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October 20, 2013
Philip Bloom - Ponte Tower (2012)
Ponte Tower from Philip Bloom on Vimeo.
"This was the challenge. Going to Ponte Tower in the middle of downtown Jo’Burg. A 70′s architectural monstrosity from the outside that houses an astonishing dystopian science fiction atrium. For quite some time THE place to live in the city, if you were anyone you lived in the massive 3 story penthouses with roof jacuzzis. Post democracy, it turned into something quite different."
Mega-City One: "Welcome to the Ponte Tower, the 54-storey-high concrete tube that has soared over the skyline of Johannesburg since 1975. Also known as the Ponte City apartments, it’s hard to believe this brutalist design by Manfred Hermer was once one of the most coveted addresses in the city.
"In the midst of the South African Apartheid, Ponte City was emblematic of the country’s dehumanising system of racial segregation. Here, only wealthy white families were allowed to live in the outward-facing apartments, while the tube’s inner apartments were reserved for their black servants, who lived in permanent gloom."
Posted by Ghost of a flea at October 20, 2013 09:48 AM