SANLAM Centre (Media24 Centre)
When the SANLAM Centre rose above Cape Town’s Foreshore in 1962, it became the tallest building in the city and a defining marker of South Africa’s post-war commercial ambitions. Designed by the firm Meiring, Naude, Papendorf and Van Der Merwe and completed in 1962, the 26-storey, 93-metre tower introduced International Modernism to the Cape Town skyline at a time when the city’s urban centre was being radically reshaped by apartheid-era planning and the reclaimed Foreshore district. Originally the headquarters of the SANLAM insurance group, the building later became the Naspers Centre and was extensively renovated in 2014–2015 as the Media24 Centre, acquiring a distinctive white branching facade of HulaBond aluminium panels that transformed its appearance entirely. It remains the 14th-tallest building in Cape Town and a working office tower housing major South African media companies including Naspers, Media24, and Wesgro.
At a glance
- Type
- Commercial office tower
- Period
- Completed 1962; renovated 2014–2015
- Style
- International Modernism (post-renovation: contemporary aluminium facade)
- Location
- 40 Heerengracht Street, Foreshore, Cape Town CBD, South Africa
- Coordinates
- 33.9180° S, 18.4288° E
- Architect(s)
- Meiring, Naude, Papendorf and Van Der Merwe (1961–1962); DBM Architects (renovation, 2014–2015)
Overview
The building now known as Media24 Centre stands on Heerengracht Street in Cape Town’s Foreshore district, land reclaimed from Table Bay between the 1930s and 1960s. Originally built for the SANLAM insurance group, the tower held the record as Cape Town’s tallest building from 1962 to 1969. Over six decades it passed through several corporate identities — SANLAM Centre, Naspers Centre, Media24 Centre — each reflecting the tenants of its era. The 2015 renovation gave the building its current striking appearance: a white root-like aluminium exoskeleton wrapping the lower 15 storeys, paired with a large digital display facing Heerengracht Street.
History
Cape Town’s Foreshore district was created on land reclaimed from Table Bay beginning in the 1930s, with construction of the new urban grid completed by the early 1960s. The SANLAM insurance company commissioned the tower in 1961 from the firm Meiring, Naude, Papendorf and Van Der Merwe, with construction completed the following year using Murray and Roberts as main contractor. At 93.27 metres and 26 storeys, it surpassed the Mutual Building to become the city’s tallest structure, a record it held until 1969. As SANLAM relocated its headquarters, the building was rebranded successively. Naspers, the South African media giant, occupied it for many years before commissioning DBM Architects to undertake a complete external renovation in 2014–2015, which produced the building’s current appearance and its renaming as Media24 Centre.
Architecture & Design
The original 1962 building was a straightforward example of International Modernism — a reinforced concrete curtain-wall tower of 26 storeys rising to 93.27 metres — typical of the corporate architecture exported from North America and Europe to South African cities during the post-war economic expansion. The 2014–2015 renovation by DBM Architects replaced the exterior cladding with a custom-made HulaBond aluminium panel system fashioned into white branching forms that wrap the lower 15 storeys, evoking organic root or tree structures. A 14 x 6 metre digital display was mounted on the northern elevation facing Heerengracht Street, making the building one of the more visually distinctive in the contemporary Cape Town skyline.
Cultural significance
The SANLAM Centre represents a key moment in Cape Town’s post-war urban development, when the newly reclaimed Foreshore district was being built as a modern business quarter. As the city’s tallest building for seven years, it set the scale for subsequent commercial development. Its history of successive renamings — tracking the fortunes of SANLAM, then Naspers, then Media24 — offers a compressed account of South African corporate and media history across six decades. The building continues to anchor the northern approach to the Cape Town CBD and remains operationally central to South Africa’s largest media group.
Visiting today
Media24 Centre is a working commercial office tower and is not open to the general public. The exterior and the digital facade display on Heerengracht Street are visible from the street at all hours. The Foreshore district is a short walk from the Cape Town International Convention Centre and the V&A Waterfront precinct, both of which welcome visitors.
Getting there
The building is located at 40 Heerengracht Street in the Foreshore, approximately a 15-minute walk from Cape Town Central railway station. MyCiTi bus routes serving the CBD stop nearby on Hertzog Boulevard. The V&A Waterfront is a 20-minute walk north along Hertzog Boulevard. Ride-hailing services are widely available in Cape Town.
Sources & resources
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