DAYLIGHT filters through the ether in Africa’s tallest residential building, a brutalist cylindrical skyscraper with a hollow core that drops 54 floors to a ragged base of exposed bedrock. The view into the interior is eerie, a dim light giving it a sci-fi feel that recalls the film “Blade Runner”. But the outward-facing windows offer breathtakingly clear views, some of the best in Johannesburg, South Africa’s commercial capital.
Ponte City was a posh address when it opened in 1975 at the edge of what was then the trendy inner-city district of Hillbrow, during the race-segregated era when central Johannesburg boomed. Ambitious developers planned to add an indoor ski slope inside the building.
(Excerpt) Read more at economist.com ...
