Cape Town's tallest building is the only green skyscraper in South Africa.
The 139-meter high Portside Tower in Cape Town, completed in 2014, is one of Africa's most sustainable buildings. The port city lies at the southern tip of the continent and is South Africa's second largest city in population after Johannesburg. Designed by dhk Architects & Louis Karol Architects, the building is 32 stories high and home to offices, a hotel (on five floors) and retail space.
The use of LED lighting, storm water recapture, low-embodied-energy materials, and the provision of individually marked, removable and recyclable unitized façade panels earned Portside a 5 Green Star Design rating, making it the tallest green building in South Africa. The building is about 10 meters shorter than the permitted height, so that its visual impact is limited in relation to the geographical context of the city and Table Mountain. The owner of the Portside Tower is Accelerate Property Fund and FirstRand Band Ltd.
Schindler South Africa supplied a total of 14 elevators together with the transit management system PORT Technology and seven further passenger elevators with conventional controls and two escalators.