140 WEST STREET
140 WEST STREET
CORPORATE OFFICES
140 West Street is a landmark commercial development in the heart of Sandton, Johannesburg. The building comprises two towers—a 10-storey North Tower and a 14-storey South Tower—joined by a multi-volume glazed atrium that forms the architectural and spatial heart of the project.
The site is unusually narrow for a development of this scale. At its tightest point, the two towers are only six meters apart. To overcome this constraint, Paragon Architects designed the towers to diverge from each other, opening up the space between them toward their ends. This subtle divergence helps reduce the sense of confinement and gives the building a dynamic, sculptural form. The tapering floor plates at the gable ends are made possible by hidden structural transfers, which allow the upper levels to cantilever outward, enhancing the towers’ visual drama and architectural expression.
The façades are finely tuned to their solar orientation. The east and west elevations are fitted with vertical aluminium louvres that provide effective shading while giving texture and depth to the building envelope. These shading devices contribute significantly to the overall environmental performance of the building, reducing heat gain and glare without compromising daylight or views. The north and south façades, being less exposed, are treated with full-height glazing, maximising natural light penetration deep into the floorplates.
The atrium—conceived as an internal street—links the street edge on West Street to a raised landscaped deck at the rear of the site. This glazed volume is roofed with a transparent shell that wraps across both towers, framing the point of arrival and flooding the internal spaces with daylight. A series of bridges span the atrium, linking the two towers across multiple levels. These bridges are not repetitive; they are articulated as a helical sequence that ascends through the void, each turn shifting in geometry and alignment, adding spatial rhythm and reinforcing the sense of vertical movement.
Internally, the building offers landscaped roof terraces on the 8th, 9th, and 12th floors, offering panoramic views over Sandton. The interior architecture draws on the idea of a conservatory, integrating planting, natural light, and tactile surfaces to soften the commercial environment and bring a sense of nature into the workplace.
Sustainability was central to the design. The building achieved a 4-Star Green Star SA Office v1 Design certification and includes systems for rainwater harvesting and reuse, cyclist facilities, and fully glazed façades engineered for thermal efficiency and glare control.
140 West Street is both an architectural response to an intensely constrained site and a civic-scaled intervention that contributes to the urban quality of central Sandton. Its layered spatial sequences, refined detailing, and environmental performance place it among Johannesburg’s most accomplished commercial buildings.
Location: Sandton, South Africa
Size: 27,000 m²
Completion Year: 2017
Sector: Commercial Office