.6 ft). It was the tallest residential skyscraper in Africa for 48 years, until overtaken in 2023 by Building D01 in Egypt's New Administrative Capital. The 55-storey building is cylindrical, with an open centre allowing additional light into the apartments. The centre space is known as "the core" and rises above an uneven rock floor. When built, Ponte City was seen as an extremely desirable address due to its location and views over Johannesburg, but it became infamous for its crime and poor maintenance in the late 1980s to the 1990s. It has since been refurbished into a safe property. The neon sign on top of the building is the largest in the Southern Hemisphere. Prior to 2000, it advertised the Coca-Cola Company. In 2000, this was replaced by a banner promoting South African branch of Vodacom. Vodacom rebranded in 2023 to advertise VodaPay, a digital wallet system.

Shortened from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.