A wrecking ball smashes a Herbert Baker building declared a provincial heritage site.
What was once a place of “tranquillity and beauty” in the south of Joburg has become a blot on the landscape, even amid the warehouse brutalism of the industrial suburb of Selby.
Except that there are a few diehards not so anxious, who are upset by the secretive and possibly illegal demolition. Flo Bird, chair of the Johannesburg Heritage Foundation, was “growling with rage” after the discovery in late January of the demolition.Town planner Andrew Barker, who worked for RMP in the 1980s and “was part of [its] history”, was the first to alert authorities to the demolition.
Khan, in a statement to the FM, says the demolition application was supported by architects’ plans from 1985. There was no mention in the plans of the building’s earlier history. They did not show the towering chimney that was a distinctive feature of the original head office. The chimney has become part of the rubble.
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