Carlton Centre

The Carlton Centre is a skyscraper and shopping centre located in downtown Johannesburg, South Africa. At 223 metres (732 ft), it has been the tallest building in Africa for 38 years. The Carlton Centre has 50 floors. The foundations of the two buildings in the complex are 5 m (16 ft) in diameter and extend 15 m (49 ft) down to the bedrock, 35 m (115 ft) below street level. The building houses both offices and shops, and has over 46 per cent of the floor area below ground level. The Carlton Centre is linked to the Carlton Hotel by a below ground shopping centre with over 180 shops as well as an ice skating rink all set below an above ground public plaza.

The Carlton Centre was designed by the American architectural firm Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. Anglo American Properties began construction in the late 1960s by demolishing the old Carlton Hotel and the closing roads to form a city superblock. Excavations for the Carlton began in January 1967, and took two years to complete. Although occupation of the Centre began in 1971, construction was not finally completed until 1974. The building officially opened in 1973 at a total cost of over R88 million.