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BEST
PR
O
JECTS
66
CONSTRUCTION WORLD
DECEMBER
2015
Professional Services
C
Project information
• Company entering: Moroff & Kühne
Consulting Engineers
• Project team: Nik Moroff, Patrick Hut,
Nicolaas Liebenberg
• Client: Berman Brothers and HCI
• Main contractor: WBHO Construction
• Architect: Louis Karol
• Quantity surveyor: AECOM
• Structural and civil engineers: Moroff &
Kühne Consulting Engineers
• Electrical engineers: Louis & de Kroon Inc.
• Mechanical engineer: WSP Group Africa
• Wet services: Benatar Consulting
• Demolition: L.O. Rall
• Project value: R280-million
When the V&A Waterfront was devel-
oped, Sea Point’s locals and tourists
flocked to the Waterfront, leaving
Sea Point's restaurants and shops
empty. This resulted in the slow demise and
eventual collapse of business in this once
bustling community. Sea Point Main Road
became third world, and crime crept in.
Now, revitalising Sea Point, is The Point,
a massive redesign and rebuild of the old
Galleria building on 76 Regent Road. The old
double storey building, built in 1984, was
centred around its anchor tenant, Checkers.
The building has been totally trans-
formed into a light and airy nine storey shop-
ping and lifestyle centre servicing all ages
and incomes.
Besides the completely redesigned
Checkers store and various small boutique
tenants, The Point also houses big brands
such as Sportsman's Warehouse, Dis-Chem
Pharmacy and Pick n Pay Clothing. Above
the retail shops is a gym, health and lifestyle
specialists, various medical practitioners
and offices.
The new centre now comprises almost
28 000 m² of retail and commercial space
with 480 parking bays. The Point has brought
new life to Sea Point and has uplifted the
community and Sea Point as a whole.
The existing building with a foot-
print of 4 940m
2
, comprised three levels of
basement parking with ground and first
floor being retail and office space.
About 2 600 m
2
of the ground floor was
occupied by the anchor tenant, Checkers.
Besides Checkers and some small line
stores, the remainder of the building was
vacant, and was falling into a serious state
of disrepair.
Due to the proposed increase in retail
and commercial office space, additional
undercover parking was needed to provide
an off-street facility for shoppers and
tenants. To this end various options were
investigated of which the most obvious
would have been to demolish the entire
building and to start from scratch.
This option was however out of the
question due to the fact that Checkers had
The Point, Sea Point
to remain fully operational throughout the
building process. Temporarily closing and
relocating Checkers was not a viable finan-
cial solution.
From the onset it became clear that the
success of the engineering component of
this project would hinge on the close collab-
oration between engineers, client, project
manager and contractor.
Careful planning was required to ensure
that Checkers shoppers were not adversely
inconvenienced by the construction works.
While the planning of this was expertly
handled by the project managers, it was up
to us to ensure that the execution thereof
would be safe.
To this end a special temporary access
ramp was constructed to give shoppers
direct access to Checkers via the B-1 parking
area. A crash deck was constructed over the
temporary ramp to ensure public safety.
On the design side, the contractor was
faced with the challenge of having no struc-
tural information in terms of plans and
reinforcement bending schedules for the
existing structure.
Only a limited amount of architectural
plans could be sourced. The existing building
and its structural elements therefore had
to be surveyed. In order to determine the
reinforcement within the existing slabs and
columns, non-destructive scanning methods
were utilised.
Special
Mention