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Cape Provincial Administration Building
Cape Town, Western Cape

Frederick McIntosh (Fred) GLENNIE: Architect 1939
Jan Zeger SCHUURMANS STEKHOVEN: Architect 1939
H VAN DER MERWE and PARTNERS: Architect 1975

Date:1939 : 1975
Type:Provincial Buildings
Status:Extant
Street:Wale St

 


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Coordinates:
33°55'26.48" S 18°25'06.03" E Alt: 37m

The podium was designed by GLENNIE and SCHUURMANS STEKHOVEN in 1939 (Pryce-Lewis list 16 566) and the tower block was added in 1975, designed by H VAN DER MERWE & PARTNERS.

The podium block is clad in Paarl fine grey granite which is also used for paving. The paving is interspersed with Mazista black fine-grained slate (Cole 2002:43). Bas relief panels and animal head keystones are by the sculptor Ivan MITFORD-BARBERTON (Crump and van Niekerk 1988:64). The Victoria Road facade is of red-pink limestone (possibly of European origin), polished and unpolished containing, inter alia, fossilized corals (Cole 2002 50).

Wording on commemorative plaque:

Hier het van
1756 tot 1761
J.N. Von DESSIN
gewoon wie se boekery
deur sy erflating die eerste
Openbare Biblioteek
in Suid-Afrika
geword het

Translation:
From 1756 to 1761 J.N. Von DESSIN lived here whose library by his bequest became the first Public Library in South Africa

(SAB Dec 1939:62; SA Archt Jun 1939:91, 94; SA Archt Aug 1940:177; Pryce-Lewis list)

All truncated references not fully cited below are those of Joanna Walker's original text and cited in full in the 'Bibliography' entry of the Lexicon.


References:

Cole, DI. 2002. The building stones of Cape Town : a geological walking tour. Cape Town: Council for Geoscience. pg 41-43
Crump, Alan & Van Niekerk, Raymund. 1988. Public sculptures & reliefs Cape Town. Cape Town: Clifton Publications. pg 35 item 34, 64 item 34, 68 Map item 34
Fisher, Roger & Clarke, Nicholas. 2014. Architectural Guide : South Africa. Berlin: DOM Publishers. pg 35
Greig, Doreen. 1971. A Guide to Architecture in South Africa. Cape Town: Howard Timmins. pg 100
Rennie, John for CPIA. 1978. The Buildings of Central Cape Town 1978. Volume Two : Catalogue. Cape Town: Cape Provincial Institute of Architects. pg 195 item 64.1
Walker, Michael. 2010. A Statement In Stone. Cape Town: Privately published by Michael Walker. pg 33