Cape Town Transforming Somerset Road Area

By the end of March final snagging and other work will be complete at Portside, the new R50 million mixed use office and retail complex in Somerset Road, Green Point. The developer is the Sandak Lewin Trust.

They appointed Peerutin Architects to handle the design and Peerutin's Tarryn Boyd, UCT trained and now in her tenth year with the firm, was the chief architect on the project. The development came about as a result of the Temple Israel Synagogue selling off approximately half of their site. Their plan, since carried out, was to demolish the old synagogue and rebuild a smaller, more efficient synagogue capable of handling 600 people.

"The developers," said Boyd recently, "could see that this section of Green Point was being rapidly transformed and they had the good sense to get in if not quite on the first phase of this process at least in its very early stages."

The process, she added, will reach fruition with the completion of the 2010 stadium. Already, said Boyd, this whole Somerset Road area has changed.

"What was formerly a rather run down, drab area, dark and sometimes dangerous stretch at night has become a vibrant, "in" precinct, much liked by the boulevardiers, yuppies and the with-it set that have increasingly moved into the fringes of Cape Town's CBD. At Portside restaurant tables now spill out onto the pavement, the area is well lit and jazz is played on Sunday mornings at Vida E Caffe.

"The ground floor and first floors now have some 1,200m2 retail space. This has been fully let since long before the completion of the project. The tenants are mostly upmarket retailers and service providers such as Melissa's, Vide e Caffe, Wallflower (a gift and interior décor shop), Kluk (a couturier), Red (an art gallery), Crema (interior decorators), the Silk and Cotton Company, Blue Bay, Spoilt (a hairdresser), Mojo (furniture designers) and Morango (clothing).

Serving these retailers and the apartments are 103 parking bays. The retail component is served by 53 bays in a basement accessed off Upper Portswood Road.

Peerutin team was asked, among other things, to advise on the size and number of apartments in the seven-storey tower block. The aim here, which again was achieved, was to bring these units to the market in a price range of roughly R9,000 to R13,000 per m2.

There are now 41 apartments, some simplex and some duplex. All were sold by 2005 and all are now occupied. Floor plates here vary from 70m2 to 100m2 and purchasers were offered a variety of floor plans ranging from bachelor to two and three bedroom simplexes and duplexes.

All have balconies which, along with strong vertical walling at regular intervals, provide sun protection to the rooms and help create a striking façade.

As the units had to appeal to varying tastes, Boyd opted for neutral colours especially in the bathrooms. The interiors are, nevertheless, uncompromisingly modern in style and format.

One of the design's successes, Boyd believes, has been the siting of the apartment block. Positioned some 25 metres back from the podium edge this has a life of its own independent of the retail and office section and looks down onto a first floor garden and pool terrace, which also houses a gymnasium.

Similarly, the top two floors of the building are set back some nine metres from the Main Road facade.

Portside is, therefore, a complex in which, to use the clichéd description, it is possible to live, work, exercise and entertain. Several other recent Peerutin projects have achieved much the same goal and this type of facility, says David Peerutin, a director of the firm, is now increasingly in demand.

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