In those days the surrounding area, Hillbrow, was a vibrant multicultural hub of bookshops and cafes. “If you had this address, you were part of the in-crowd.”
“Through the 1970s, this was the crème de la crème of living,” says Luptak, 30, who gave up his job as a chartered accountant to run youth projects here. Johannesburg, an economic engine and magnet for immigrants, can claim to be the New York of Africa, so this audacious experiment in skyscraper homes, designed by 29-year-old architect Rodney Grosskopff, was the height of aspiration for apartheid’s ruling white minority. The young middle class are moving back into Ponte 40 years after it first opened its doors amid a surge of optimism and wall-to-wall shag carpeting.
The inner core of Ponte’s 173-metre concrete cylinder became a giant rubbish tip.
