Built during the late 1960s in the land of gold, the Carlton Centre represented sheer size at its finest.
As a result of marrying four city blocks by closing the intervening streets and making one superblock the Carlton Centre was presented with a chance of doing something different and to a better scale. The Centre had in fact five aspects to it: a 223 metre high office tower, a hotel, a shopping centre, an exhibition hall and a large car park. Representing more than 1 million square feet of construction with each floor half an acre in extent, the Carlton office tower was by far the largest building on the African continent. It had a working population of over 6,000 and lifts that operated at double the speed of any existing in South Africa at the time.
The sheer size of each floor meant a breakthrough in the concept of office layouts in South Africa, and involved the introduction of "deep space" office layout planning, for the first time in the country on a major scale.
The Carlton Hotel, at 603 bedrooms, was the largest in the Southern Hemisphere. More important than size, were the public facilities available which incorporated the highest standards in design, comfort and service.
The difference between the shopping centre and anything else that existed in South Africa at the time is was very dramatic. Wide pedestrian malls connected the various open courts which were completely free of traffic. The entire area was fully air-conditioned and each level provided seven acres of shopping.
The car park accommodated 2 000 cars, most of these housed on four parking levels beneath the shopping and service levels.
