THE MEDIAN IN ROSEBANK

As director at a residential property development company based in Johannesburg, South Africa, Laurence Grigorov keeps abreast of development news and information. Current and upcoming commercial and residential projects offer Laurence Grigorov an insight into market trends both in South Africa and internationally.

Messaris Wapenaar Cole Architects was commissioned at the end of 2014 to design what was intended to be a 14-floor apartment building. With its prime position in the heart of the busy hub of Rosebank, The Median was envisaged by the client as a building which was to be the icon of nouveau apartment living in Rosebank. This was already a tall order, given that in most cases a building of this nature, complexity and size would only feasibly be completed about five years later. The design would thus have to be at least five years ahead of its time. What the brief required was a world-class response.

The site is on the corner of Tyrwhitt and Cradock Avenue, the gateway to the pedestrianised upper Tyrwhitt Avenue, where it intersects the north / south pedestrian artery from the Mall of Rosebank to the taxi rank at Jellicoe Avenue. The site, as with most urban sites, is compact and consequently the footprint of the building is small. Access and egress for both vehicles and pedestrians are on Tyrwhitt Avenue, occupying most of the south façade at street level. 

To accommodate the required level of parking as well as the services required, the building extends five levels below the street, making the total height of the final building 21 storeys. The excavation required to accommodate this was possibly the deepest hole in Rosebank at the time. This required careful planning and precision engineering to achieve without compromising surrounding structures and services.

The basements and the ground floor are occupied by services and parking with the exception of a small retail offering addressing the building’s contribution to the Rosebank retail precinct, vehicular access and a small entrance lobby for pedestrian access to and from the street.

Above the street, the 140 private apartments surround a 15-storey covered atrium away from the busy streets. The apartments are ultra-modern, mostly two-bedroom apartments, with a pocket of one-bedroom units catering for ‘semigrators’ who commute to and from Rosebank, and four luxurious penthouses on the 14th and 15th floors.

The finishings are elegantly pared back to allow the purchasers to decorate their apartments in any colour and style. The apartments face outward, with views directed diagonally from the building to secure a feeling of space in what will ultimately become a totally high rise environment. 

As The Median finds itself in the centre of the action in Rosebank, it was decided not to add communal facilities other than the pocket park in the atrium. The building surrounds abound with activities and nightlife.

A project realised over many years, with many iterations, The Median now stands as the forward looking, modern building the architects envisaged from the start in 2014.

Text & images courtesy of Architect & Builder Magazine